Mark Burstein
President & Chief Strategy Officer NGC Software
Apparel brands and retailers must break down silos in their organisation
NGC Software powers retailers and brands. These include Billabong, Canada Goose, Carter's, Destination XL and Nicole Miller to name a few solutions for product lifecycle management (PLM), supply chain management (SCM), apparel Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), shop floor control, global quality control, and vendor on-boarding and compliance. Mark Burstein, president and chief strategy officer at NGC Software gives suggestions and insights for apparel retailers to stay ahead of the game.
How do you see your technology sync itself with developments in the tech space, especially with reference to IoT and AI?
IoT and AI or machine learning are promising. When companies encounter unexpected obstacles within the supply chain, the ability for technology to recommend optimal resolution is a high priority at NGC. Most companies are still in the early stages of understanding how these technologies will fit into their current processes. As with other industry-changing technology such as EDI and RFID, the full benefit will be realised once all supply chain partners embrace it.
Instant gratification and customisation are the new buzz words in retail. What are apparel companies looking for in software solutions to fulfil such needs?
Lead time optimisation is the number one trend impacting our industry today. Every brand and retailer in the industry is focused on getting the right products to the consumer faster than ever. To meet consumer demand quickly and accurately, companies must respond instantly to latest sales data. This can only be done by sharing real-time sales data throughout the enterprise, so that everyone in the global enterprise can react to current consumer buying trends.
What are the new age challenges that apparel retailers need to be prepared for?
Apparel retailers must take advantage of real-time sales information to adjust plans in-season and immediately react. If products are selling rapidly, companies must accelerate production; if products are not selling, companies could stop or redirect production and cut their losses immediately.
When retailers see that a product has exceptionally strong sell-through, retailers and brands must move quickly to get products to the consumer faster. To do this, they can take several steps like accelerate more product design in-season, quickly reallocate or reorder raw materials, accelerate production schedules or expedite logistics.
What will future PLM solutions provide?
PLM solutions of the future must bring together all global departments and users into a single connected enterprise, which is exactly what our Andromeda cloud platform does. Andromeda provides a single platform with core PLM and supply chain functionality that can centralise and share information created in any other legacy PLM, ERP, SCM, Planning and Point-of-Sale solutions. It brings together all departments - merchandising, product development, sourcing, compliance, purchasing, production, quality, logistics, marketing and sales - into a single cloud-based solution that connects all users with their global vendors, suppliers and other providers.
Where is the demand the most from the Asian region? Which are your biggest markets and upcoming ones?
Our biggest source of demand in Asia is working with the sourcing offices of large global brands in Asian hubs such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and other major apparel centres. Many of these brands are headquartered in the United States of America and Europe, but the centre of influence is in Asia.
What are the top three things apparel retailers need to change in their production and operation processes to take full benefit of PLM, SCM, and ERP solutions?
Compartmentalised systems and departments are among the biggest barriers to lead time optimisation and process improvement. Apparel brands and retailers must break down silos in their organisation so they can share information in real time across internal departments, as well as with global vendors and suppliers.
Companies must embrace postponement, too. Apparel companies must wait until the last possible minute to decide what to make to ensure that products are on-trend and align with consumer demand. If they do not do this, their merchandise may be headed for instant markdown as soon as they arrive at the stores.
Vendor compliance is also key to process improvements. In today’s socially-connected world, it is more important than ever for retailers and brands to protect their reputation by carefully monitoring vendor relationships to ensure corporate social responsibility (CSR).
In which regions do you see demand for fashion PLM and other IT solutions rising?
Asia is a growth region. In North America, demand is increasing for systems that can expand the scope of first-generation legacy PLM solutions. Big growth opportunity is expanding the scope of legacy PLM systems to encompass the Connected Enterprise, which is why NGC developed the Andromeda platform.
How is your latest offering Andromeda Vendor Compliance, launched last month, being received?
Andromeda Vendor Compliance has been very well received. NGC is seeing tremendous interest from some of the industry's largest brands and retailers in adopting new solutions such as Andromeda Vendor Compliance for streamlining and managing vendor onboarding, CSR, and Good Manufacturing Practices.
What are the future plans at NGC Software?
NGC is expanding the Andromeda platform at a rapid pace. We will be introducing a series of products this summer built on Andromeda as we enhance and extend NGC's cloud-based product offering.
Please share details of the last two fiscal years and your expectations from the next two.
NGC has experienced tremendous growth over the past two years, specifically within the mid-to-large size apparel brands and retailers. With the 2017 release of Andromeda in a multi-tenant cloud environment, we expect to see significant growth with Tier 1 companies that would like to keep their legacy PLM solutions and use Andromeda to fill gaps within their current process and share information throughout the extended supply chain.
Published on: 06/06/2017
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
