Centric Software® , the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market leader, is pleased to announce that QE Home, Canada’s largest fashion bedding specialty retailer and manufacturer, has selected Centric PLM® to speed time to market. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source price and sell products such as home décor, apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, consumer electronics, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Established in 1992, QE Home evolved from a small family business into a Canadian household name. The company has a team of in-house designers and experts creating products using sustainable, high-quality materials. New bedding collections are launched every season in line with fashion and interior trends. Based in British Columbia, they sell a wide range of bedding and sleep accessories through their e-commerce site and 75-owned stores across Canada from coast to coast.
Christina Xu, VP of Brand Management at QE Home explains why QE sought out a PLM solution. “With our rapid growth, the number of SKUs and brands, plus our focus on creating collections for each season, we realized that there’s a need to make sure all the teams are on the same page, that product information is consolidated and up-to-date—a single source of truth.”
The company wants to improve visibility and communication both internally and with suppliers. Phil Eng, CFO and President of QE Home, says, “Working with our vendors in different time zones can be a challenge. We’re chasing emails back and forth, or sample products get shipped but we don’t really know where to find the status or location. We want one tool that handles everything from pre-production samples to discussing quality and giving feedback – all in a central area so everybody can see the information.”
There is also the desire to pull the company’s IT together. Xu says, “Over the years we’ve pieced together different technologies to do various tasks, but they weren’t all scalable or didn’t integrate. Our assets are housed in many different places. We wanted a holistic solution that covers everything.”
QE Home reached out to several PLM providers. Says Xu, “Centric Software had the most relevant platform and has done a lot of work with retail and fashion brands, which is the model that we follow with our own business when introducing spring, summer, fall and winter collections. Ultimately, we felt it was worth investing in a company that would teach us a few things vs. having to dictate exactly what we want.” She adds, “Once we saw the demo there were sparkles in our eyes, just seeing the potential! We could see a lot of alignment with our workflows already, vs. some of the other demos that didn’t align as well or were heavy in manufacturing. On another note, our Centric Software sales rep was so good; very fast communication and response.”
After implementation, Xu says she is looking forward to “more consistency internally and better oversight of our whole product portfolio.” Regarding the supply chain, Xu continues, “Over the last few years, things on the supplier side have not necessarily been easy or predictable. A better understanding of the moving parts will help with our pricing decisions.” And last but definitely not the least benefit, “Improved communication between teams resulting in happier team members!”
Eng adds, “In the past, training was a little convoluted for new employees coming on board. Centric PLM will make our operations at the office a lot more effective for anybody that’s going to be working on the product, whether they’re designing, in labelling/packaging… It’s just going to be a much more efficiently run team.”
CEO of Centric Software, Chris Groves says, “We are proud to play a part in a company that puts their customers front and center, mirroring Centric Software’s own philosophy. This is an exciting time for QE Home as consumers treat their bedrooms more like fashion and reflect their taste.”
