ten dollars september 2007 - FMMG.com

technology REPORTED
BY DEENA CAMPBELL AND DERRICK MITCHAM
lectra shows out at samab cations firm, announced a new apparel market-
Lectra will showcase its whole range of software ing initiative, Fashion Interactive 2.0. Led by
and hardware products and services during fashion marketing innovators Roy Edmondson
SAMAB from September 11-13th in Milan, and Jeff Danzer, the offering hopes to provide a
Italy. The products are designed to shorten the combination of traditional and nontraditional
time that it takes for new collections to come marketing tools to the apparel business.
to market.
Fashion Interactive 2.0 combines traditional
Lectra will present several new packages marketing communications with new media tac-
including: its new Kaledo design PLM software; tics that harness the power of social networks,
Lectra Fashion PLM, created for designers; its blogging, online relationships, word-of-mouth
3D virtual prototyping program, Modaris 3D and experiential marketing.
Fit, and its new line of cutters, VectorFashion. Fashion Interactive 2.0 also will utilize the
Visitors will be able to attend scheduled 15- powers of the agency’s global resources, includminute
shows demonstrating how a hypothetical ing its interactive capabilities and Ketchum and
collection, can go from conception to sale. Omnicom Group’s word-of-mouth marketing
Shows also will be offered at regular intervals on firm, Zócalo Group. — D.C.
the following four themes: collection lifecycle pointcarré: the future of cad
management, collection design, product devel- Never a group to embrace new technology
opment, and expert software. — D.M. with open arms, the fashion industry often finds
steve selects s.a.p a.g
itself trailing other enterprises in the technolog-
SAP AG announced that Steve & Barry’s has ical arena. With new advancements springing up
selected SAP software to support its global daily, and production increasingly headed to
growth objectives.
cheaper, overseas markets, the apparel industry is
Steve & Barry’s will implement SAP for retail
in need of some techni-
solutions to support the company’s operations
cal tutoring. This is
and its expansion. With more than 200 stores in
where Pointcarré USA
more than 30 states, the move to SAP will ben-
comes in.
efit Steve and Barry’s employees at the corporate
“The problem with
level as well as in its distribution center and
the industry is that it’s
stores.
been the last bastion to
After a comprehensive evaluation of competing
vendor solutions, Steve & Barry’s selected
Corey Schwartz
grasp technology, said
Corey Schwartz, direc-
SAP for its ability to provide an integrated, endtor of sales for the company
to-end solution across retail, financial, real estate “There’s people that don’t even know this kind
and human resource operations. They hope that of software exists,” said Steve Greenberg, vice
the system will automate manual processes, president of Pointcarré USA.
streamline operations and control costs.
The company’s software can give users in the
Additionally, Steve & Barry’s will put into apparel industry a faster way of designing and
place the SAP Workforce Management applica- getting products to market. Most importantly, it
tion to ensure that it effectively deals with can save manufacturers money, according to
staffing needs, payroll requirements, employee Pointcarré.
availabilities and workplace rules to increase Designers can go out and shop the market, see
overall productivity. — D.C. what is out there, purchase prints, garments, art-
interactive leads the way
Ketchum a marketing and corporate communiwork
or whatever it is that inspires them, then
take the items back to the office and begin
working. After scanning the items into the sys-
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tem, designers can manipulate the patterns in a
number of ways, including drawing directly on
the fabric or pattern in the program, color reducing
the pattern, editing it, create repeating patterns,
and much more.
Designers also can sit with merchandisers,
while they tell the designer what they either like
or don’t like about a design while it is still in the
system and before the design goes to production.
Before innovations like this, according to
Pointcarré, merchandisers were not afforded the
opportunity to critique a design before it was
sent off to production, potentially leaving them
with products that they did not like or worse,
could not sell.
As one of the few software systems that is
operating system independent, meaning the
program can be made to work with both Macs
and PCs, users are free to transfer files, palettes
and other files across both platforms effortlessly
and without concern of
inoperability.
“Our software goes
both ways,” explained
Schwartz jokingly.
Greenberg sees the
unique function as
merely keeping up with
Steve Greenberg technology, which he
feels the company does
well. “We release a major upgrade every year.”
Another point the pair wanted to stress was
that they sell the only CAD software in the
industry that is just design software. This allows
them to focus all of their time and energy on
improving the product, as opposed to having to
stretch their research and development time
across multiple areas of the software.
“We put a lot of money back into R&D,” said
Greenberg.
The time the company spends on updating the
software appears to be paying off. Pointcarré has
been featured in Apparel magazine for two consecutive
years as one of the top software vendors
for the industry. Features such as the still-inthe-works
3-D feature that lets designers diag-
nose and remedy any potential problems a fabric
may encounter during production are sure to
land the company on the prestigious list a third
year in a row.
The team takes great pride in the service they
provide their customers. Clients do not have to
worry about speaking to someone at a call center
when they need help with the product. They
have direct access to Schwartz, Greenberg or the
other technicians directly related to the creation
of the software.
“We’re always available for customers,” said
Schwartz.
“Our slogan is; ‘We’re there after the sale,’”
added Greenberg.
The pair feels that they can better relate to
their clients because they know what it is like to
be in the clients’ shoes.
“Everyone here has been in the garment, textile
or apparel/ home furnishings end of
the business,” said Schwartz. “So nobody
here was a computer geek who got
involved in textiles … everybody here
was a textile geek who got involved in
computers.”
Greenberg and Schwartz say that
Pointcarré will work with businesses of
any size. “We’ll work with zero to billion
dollar companies,” explains Schwartz.
The company is even willing to establish
payment plans and work with a
company to help them get started in the
industry. And for all the things the software
can do, the one area where it is incapable of
altering is the skill level of the designer.
“We have clients who buy the software then
ask how many designers they can get rid of,” said
Greenberg. “You can’t get rid of your designers
…the software doesn’t design. It enables a
designer to design at a greater level.”
“We tell designers that what it is is a better and
faster pencil,” said Schwartz.
Tommy Hilfiger, Eddie Bauer, Michael Kors,
Ralph Lauren and Greg Lorman are among the
many apparel companies that Pointcarré has sold
its software to.
“We know what we do well. Our clients know
that we do it well, and our focus is straight on,”
said Greenberg. “We have a reputation for service,
quality and customer support.”
Pointcarré software is available in 12 languages.
The price for the software starts
at $10,000 and goes up to $40,000, depending
on the optional extras that users elect to purchase.
— D.M.
myshoppal: new technology
MyShopPal.com, a subsidiary of Neo Notion,
Inc., announced that it has started accepting
beta users for its intelligent shopping website
that helps fashion shoppers find what is actually
right for them from zillions of choices made
possible by the Internet. The shopping website
has incorporated the expertise of well-known
fashion experts, gemologists, and cosmetologists
into its intelligent shopping engine.
The core strength of MyShopPal.com's technology
is its patent-pending personalized rating
system, which it calls FAP scoring system; FAP
stands for Fashion, Attractiveness, and
Preferences. The rating system combines the
fashion and expert knowledge with the style and
preferences of shoppers to rate the suitability of
fashion products for them. — D.C.
tagsys goes to portugal
Tagsys USA, a provider of item-level radio fre-
quency identification (RFID) infrastructure, has
announced that Throttleman, one of Portugal’s
premier fashion houses, has integrated the company’s
RFID technology into its supply chain.
“The fashion industry places a high premium
on being ahead of the style curve,” said Elie
Simon, president and CEO of Tagsys, in a company
release. “RFID will enable Throttleman to
generate more sales revenue thanks to better
availability of the latest styles on shelves.”
The technology will help Throttleman streamline
the delivery process of its fashion brands to
retail centers, according to Tagsys.
Tagsys also has announced that Levi Strauss &
Co. will deploy the company’s ultra high frequency
(UHF) readers in retail outlets in
Mexico. Levi is seeking to improve the customer
purchasing experience by expediting the checkout
process, as well as improve inventory management.
— D.M.
live dock to stock demo
The RFID Journal and the American Apparel
and Footwear Association announced that
Avery Dennison, Motorola and Vue
Technology, three leading RFID providers, held
a live “Dock to Stock” demonstration at the
RFID Journal—AAFA Apparel & Footwear
Summit in New York City on August 20-22
2007.
The demonstration showed how
RFID could deliver benefits all
along the apparel and footwear
supply chain. Attendees observed:
examples of in-plant printing for
source tagging; association of itemlevel
tags to carton tags; generation
of advance shipping notices; shipping
order verification. — D.M.
hanesbrands update
Hanesbrands Direct, LLC, an affil-
iate of Hanesbrands, Inc., recently
added a new ordering website,
VISR.NET (Virtual Internet Sales Resource) in
an effort to create a stronger presence as an
innovative marketer and manufacturer.
The VISR.NET ordering website allows viewers
to read through detailed information and
order the latest styles from hanesbrands including
Just My Size, Bali, Wonderbra, Playtex and
Champion. VISR.NET also allows viewers to
track inventory 24/7, thus, lessening the issues
of keeping large inventory on hand to meet customers
demand from week to week.
Hanesbrands said that VISR.NET is not only
fast, but affordable with the added benefit of
direct-from-manufacturer pricing and no minimum
order quantities.
For more information visit visr.net or call
(888) 246-5534. — D.C.
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