Honeylove has selected Centric Software®’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, Centric SMB for emerging brands. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, home décor, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Honeylove founder Betsie Larkin spent years touring the world as a vocalist for some of EDM’s biggest acts. She reached for shapewear to feel confident on stage but found every product she tried rolled down, had no structure, and squeezed in the wrong places. After a fruitless search for the perfect pair, she set out to create her own. Her first product became a viral success, and today, the Los Angeles-based company has expanded into bras, tops, bodysuits, and more, which they sell DTC worldwide via their website.
“Like many growing brands, we used spreadsheets for our tech packs “says Julia Handleman, VP of Design and Product Development. “We were outgrowing that way of working, so sought a system that would help us organize data. We know the benefits that a PLM system brings to a team.”
She continues, “Centric was the most feature rich. It has calendar functions and ways to work with our overseas vendors that are very robust. The functionality was really easy to use and one of the really exciting factors for my design team was the Adobe® Illustrator plugin that allows us to seamlessly pull in sketches. There were just a lot of great features that just made it an easy choice.”
The nature of the products that the company produces requires detailed and precise information. Says Handleman, “There are a lot of components in our tech packs, which is one of the reasons we really benefit from Centric PLM™. When you start to introduce all of our technical features, you’re dealing with a lot of information, so it must be very clear. We want to ensure that we have the clearest and most detailed tech packs for our factory partners.”
Honeylove chose Centric SMB in mid-February 2021, implementing via remote meetings, landing on time and on budget. Handleman says, “The Centric team guided us on what the best practices are and combined that with Honeylove’s needs to figure out what configuration is best for our team. We then did the major set-up internally; it was pretty seamless.”
They trained their employees in short order. Says Handleman, “We were able to address any fears or concerns and get the whole team on board prior to launching the system.” Three months after purchase, Centric SMB went live, and one month later Honeylove is already seeing benefits. “There is a huge upside in efficiency—being able to copy tech packs, to add and remove portions easily. It cuts down on typos and other errors since everything is loaded into the libraries, and you’re pulling it in. The data is cleaner.” They are using the costing module and currently working on getting the tolerance and grading function up and running. Handleman says, “I’m just really excited to see what happens once all the modules are fully up and running. We’re already thinking ahead to new features like calendaring and Slack integration to add even more value.”
Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software says, “It is a pleasure to partner with a young, fast-growing company that offers unique products women love. And their four-month timeline from selection to seeing benefits is great; something we are seeing more and more.”
