Christys streamlines contract-based operation with PrimaNet

Wednesday, 1 September 2010

The Christy Group Ltd supplies costumes, headwear, garments and accessories for all ages and since it first started creating costumes in 2001, the business has achieved a great deal. It has a license for Disney dress-up and also produces ranges for a wealth of major retailers, including Marks and Spencer, Tesco and ASDA. Managed from its UK head office in Barnsley, Christys sources the majority of products in the Far East and therefore has a fundamental requirement for a large community of workers in China to have online access to the same business support system as those in the UK.

PrimaNet supports contract-based supply chain

Christys dress-up business supplies products on a contract basis to major retailers dealing in tens of thousands of products at any time and therefore the business required a system capable of handling it’s detailed contract costing model and unique business processes. A key requirement was that any new system needed to manage the complete process from the raising of the initial contract with the customer through to subsequent supply of goods called off by that customer.

Prima Solutions undertook a complete business analysis to propose how Christys should best use the system. By utilising standard product and working together to develop specific contract margin reporting and analysis, PrimaNet handles the unique requirements of Christys’ contract business model ensuring that the business now has full visibility of every contract at every stage – from creation of the initial order through to invoicing.

Steve White, Head of IT at Christys was directly involved in the implementation project with the objective of making best use of PrimaNet functionality to deliver the most efficient processes for product development and order management:

“With support from Prima Solutions we, as a management team, agreed and deployed a system model that best suited our product development and order management process, the information we needed to hold and how we wanted to use it. We have been able to make full use of the functionality within PrimaNet and the extensive business-wide information that it holds.”

For Christys the whole area of reporting and information visibility has been one of the biggest benefits to more pro-actively manage their business operation.

• Capacity planning reporting means that they can see, at the touch of a button, for any given week the capacity available in any of their factories.
• Margin reporting gives them detailed information for any given period.

Steve continues, “For us, the automated production of reporting information has produced a massive saving in time and resource and means that we have more immediate access to key business information”.

Managing a growing business with an overseas workforce and remote users

As part of a long-term business strategy over the last few years, Christys has reduced the size of its UK operation whilst growing the teams based in China and Hong Kong. Although the dress-up business has grown significantly in the Far East, Christys are able to effectively manage its PrimaNet system from the UK head office in Barnsley, which means that they have been able to reduce their cost base whilst retaining full central control including the deployment of system upgrades and maintenance. PrimaNet is run via a remote desktop setup, giving overseas users and home workers speedy access to the system.

Steve explains, “With the remote system setup our overseas workers and home workers can use the PrimaNet system in exactly the same way. This means that we are able to retain staff on a more flexible basis where they can either be office based or work from home. The remote deployment has also helped to reduce our hardware and operating costs, including ongoing energy costs.”

Prima Solutions – specialists in apparel systems

Prima Solutions is established as the UK's leading supplier of complete business solutions specific to the clothing, footwear and accessories market and its breadth and depth of sector expertise has been an important factor in the success of the system operation at Christys.

Steve concludes “Prima’s sector experience and knowledge means that they really understand how our business works. With other systems you can expect to get a 60% fit, whereas with PrimaNet we have achieved a 90% fit as standard. Over and above that, we have always had a good relationship with the team at Prima and their pro-active approach means that, whenever we have a specific requirement, they work with us to thrash out the best solution and help to steer the business in the right direction - a partner that brings real value to our business.”