Chateau Bodywear
See how this leading clothing manufacturer replaced its outdated management system that was holding them back from growth.
By implementing our complete ErpWizard Suite, the company has been able to increase efficiency and streamline its processes.
Client
Chateau Bodywear is constantly on the lookout for new and better ways to stay efficient and at the top of its industry. This is done by better serving their loyal customer base as well as by offering innovative base layer garments under Watson’s brand.
Learn how this Canadian company replaced its outdated management system that was hampering them with a more flexible, scalable ERP solution. Which became the ideal solution for the growth of the company.
Challenges
Château Bodywear’s previous IT system, developed with the Magic Software platform, was implemented in 1995. At the time, it was cutting-edge technology, which allowed the company to gain a competitive advantage in their industry.
However, business requirements and technology are constantly evolving. After 20 years and numerous software tweaks later, Chateau Bodywear’s IT system was getting to be too complex and inefficient for their current business needs.
It was time for a complete IT solution upgrade. In order to meet the needs of their employees, business partners, and customers, this system needed to be flexible, scalable, and efficient.
Why Namtek Consulting Services?
“Choosing a software solution developed by Namtek Consulting Services was an obvious choice”.
Jeff Khoury, Executive Vice-President of Château Bodywear.
Château Bodywear has worked with Namtek Consulting Services since January 2000 and has seen first-hand the support the Namtek Team offers its customers.
This made the Château Bodywear decision much easier.
“ Many changes were done to our previous system by the Namtek Team with no major hiccups, something I cannot say about past IT developers I’ve worked with ” – Jeff Khoury, Executive V.P. of Château Bodywear
Solution
erpWizard – NAMTEK’s latest fully integrated ERP management solution. ERP provides Château Bodywear with all the business modules it needs. These include Purchasing, Invoicing, G/L, A/P, A/R, Forecasting, Duty Relief Tracking, etc.
The ERP solution includes add-on modules such as EDI2XML for EDI communication with business partners around the world, and WIMS 2.0, a complete real-time warehouse management system.
According to Mr. Khoury, the decision to go with erpWizard and its add-ons was due to 4 main reasons:
- Simplicity. The management system was simple yet was developed with detailed business functions.
- Ease of Transition. There was an ease of transition that he liked, which made transferring an abundance of past data from the old system to the new one that much easier.
- Cost. In Mr. Khoury’s experience, a fully integrated system like this would typically cost his business hundreds of thousands of dollars. NAMTEK provided an efficient fully integrated business system that was developed with the latest technologies at an affordable price.
- Support. Once again, having seen what the team at NAMTEK Consulting Services can do and how they work impressed his own staff. Everyone at Château Bodywear was able to call, email or even meet with NAMTEK’s team of developers at any time.
Implementation
It was well known to Mr. Khoury that implementing any software solution in a company scares not only managers but also employees.
This would mean asking his team to accept the changes and learn the new system.
However, according to him, “implementation proceeded more smoothly than anticipated.”
The time it takes for everyone in the company to get used to the changes, of course, depends on the individual and the area of responsibility of each of them. In the case of Château Bodywear, user training began long before implementation and continued well after.
In the eyes of this leader, training was mandatory. Before the actual transition, Chateau Bodywear staff were able to run a demo of the system with real data so everyone could understand how the system works.
Namtek conducted a full training program during and after implementation. It was necessary that everyone in the company knew how to properly use the solution and use its full potential.
Results
As Executive V.P., Mr. Khoury was able to see major positive changes to the company with erpWizard, beginning with its greatest impact:
Reduction of EDI issues
With an abundance of EDI transactions going in and out on a daily basis, it’s important that the EDI communication with their business partners was flawless. The old system had many limitations that caused problems for Château Bodywear. It was only able to handle 12 digit UPC codes, EDI mapping was hard coded and always required a programmer’s help for changes, and selling prices were only assessed by style.
The new system, integrated with Namtek’s EDI to XML translation software, EDI2XML, now allows them to verify EDI mapping internally, with no limits to UPC codes, allowing them to process EDI transactions requiring 14 digit UPC codes, and they can handle different selling prices by SKU rather than solely by style.
Creation of products
Today, the team at Château Bodywear can create a full product item profile in order to better analyze sales and future trends through their integrated Business Intelligence software, Tableau. On top of this, they now have the ability to price and sell the same item in different units of measure (in units, dozens, or by case packs) without having to create a different item number.
Tasks, Reminders, Comments, and External document attachments
Attaching any kind of document, be it an Excel spreadsheet, Word document, PDF, or Image, as well as tasks, reminders, or comments to just about anything is now possible. This has allowed for better transfer of information between users, no matter their department or physical location.
Printing
All printing documents are now produced as PDF files. This allows for ease of use and is environmentally friendly. Sharing important reports and files with colleagues is now easy and quick.
Apart from the day-to-day visible improvements that the team at Château Bodywear was able to quickly see and benefit from, the new system has allowed this leading Canadian undergarment company to be more efficient overall and to respond much more quickly to customer needs and industry changes.
“ In terms of business process efficiencies, erpWizard has given our company the ability to keep up with our customers’ needs and requests. With our old system, it was a struggle to stay in line with the ever-changing business world we must all accept ” – Jeff Khoury, Executive V.P. of Château Bodywear.
Looking forward, Mr. Khoury predicts labor efficiencies and better communication between his staff, customers and suppliers. In his own words, he is “completely satisfied with the system and sees so much potential for more add-on modules in the near future.“
