Groupe Steilmann Canada
Groupe Steilmann Canada makes mobile fashion statement using Microsoft .NET-connected software
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Company Overview
In 1958, German entrepreneur and fashion designer Klaus Steilmann launched a new company, Klaus Steilmann GmbH & Co, which adhered to his “fashion for millions” philosophy of making high-quality apparel available to anyone who wanted it. The company quickly grew and by 1968, when it launched an ongoing collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld to introduce their new KL line, the company had become a mainstay in the European fashion industry.
Business Challenge
Steilmann gradually evolved into Groupe Steilmann, which houses a number of smaller subsidiary and partner firms around the world. Among them is Montréal-based Groupe Steilmann Canada. With a head office in Montréal, a major showroom in Toronto and a remote office in Vancouver, Groupe Steilmann Canada is a small, but competitive fashion importer and distributor that specializes in high-end women’s fashion.
The apparel industry is fiercely competitive and to succeed, Groupe Steilmann Canada must be constantly attuned to changing client needs. Salespeople regularly travel across Canada and the United States to talk with customers, generate interest in Steilmann fashion lines and encourage new orders.
“Our business is seasonal,” says Victoria D’Elia, chief financial officer, Groupe Steilmann Canada. “Things will be relatively quiet until the unveiling of a new season’s collection, when we’ll enter a period of intense activity. During this time our sales team visits three to four customers per day. These are crucial periods for us, and we need to capitalize on every sale we can and ensure those sales go smoothly.”
Looking to be as efficient as possible, Groupe Steilmann Canada had already automated its backend inventory and merchandising processes with help from Momentis Systems, a Microsoft® certified technology partner and expert in the retail and apparel industry. The company uses the Momentis Fashion System™ software suite, which tracks all aspects of clothes manufacturing and distribution, and handles all purchasing requests from Europe. With it, retail customers visiting Steilmann Canada’s showroom can simply scan their order request and a corresponding shipment request is automatically generated and sent to Klaus Steilmann GmbH in Germany.
This process stood in stark contrast to the paper-based workflow system that supported salespeople on the front end. Once a salesperson had confirmed an order, they would manually fill out the details on paper and send it to the Montréal head office, through any delivery vehicle of their choice. This meant sales requests arrived unannounced by fax, mail or courier. In Montréal, administrative personnel would then re-enter details of the order into the sales and inventory software system. Given the amount of information contained in a typical order – including various styles and other special requests - the process of re-entry would lead to input errors, further slowing the order process.
“We’d spot these errors when we confirmed orders with the sales team or with the customer, but resolving them involved multiple emails and phone calls. In a busy industry like ours, these delays were unacceptable,” says D’Elia. “We knew how beneficial a smooth, automated process could be, so we decided to invest in a mobile solution for our salespeople that would fix our order fulfillment system.”
Relying on paper also meant that salespeople could not realize their full productivity potential. While on the road, they couldn’t be sure if they had the most up-to-date style and pricing information. If questions arose, they would have to be handled by phone with staff at the Montréal head office.
Groupe Steilmann Canada asked Momentis to help automate this process by delivering a new mobile application. This presented Momentis with a unique challenge – despite its deep industry expertise, it did not have a solution available that matched Groupe Steilmann Canada’s needs.
“We were confident we could find a custom solution to Steliman’s challenges, but it required our developers to start from scratch,” says Jonathan Zack, senior software architect, Momentis.
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Solution
Momentis needed to build a mobile solution that would help Groupe Steilmann Canada salespeople quickly and easily enter order information at the customer site, and also automatically synchronize that data with the company’s systems in Montréal. Because salespeople don’t always have access to online connections, any solution had to be able to store information offline until a connection point was available. At the same time, the interface had to be easy to use, but still match the look and feel of the Momentis Fashion System solution.
“The success of the project rested on three factors – the ability to build a seamless, integrated mobile application; one that could be used by even the most non-technical user, and one that would require little or no action from the user in order to be useful. We also had to deliver this solution quickly to meet the busy pre-Christmas shopping season,” says Zack.
Given their experience with Microsoft software, Momentis developers chose to build the solution using Microsoft .NET-connected software. Developers took advantage of Visual Studio® 2005 development system and .NET Framework 2.0, which together, help developers build dynamic Windows, Web and mobile-based business solutions. They also include a variety of features designed to help developers work more efficiently, and ensure the highest level of quality.
“One of the most valuable features in .NET Framework 2.0 is Generics, which helps developers spot problems during compile time instead of run time. Catching errors early on helped to speed delivery times and reduced the time needed to make the software user-ready,” says Zack.
Given that Momentis developers were creating something entirely new and would require higher-than-normal levels of testing and debugging, closely managing the project was a priority. As well, Momentis developers are spread across Canada, with groups in Victoria, British Columbia and Montréal. To help developers, testers and managers collaborate as effectively as possible, Momentis took advantage of Visual Studio Team System. The software extends Visual Studio’s integrated experience by delivering new role-based tools for software architects, developers, testers and project managers. It also includes Team Foundation Server and customizable processes to help teams drive predictability, visibility and control into the software development process – regardless of where project members are located.
“Using Team System in conjunction with our .NET Framework development environment resulted in a number of benefits. For instance, Visual Studio 2005 comes with a refactoring feature that allows us to change a class name once and ensure that all references to that class in the project are changed automatically, without the use of manual, error-prone find and replace techniques. Using Team System, once the developer checks-in their changes, we automatically kick of a build using Team Foundation Build and are instantly notified if the build passes or fails,” says Zack.
Leveraging the .NET platform also gave Momentis developers access to dynamic mobile applications and user interfaces, including Windows Forms 2.0 – a .NET Framework-based graphical application programming interface. Additionally, ASP.NET 2.0, a set of web application development technologies, played a key role in helping the team build XML Web services.
“We were very impressed with Windows Forms 2.0, which provided us with a far superior development platform, and the ability to create a modular, loosely coupled Windows Forms client with the Composite UI Application Block. This made for a winning combination that really helped us move to Smart Clients,” says Zack.
To help store data on the mobile client device, and to ensure connectivity with the existing SQL Server™ 2005-based database in the Momentis Fashion System, developers also took advantage of the close integration between SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition and Visual Studio 2005. Developers can now more quickly and efficiently extend data management capabilities to mobile devices.
Finally, Momentis had to find a suitable device to host the new solution. After consulting with Groupe Steilmann Canada, developers selected the Toshiba Tablet PC running the Windows® XP Tablet PC edition operating system.
“Steilmann Canada liked that the Tablet PC enables uses to input information via stylus, which ensures that information could be transmitted digitally with little intervention on their part. Pairing our solution with the Tablet PC form factor ensured the highest level of usability and portability,” says Zack.
Business Benefits
Momentis successfully delivered the mobile order-entry solution to Groupe Steilmann Canada in June 2006, well before the Spring 07 booking season. Since then, the system has helped the company reduce order processing time by 50 per cent and has led to a reduction in error-prone orders by close to 100 per cent . It also provides salespeople with the most up-do-date merchandising and pricing information, and helps eliminate process bottlenecks in an industry where fast order turnarounds are crucial.
Faster, smoother ordering process
Using Tablet PCs running the Momentis order solution, sales staff can now walk retail clients through its current fashion lineup or access other company data by connecting to the Internet at any time. Once the customer is prepared to place an order, the sales person can enter that information into the online form via the Tablet PC stylus, and it is then instantly uploaded into the main Steilmann Canada server located in Montréal. In the event that a salesperson is working in an area with little or no online connectivity, the update will be made automatically once he or she enters a connected area, with no user intervention.
“Our orders vary widely in size and scope, but since we’ve implemented the Microsoft mobile solution, we’ve cut our average order processing times in half resulting in cost savings of 20 per cent. We’ve virtually eliminated order errors, and cut back on the time our salespeople need to confirm sales. This is helping us provide better customer service, which is extremely important to us,” says D’Elia.
Improved worker and client satisfaction
Previously, salespeople found themselves trying to keep up with the fast-moving, dynamic business environment of seasonal sales, armed only with a paper and pen. With the Momentis solution, those problems are a thing of the past. By taking advantage of.NET-connected software, Steilmann has a solution that works the way they do. Salespeople can now take advantage of the convenience of the Tablet PC and the powerful, easy-to-use Web interface that helps them record and submit customer information, accurately and efficiently.
“The solution Momentis provided is tailor-made to fit our needs. Our staff has found it easy to use, which has helped make their jobs much easier and in turn, makes them happier. It has been a big win for us,” says D’Elia.
Streamlined development process
By taking advantage of Microsoft development platform, Momentis was able to build a new, customized solution from scratch in just several months. Visual Studio Team System helped Momentis developers, testers and managers work together more effectively, instantly test modifications, and speed time to development. It has also enabled Momentis to implement precise metrics around software development and delivery times, which used to be guesswork, and take advantage of built-in Team System reports to track bug rates and project timelines. Providing more time and cost certainty to clients helps Momentis offer better service and spot identify process workflow bottlenecks before they have a chance to affect operations.
“In the past we had tried managing development projects by using a combination of Visual Source Safe, Excel, and email, and thought this was adequate. We were blown away by how much more productive we became after taking advantage of Visual Studio Team System, and in particular Team Foundation Server. It quickly became an integral part of our development process,” says Zack.
Microsoft programming interfaces that work with .NET Framework 2.0, including ASP.NET 2.0 and Windows Forms 2.0 also helped developers build the kind of easy-to-use, dynamic interfaces that Steilmann Canada required.
“Windows Forms gives us the ability to do so much more than before, and we have yet to exhaust all of its capabilities. The power it provides our developers to build loosely coupled modules that can be combined in any number of ways has gone a long way to strengthening our solutions,” says Zack.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 is the world’s most popular development environment for designing, developing, and testing next-generation Windows®-based solutions and Web applications and services. By improving the development experience for Windows, the Web, mobile devices, and Microsoft Office, Visual Studio 2005 helps organizations deliver a variety of solutions more productively than ever before. Visual Studio Team System expands the product line with new software tools that enable greater communication and collaboration throughout the development life cycle. With Visual Studio 2005, businesses can deliver modern service-oriented solutions more efficiently.
For more information about Visual Studio 2005, go to:msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about Momentis Systems products and services, call (514) 939-2306 or visit the Web site at: www.momentis.com
For more information about Groupe Steilmann products and services, call (514) 333-9119 or visit the Web site at: http://www.steilmann.de
