Supply Chain Success story
Billabong signs with Lawson Software to support growth in action sports sector
L
awson Software, an Infor affiliate, has announced that Australian- based Billabong International (Billabong) has signed a contract for the implementation of Lawson QuickStep Fashion. Billabong is a global market player in the action sports market. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution package from Lawson, designed and preconfigured to address the feature and functional needs of fashion companies, will provide Billabong with the tools to help the company manage manufacturing and distribution processes of each of its brands across its wholly-owned operations including Australia, North America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and Brazil.
With international headquarters located in Burleigh Heads, Queensland, Australia, Billabong is a marketer, distributor, wholesaler and retailer of boardsports apparel, accessories, eyewear, wetsuits and hardgoods designed for surfing, skating, wakeboarding and snowboarding. It delivers products to market under a stable of brands including Billabong, Element, Von Zipper, Honolua Surf Company, Kustom, Palmers Surf, Nixon, Xcel, Tigerlily, Sector 9, DaKine and RVCA.
Fuelling strong growth
“Over the past decade, our global acquisition strategy of both brands and retail banners has fuelled strong growth across key international markets,” said Craig White, CFO for Billabong. “As our business continues to expand, our aim is to maintain the integrity of our brands, as well as our commitment to customers in the global boardsports sector. Our new partnership with Lawson and Infor will help support these
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objectives though the implementation of an enterprirse software system designed to help us gain greater supply chain visibility and provide easier access to critical information across the enterprise. The Lawson QuickStep Fashion solution will help us create a demand- driven model that delivers greater business agility, which will further assist us in achieving ongoing growth goals.”
Following an extensive evaluation of several competing enterprise software offerings, Billabong selected the Lawson QuickStep solution to replace legacy systems around the world. “Due to the way in which our business has grown globally across the various regions, countries and brands, core processes such as accounting, purchasing, inventory management and sales ordering have until now largely been supported by different applications,” said John Austin, international systems project manager for Billabong.
He continued: “We chose Lawson because we were impressed by its implementation approach, along with its strong cultural fit. The alliance will facilitate the creation of a central repository of critical business information by helping to consolidate enterprise data that has until now been stored regionally in separate ERP systems. Lawson QuickStep Fashion will help us eliminate inconsistent business processes and duplication by providing us with tools that will provide a common source of accurate as well as timely information that will help us make more informed business decisions. It will deliver a common business process template and a platform that can also link to third party, best-of-breed solutions.”
Lawson QuickStep Fashion is an industry-
specific solution that eliminates the ‘islands of information’ that frequently occur in fashion companies. Predefined and flexible, the solution can help speed implementation by preconfiguring over 70 per cent of core processes, which when used in the format provided by Lawson, can help reduce the costs, risks and time required for deployment – and a faster time-to-benefit.
Additional solutions
As part of the contract, Billabong will also implement additional solutions such as Lawson Smart Office, Lawson Enterprise Search, Lawson M3 Enterprise Collaborator, Lawson ProcessFlow Integrator, Lawson Learning Accelerator, Lawson Business Intelligence, Lawson M3 Analytics, Lawson M3 Warehouse Mobility, Lawson M3 e-Sales, Lawson M3 Demand Planner, Lawson M3 Supply Chain Planner, Lawson M3 Sales and Marketing Automation, Lawson M3 Web Services, Lawson M3 Document Archive Foundation and Lawson EDI for Supply Chain Management.
David Hope, general manager and regional managing director for Lawson, Asia Pacific & Japan, commented: “The global fashion and apparel segment is an important and strategic market for Lawson. Therefore, to partner with a leading global player in the action sports market such as Billabong is a crucial and exciting win for Lawson as it further reinforces the strength of our fashion industry solution, as well as our dedication and commitment to fashion customers globally.”
Lawson Professional Services will commence a phased approach to the Billabong implementation project starting in the European region.
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