If it's February in New York, you'll definitely want some warm boots. If it's February in Phoenix, sandals may be in order. But if winter stretches far into April for residents of the Northeast, what then?

For Famous Footwear, the $1.2 billion division of Brown Shoe Company and a top retailer of name-brand shoes in the U.S., making sure regional assortment differences are accounted for is a daily challenge. With more than 950 stores and 120 million customers each year, Famous Footwear needed to find a more efficient and effective way to deliver a fresh and precise flow of new styles to each store. The retailer implemented several JDA Portfolio applications to replace manual processes and to sharpen its planning and allocation processes.

Business Challenge

Famous Footwear needed to find a more efficient and effective way to deliver a fresh and precise flow of new styles to each store. Additionally, the company realized that it had to capture and respond to the variation and diversity that is driven by demographics, climate and region.

Business Solution

► Merchandise Planning by Arthur
► Arthur Planning Product RAPID
► Arthur Channel RAPID
► Performance Analysis Web by Arthur
► Assortment Planning by Arthur
► Advanced Allocation by Arthur
► Arthur Knowledge Base™

Business Benefits

With new JDA solutions as the foundation, along with new processes in place,
Famous Footwear has achieved the following benefits:
► Enhanced enterprise-wide visibility
► Better information for decision making
► More precise product plans
► Faster moving product assortments
► Improved inventory management
► Minimized loss from markdowns and stock outs
► Improved information sharing
► Quantifiable Benefits

Famous Footwear achieved a record year in 2005 fueled by a 6.3 percent increase in sales, a 2.5 percent rise in same-store sales and 11.2 percent jump in operating earnings.

With JDA solutions as the foundation, along with new processes in place, Famous Footwear is seeing rapid results. Today planners and allocators have better information for decision making, enhanced enterprisewide visibility and more precise product plans. And, the company has achieved faster moving product assortments and enhanced inventory management. These advancements helped Famous Footwear achieve a record year in 2005 fueled by a 6.3 percent increase in sales, a 2.5 percent rise in same-store sales and 11.2 percent jump in operating earnings.

Shifting Market Data Demands Fast Response

To reach its target market and continue its aggressive growth, Famous Footwear knew that it had to capture and respond to the variation and diversity that is driven by demographics, climate and region. Specifically, the challenges for the company's planning and allocation teams centered on three key areas:

► Manage the diversity of its assortment and products
► Match the right products and quantities to specific regions and target customers
► Support the latest sales trends

John Dembinski, vice president of merchandise planning and allocation for Famous Footwear, said the company first needed to better understand its customers so that it could deliver the right merchandise to the right place. "Shoes are not a high-turn business and as a result our success depends on having the right assortments and sizes on the shelves when our customer walks into the store," Dembinski said. "Our biggest challenge was how to plan and execute an assortment strategy that allowed us to turn inventory and drive continuous freshness."

If any industry is going to test the limits of an IT infrastructure, it's retail. As the company analyzes
demographics and different product mixes, newtrends in market data must be entered into the system quickly to realize the benefit  and stay ahead of the competition. Before turning to JDA, Famous Footwear relied on cumbersome, manual processes to manage planning and allocation.

"In the past we were dependent on spreadsheets that were traded back and forth by many different people. It was a coordination nightmare," said Tom Hendricks, vice president of retail information systems for Brown Shoe Co. "We had an in-house allocation system that used static models also based on spreadsheets. This was how we managed inventory levels at our stores. We soon recognized that the spreadsheet approach was too labor intensive and that the static model approach didn't deal with demand fluctuations in our stores. These were the key drivers for us to take a look at where we go next."

JDA Planning and Allocation Solutions: The Right Fit for Famous Footwear

Famous Footwear conducted a comprehensive vendor selection process and in 2000 implemented the first component of JDA's planning solutions, Merchandise Planning by Arthur�. They then quickly deployed additional applications over the next three years. According to Mary Thostenson, Arthur� systems administrator for Famous Footwear, JDA's RAPID™ implementation approach and the best-of-breed solutions made it a perfect fit.

"The other solution providers we considered were gearedtoward the smaller, middle-tier enterprise and we were growing much too quickly," Thostenson said. "It was clear to us that JDA fit the bill."

With its planning and allocation processes powered by JDA, Famous Footwear has seen a ignificant reduction in processing time - no more spreadsheet handoffs - and improved planning at multiple levels of the retail hierarchy.

"The technology has enabled us to roll up a plan at the starting point of execution," Hendricks said. "With allocation we are able to keep pace with the products that are selling best and make sure appropriate inventory is allocated down to the store level."

"JDA Software's solutions help us to deliver the numbers we need to drive our company's growth and realize the type of business performance we had in 2005," Dembinski said. "As our level of proficiency with the technology has improved, we've been able to significantly enhance our planning and execution of assortments as well as the placement of inventory. It's a combination of the tools, internal processes and experience that we've had with JDA solutions that have helped us deliver the results."

Based on its successful implementation at Famous Footwear, the company has expanded the deployment of JDA applications to support its specialty retail brands Naturalizer, F.X. LaSalle and Via Spiga stores in North America as well as its Shoes.com e-commerce division.

2005 Performance is Just the Beginning

Looking ahead, Famous Footwear is considering other JDA applications that will provide new functionality for store clustering, advanced store and warehouse replenishment and revenue management. "Today we have a robust planning and allocation infrastructure," Dembinski said. "We were able to achieve it by building a well-thought out business strategy, taking a best-practice approach to designing our processes, and supporting both with JDA's leading technologies. In today's retail space you simply won't gain optimum bottom-line results without all three."

Customer Information

Customer Name: Famous Footwear

Industry: Footwear retailer

Headquarters: Madison, Wisconsin

Description: A division of Brown Shoe Company and a top retailer of name-brand shoes in the United States with more than 950 stores and 120 million customers each year.

Revenues: $1.2 billion

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