K3 Retail helps Smiffy's to dress fancy

Smiffy's, the global fancy dress retailer, has embarked on a business transformation project with K3 Retail, to improve operational efficiency across the international retail estate and achieve the scalability to support future business growth.

Through the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, inclusive of Pebblestone Fashion, Smiffy's has integrated many business departments, from online to order management, the warehouse and finance, all delivering a plethora of new and rich functionality. This will improve the company's procedure from concept to design, creation and delivery of its 5,000 products to over 5,000 stockists around the world, in store and online.

Essentially, all business operations will run off the system implemented by K3 Retail. With better control and connectivity of product data management (PDM) and product lifecycle management (PLM), to product selection and specification, sales order processing, transactions, invoicing, picking, packing and shipping.

The solution provides information to Smiffy's resellers and directly accepts orders in from them for processing. Data on product information is easily extracted from NAV to populate the many reseller websites and data feeds, with information on seasonal products, themes, sizes and stock availability.

Gary Alexander, Solutions Architect at Smiffy's, said, "The ability to report better is of the utmost importance to Smiffy's, as all departments report on a detailed level. The system provides the flexibility and scalability required to gain better control and management of all internal documents, with BI delivering better access to document history and information, not just internally but across our network of global stockists."

Several solutions were tested during the selection process and NAV came out on top. Gary said, "K3 Retail was recommended by industry peers as a preferred supplier and, for that reason, we selected to partner with them for the project. With K3 Retail providing detailed user acceptance testing (UAT), we were able to identify and address any issues before the launch which substantially contributed to a successful go-live."

Warehouse procedures are now automated and a handheld device is used to scan products. This has already resulted in operational efficiency savings of 25%.

Smiffy's is a seasonal business geared towards Halloween and Christmas and consequently was up against tight time constraints, with only a very small window in which the system could go-live. The project has been three years in the making and Smiffy's decided on an all or nothing approach, switching over from the old system to NAV. Gary commented, "We went live in March this year and the process was very smooth and without glitches, so we couldn't have asked for more at this stage."

John Little, Sales Director at K3 Retail, said, "Smiffy's is a technical and innovative company that is constantly looking at ways to gain a competitive edge. We look forward to continuing our work with them to meet their requirements, now and in the future. The early success of this project demonstrates our commitment to delivering against expectations and we are excited for what the future holds."