CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

13 April 2011

Implementation Investments

ITOCHU Prominent USA Selects BlueCherry® to Support Growth and Diversifications

Computer Generated Solutions Inc. (CGS) announces that New York-based fashion production and import specialist ITOCHU Prominent USA, LLC (IPU) has selected the BlueCherry® Enterprise software to manage its core wholesale trade business and support rapid growth in direct-to-retail sales. The comprehensive business solution will be used to manage the company’s design, product development, supply chain execution, and retail collaboration activities and processes. When fully implemented, the company expects BlueCherry to provide a single, integrated IT platform and central data repository for all of its apparel, textiles, home fashions, and accessories lines.

According to IPU Senior Vice President of Operations Matthew Amato, “We are experiencing a significant shift in our business from selling brands to supplying major U.S. retailers. Our current systems do not support the information exchange and SKU-level sales and controls that we need to effectively service this market. BlueCherry will enable us to comply with and exceed the mandates of this increasingly important customer segment.”

To leverage and accelerate growth with retailers, BlueCherry provides built-in electronic data exchange (EDI) and other collaboration tools that will empower IPU to immediately gain operational and customer service capabilities that would have otherwise taken years to develop in their previous systems.

“In addition to our retail requirements, we are looking to BlueCherry to help us better manage our core wholesale business”, added IPU Business Systems & IT Director Kishin Datwani. “We expect the new system will help us improve overall efficiencies and performance across our entire company. BlueCherry will open up a lot of opportunities in areas of our business that were not previously incorporated in our IT infrastructure.”

BlueCherry will allow IPU to eliminate disparate systems, automate manual processes, and centralize information across all product lines and divisions. BlueCherry PLM (product lifecycle management) will help accelerate new product development and other pre-production activities, while the system’s Collaborative Supply Chain Management (CSCM) and advanced query and reporting capabilities will improve vendor collaboration and increase visibility into process timelines and milestone performance. An interface is also planned to integrate BlueCherry with the SAP FI financial accounting module that is throughout all ITOCHU Corporation global operations.

“We are pleased with the opportunity to work with IPU”, noted CGS Application Solutions Group President Paul Magel. “During the evaluation, we identified a perfect alignment of our capabilities to their needs for a retail-savvy business partner with strong technology and a legacy of support and training. We are confident that they will find in BlueCherry a solution that supports their growth well into the future.”

A business process review has begun and the first departments are expected to go-live on BlueCherry by July 1, 2011. The initial 100-user count will grow as the company extends use of the system throughout the year.

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