Point of View by Balaji Santhanam, Industry Principal, attune

Firstly, wish everyone a very happy new year. May the new year 2021 be a lot better than the troublesome 2020 we just got rid of.

Historically, analysts see the Fashion and Lifestyle industry as being laggards when it comes to technology adoption. But the pandemic has definitely pushed the retailers to adapt & innovate or perish.

For the Fashion and Retail industry, 2021 will continue to be a defining moment to showcase resilience and adapt and enable future growth through innovation. It is indeed remarkable to see the resilient retail industry in a year of COVID which has managed to not just ‘not lose ground’ (based on projections of a decline of around 10% for the year as of June 2020), but turnaround and grow 0.8% YoY is incredible to say the least. The stimulus, lack of travel & activities and the rise in overall personal savings for consumers in 2020 helped redirect some of that spend to retail.

Retail’s non-decline notwithstanding, there definitely were a few losers and unfortunately Clothing sector had to deal with a dismal -27% decline in growth YoY due to the pandemic, though there were a few winners like Nike, Lulu, Crocs etc. Word on the street is that the retail pundits are forecasting a resurgence for clothing in 2021, but in my opinion, it might just take a couple of years before the apparel sector gets back its mojo.

While SAP S/4HANA for Fashion delivers many benefits, it is important to remember that making the move is a large-scale project which requires an entire system to be moved. Most companies face difficulty during their move because they are unaware of which migration strategy is best for their current IT landscape.

Sluggish store traffic, intense competition from online retailers, dynamic pricing strategy and evolving consumer spending patterns are the headwinds plaguing the retail sector. But some brands are continuing to take the leap by investing in their growth plans despite the challenges faced by the retail industry. From understanding the core customer to keeping up with the latest trends, what's driving them to make the decision and why now?

Since its founding in 1995, Maxport has grown into a major manufacturer, producing for the world’s leading brands including Nike, Lululemon, and Asics.

Much of its success is due to its unwavering focus on quality and innovation; a constant practice of finding new ways to improve processes by leveraging new technologies. With that in mind, Maxport recently announced their decision to implement SAP S/4HANA for Fashion Manufacturing across its operations, making it one of the first Vietnamese manufacturing and exporting companies to deploy the solution. Below is the kick-off video to celebrate the first-ever S/4HANA for Fashion Manufacturing Project in Vietnam:

In a recent interview with CNBC, the CEO of Tapestry, Victor Luis revealed some of the changes happening behind its diversified multi-brand model, including an ambitious growth initiative that encompasses significant investments in systems and infrastructure. Check out the video below: 

Early adopters of S/4HANA for Fashion and Vertical Business are using their implementations as an opportunity to build a more agile IT landscape to integrate retail, wholesale and manufacturing processes and dramatically reduce TCO.

A complete re-platforming of an ERP solution is essential to face current digital challenges. It serves an opportunity to leverage new technologies for future growth. However, if the right approach is not taken, it can be a daunting task for any company, often involving significant risks and unmanageable costs. To an extent, a proof of concept (POC) helps resolve some of the uncertainties, but it is non-reusable and the effort taken does little to mitigate potential risks. 

Written by Kim MacIntosh, Senior VP - North America

With summer officially over, the attune team is looking forward to the next couple of months where we will be on the road and meeting you at several events. The first being the ASUG Apparel Footwear and Fashion (AFF) SIG meeting at Columbia Sportswear headquarters. We’re looking forward to meeting fashion IT leaders at this year’s meeting. One of the hot topics is going to be around SAP S/4HANA for Fashion and how to make the transition to the new platform.

Any time a sales order comes in, there is a requested quantity, time, and location. Fashion companies need to know this information to understand whether they can fulfill the request. But it’s often not just a simple check of inventory and fulfillment — there are many factors to consider: What if the order changes at the last moment? What if something happens in the production process that could potentially affect delivery? With a first-come, first-served (FCFS) strategy, are orders from the top customers getting fulfilled in time over lower-priority orders?

Written by Harin Nanayakkara, Chief Marketing Officer - attune

Over the past few years, we have been discussing extensively about the on-going digital revolution and the need for Fashion & Retail companies to make a fundamental shift in core systems to be able to respond to the demands of modern markets. Today, we are taking another step towards equipping fashion brands with a powerful digital core in their journey of becoming true digital players.

Introducing attune Fashion Suite™ - Proven Accelerator for SAP S/4HANA for fashion and vertical business

With the introduction of SAP S/4HANA for fashion and vertical business, SAP broke ground by building a complete vertically integrated real-time solution, which incorporates retail, wholesale and manufacturing operations. From planning, procurement, and sales through online and offline channels, vertical integration on SAP S/4HANA helps ensure that these processes are fully harmonized, whether the products are being sold in a department store or in a flagship store.

At attune, we were fortunate to be a part of that journey; working closely with the SAP teams in running acceptance tests and providing product feedback. The new solution inherited much of its functionality and thinking from SAP Fashion Management; a co-innovation initiative between SAP, attune and a few select customers. FMS was built with the notion of unifying wholesale, retail and manufacturing to enable a vertically integrated business model and omni-channel customer experience. S/4HANA fashion is the next evolution of this effort; built from the ground up natively on the HANA platform. This further simplifies processes and adds new capabilities needed to run in a digital world.