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Case Study - Mulberry

Mulberry is a British luxury brand established in the 1970s and renowned worldwide for its craftsmanship and quality. Today, the AIM-listed company has a turnover of over £45 million and employs over 500 people.

The brand’s backbone is an extensive line of luxury bags for men and women that combine stylish, stand-out design with the finest leathers and detailing. Whilst 90% of sales are generated from its core accessories products, Mulberry has also grown to encompass womenswear, menswear and interior design soft furnishings and wall coverings.

 
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Integrating Operations with PrimaNet®

As a growing company managing structural change and the challenges of operating in a multi-channel environment, Mulberry needed to streamline their business operations to support their planned business growth. As part of a substantial programme of change, the PrimaNet® system will replace all of the Group’s operational systems including retail, merchandising, wholesale and distribution, planning, manufacturing and sourcing. A comprehensive management process and significant pre implementation testing were part of an intensive project designed to minimise the risks of such a large project.

Facing the Business Challenge

Mulberry’s management team were suffering from the pain of operating with disparate and ageing enterprise systems, which manifested itself in operational inefficiencies and a large amount of manual data management and processing. The goal was to implement an enterprise-wide and integrated total business solution where as much data processing as possible could be done online using one core database, thereby eliminating the need to re-key data. The expectation was to improve efficiency and reduce the risk of operator error.

As part of their selection process, Mulberry reviewed a number of systems from retail, manufacturing, and warehouse & distribution software suppliers, searching for their ideal ‘one-stop shop’.

In order to ensure a truly comprehensive management process, Mulberry formed a steering committee, comprising key managers from all areas of the business to be actively involved in the whole decision-making process. An initial shortlist of three suppliers provided detailed demonstrations to the steering committee and frontline users, in order to review how each system would work specifically for the Mulberry business going forward. Then, down to a shortlist of two suppliers, the Mulberry team undertook more detailed workshops over a 2-week period with both companies. To enable them to fully evaluate Mulberry’s business needs and present their proposals for a total solution with a single underlying database, detailing potential efficiency gains and key management reporting capabilities. The result was a unanimous committee recommendation for the PrimaNet® solution.

The PrimaNet® Difference

Guy Rutherford, Finance Director at Mulberry, headed up the steering committee which recommended an integrated, multi-channel enterprise-wide system from Prima Solutions.

“Following our extensive and rigorous evaluation process, PrimaNet® proved to be the best fit for our overall needs across all operational disciplines”.

Over a 4-week period Mulberry ran a conference room pilot with detailed system demonstrations covering requirements for all areas of the business, following which Prima produced a detailed specification to ensure that the system implemented at Mulberry would really support them in meeting their business goals.

Prima Solutions is established as the UK's leading supplier of complete business solutions to the clothing, footwear & accessories market and their breadth and depth of sector expertise was an important factor in Mulberry’s decision.

Guy Rutherford comments, “Prima’s sector experience and knowledge means that, as much as possible, we are able to use the PrimaNet® solution out-of-the box. The project team have a good understanding of our industry across all disciplines and have invested the time to work with us and understand our specific business needs. This will enable Prima to deliver bespoke requirements where necessary.”

A successful project relies on more than just good software systems. Prima have a track record in working pro-actively with customers, challenging assumptions and providing strategic input into managing business and process change to meet the challenges of today’s multi-channel sales environment. The aim is to deliver the best possible processes and solutions to run each specific business.

Guy Rutherford continues, “It wasn’t just down to the capabilities of the product – from initial consultation, we have had a very good relationship with Prima’s dedicated project team who have been extremely responsive and supportive throughout the whole process.”

The Future Looks Bright

Mulberry has now completed the implementation of Payroll, Financials and the core Wholesale system, with the Retail phase due for completion early in 2008. Although in the early stages, the project is already delivering significant benefits, with more to come.

“Our front line users have been really impressed by the increased visibility and flexibility of the PrimaNet® system”, continues Guy Rutherford. “We are already reaping the benefits of efficiencies gained through more streamlined processing. This means that staff can be more effective and proactive, adding real value to the business rather than being tied up with data processing”

Mulberry is well on their way to realising their goal for a fully integrated, multi-channel enterprise-wide solution that really supports their business growth plans.

Guy Rutherford concludes, “From what we have already experienced, it is clear that improvements in efficiencies and control will accelerate over the course of the project when all operational systems are fully integrated. The Prima solution is a key element in delivering our business objectives.”