Luxury French
clothing designer retailer, Emanuel Ungaro, selected
solutions from VCSTIMELESS to optimise its chain
of owned stores in Paris, London, Leccio, New York,
and Palm Beach. Ungaro’s strategy to increase
market share by creating new collections was underpinned
by a total overhaul of its outdated legacy IT system.
A year after the Colombus
Enterprise solution was
deployed, world class designer and retailer, Emanuel
Ungaro, recorded increased turnover, and greater
reactivity and productivity.
Emanuel Ungaro, a leading
luxury fashion design house
Founded in 1965 and famous
for its bold colours and prints, the Emanuel
Ungaro brand has been revived
thanks to the appointment of Peter Dundas as artistic
director. Its creations attract a host of A-list
celebrity clients including Kylie Minogue, Elizabeth
Hurley and Angelina Jolie. With a network of 5
owned stores and 10 franchises in Asia, Russia and the Middle
East, Ungaro plans to grow further
by developing a range of accessories and opening
new stores.
Optimised store operations and increased
visibility over business performance
With its existing
IT system no longer able to support the business,
in Spring 2005 Ungaro decided
to equip its head office and stores with an integrated
international solution.
Objectives of the new solution
were:
- Sales, turnover,
order and real time stock monitorin
- Replenishment
and inter-store transfer management
- Sales analysis
- CRM programme implementation
The solution also
had to be multilingual and adapted to local country
retail practices and laws, for
example fiscal printers in Italy and duty free
shopping.
A two-stage international project
In June 2005,
Ungaro selected the Colombus
Enterprise suite from VCSTIMELESS for its head office and
stores. Key to their selection were the functional
scope of the solutions, proven fashion retail experience,
international structure and ability to support
the project overseas.
In October 2005, the Colombus
Enterprise solution was rolled out in the
Paris head office. VCSTIMELESS
consultants assisted the Ungaro teams
in transferring data and migrating historical information
to the
new system. Colombus
Retail was deployed to the
European stores first and, following a whole season
of testing, was then successfully rolled out in
the United States in the summer of 2006. Ungaro was supported at each step of the entire project,
guaranteeing a seamless transfer to the new system
and enabling staff to adapt quickly and easily.
Immediate
benefits
Emanuel Ungaro now controls its entire
retail activity with absolute precision. The VCSTIMELESS
solutions allow the retailer to:
- Monitor sales turnover
of each store in real time
- Optimise stock levels
- Optimise replenishment
- Facilitate inter-stores
transfers to avoid lost sales
- Increase customer
service levels for Ungaro’s
demanding clientele
Integrated dashboards
make it possible to analyse weekly sales, identify
best
sellers and anticipate
future collections. As a designer retailer, planning
collections is vital for Emanuel Ungaro. Once orders
have been placed at the beginning of each season,
subsequent replenishment is limited. The Colombus
Enterprise solution has also allowed Ungaro to
improve its CRM and to target loyal clients more
efficiently. Information exchange between the head
office and stores now allows the retailer to monitor
its “mobile” customers who shop in
different regions.
Laetitia Schverer, Project Manager
for Emanuel Ungaro, concludes: "Completely
satisfied with the implementation of the Colombus solution, we
are now planning to enhance our existing system
with a new VCSTIMELESS module, Colombus Wholesale,
to manage the wholesale of our new accessories
range. This represents the next step in our partnership
with VCSTIMELESS who are supporting us step by
step, underpinning our strategy and creating competitive
advantage."
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