Interview with Lisa Jarry

Centric Software PLM-a cloud-based, out-of-the-box platform-empowers internal and external teams by giving them a single, actionable version of the truth, enabling information transparency-a fundamental pillar of Industry 4.0. By giving teams access to all product-related data in real time, Centric PLM eases communication, reduces errors and accelerates decision making.

Centric PLM is enhanced by groundbreaking innovations such as interactive, collaborative digital boards with touchscreen technology that replace complex systems like Excel sheets, printouts, PDFs and email chains, which tend to result in wasted time, data errors and version control issues. When teams eliminate process inefficiencies and save time, their focus shifts towards quality and product innovation, while still meeting increasing consumer demands.

Centric Software specialises in providing digital solutions especially created for the fashion and apparel industry to handle all challenges head-on. We partner with some of the biggest and most iconic names in the industry to create digital solutions that power growth. Centric PLM enables our customers to keep up with the rapid pace of change in the global marketplace and stay ahead of the competition. Our fashion and technology experts have worked with our customers to create modern, innovative digital solutions that streamline every aspect of product development, from enabling full visibility into product development, to process automation, to better managing of priorities and costs, to reducing data entry errors and manual labour freeing your teams to be more creative, less stressed and work more efficiently to bring innovative products to market faster. Centric PLM connects directly with other enterprise systems like ERP that take over tracking the product once the creative work of product development is done including transactional operations of fashion and apparel operations like logistics, warehousing and inventory management. 

At Centric, we never stand still on innovation, from our industry-leading mobile apps for PLM to our recently-launched agnostic 3D design plugin (that works with CLO, Browzwear and Optitex) to our use of artificial intelligence in Centric AI Image Search. Our proven roadmap includes two major and two minor releases of updates to Centric 8 PLM every year.

We thrive on customer feedback. Regularly working with our Customer Advisory Board, we listen to customers and react with ongoing innovative feature updates and releases as well as completely new functions and solutions for the fashion, apparel and consumer goods industries. From these meetings and discussions, we develop market-driven features and apps hand-in-hand with our clients and then roll them into our core product offering so that all of our customers can use these innovations to drive business growth.

Bestseller Fashion Group China (BFGC) went live on Centric PLM in under six months. Since implementing Centric PLM, BFGC has experienced improved data consistency and communication, resulting in a faster time to market and better control over the supply chain. In 2018, Centric Software rolled out its groundbreaking Skyline architecture, which allows customers with up to 10,000 users to geographically distribute data in real time across the globe. As Bestseller China grows, Skyline is an invaluable asset to the PLM project.

Before Centric, 3Colour used Excel and had to enter a lot of information by hand. Manually adding collection, style and BOM-related data piece by piece resulted in a lot of errors, and the brand decided it was time to search for a PLM solution. After just two seasons of using Centric PLM, the accuracy of BOMs has improved from 70-80 per cent to 100 per cent accuracy at 3Colour. There is no need to enter information more than once. After a show or sales order, everything that users need is ready in the BOM, and the only thing to add is specific customer requirements, which saves eight days of work. Centric saves time for designers and developers at 3Colour so they can do what they do best-creating new products. Urban Revivo had known Centric for a long time and were impressed by the professionalism and knowledge of the fashion industry. Centric understood Urban Revivo's pain points and offered a tailor-made solution. The company was confident that Centric's successful experience in the global market would truly help their expansion and selected Centric 8 PLM. After a perfect deployment, Urban Revivo experienced rapid results. Centric PLM is helping to speed time to market, cut costs and errors and improve innovation. Sampling time has been reduced from 10 days to 3-4 days per collection, and it's easier to control budgets and merchandise planning. Centric PLM has an important part to play in supporting product management and global collaboration in Urban Revivo's plans for the future. (SG)