Australia-based clothing company Billabong International has signed a contract to implement Lawson Software platform, Lawson QuickStep Fashion, to help manage the manufacturing and distribution processes of each of its brands across its wholly-owned operations in Australia, North America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and Brazil.
Lawson’s enterprise software system has designed to help manufacturing companies gain greater supply chain visibility and provide easier access to critical information across the enterprise.
According to Billabong chief financial officer, Craig White, the Lawson QuickStep Fashion solution will helped deliver greater business agility, which will further assist the multi-million dollar company achieve its ongoing growth goals.
One ongoing goal the company has is the buying out top brands and retail banners in order to access key international markets and build strong growth in those markets. This global acquisition strategy has been underway for the past ten years and has seen the clothing company acquire some big name brands.
Lawson QuickStep solution
The Lawson QuickStep solution was selected to replace Billabong’s legacy systems used across its manufacturing and distribution facilities around the world.
The underlying purpose is to unify core processes, such as accounting, purchasing, inventory management and sales ordering, which has been up until now supported by different applications, to improve efficiency in its business processed globally.
Billabong selected Lawson based on the company’s ability to create central repository of critical business information to help consolidate enterprise data that has been stored regionally in separate ERP systems in Billabong facilities across the globe.
Lawson QuickStep Fashion is an industry-specific solution that helps eliminate the “islands of information” that can occur in fashion companies.
Said to be predefined and flexible, the solution can aid speed implementation by preconfiguring more than 70% 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, the company said.
Installation
Under the contract, Billabong will implement additional solutions, including Lawson Smart Office, Lawson Enterprise Search, Lawson Business Intelligence, Lawson M3 Analytics, Lawson M3 Warehouse Mobility, and Lawson M3 e-Sales.
The implementation project will be conducted in a stage-process. Lawson will begin the phased implement with Billabong’s operations in Europe.
Billabong’s international headquartered is located in Burleigh Heads, Queensland, Australia. The company produces apparel, accessories, eyewear, wetsuits and hardgoods designed for surfing, skating, wakeboarding and snowboarding.
Its brands include Billabong, Element, Von Zipper, Honolua Surf Company, Kustom, Palmers Surf, Nixon, Xcel, Tigerlily, Sector 9, DAKINE and RVCA.