Sterling Commerce solutions to facilitate order management and supply chain fulfillment
Columbus, Ohio - Monday, May 09, 2005 - Sterling Commerce, the leading multi-enterprise collaboration solutions provider, today announced that Furla, one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of luxury goods and leather accessories, will use the Sterling Commerce B2B integration suite Gentran Integration Suite to improve the effectiveness of its order-to-payment process in the U.S. market and to provide the basis for further collaborative initiatives with its sales agents, supply chain operators and customers across Europe and the United States.
Furla supplies luxury products to leading fashion retailers worldwide via a global franchise network. The company needed to comply with the demand from its U.S. retail customers, including Bloomingdales and Saks, for business integration capability. Furla selected Gentran Integration Suite, built on the Sterling Commerce Multi-Enterprise Services Architecture (MESA), as well as Sterling Information Broker, value added network (VAN) service, to streamline, integrate and automate a complex ordering, distribution and invoicing process involving up to five separate partners in the U.S. supply chain.
Prior to implementing business integration, the local Furla franchise relied on a paper-based, manual process for managing orders, deliveries and invoicing, across third-party warehousing and carrier agents as well as customers and Furla headquarters in Milan, Italy. The end-to-end, order-to-payment process was subject to numerous delays and errors, driving down service levels and incurring penalty charges from larger customers.
By integrating the full order-to-payment process and automating the creation of consolidated, accurate shipping and invoicing documents, Furla greatly improves service and responsiveness to customers, as well as eliminates the cost of penalty charges and overall supply chain operations.
The Furla solution leverages the powerful Web interface capabilities of Gentran Integration Suite to give staff across multiple organizations and locations the ability to view and manage the same, shared data and process, in real time. It also consolidates and reports data across every stage of the process back to Furla headquarters, for visibility, analysis and administrative purposes.
Claudia Capparucci, IT manager at Furla: “We selected Gentran Integration Suite because we were looking for a solution that could be implemented tactically but that also could be used to develop future services for our suppliers. We now can automate the transition of the electronic purchase orders of our supply chain partners and transfer the Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) to the system at the subsidiary, where shipment data can be integrated with billing data to generate electronic billing files from their own database saving on time and resource.”
Roy Lee, vice president, marketing EMEA for Sterling Commerce said: “Furla’s use of Sterling Commerce solutions demonstrates how multi-enterprise collaboration enabled by Sterling Commerce helps companies work closely with their supply chain partners to automate data exchange and deliver more efficient, effective business processes. The elimination of time-intensive, costly manual intervention and the ability to collaborate effectively with distributors and retailers will deliver improved visibility into supply chain business processes and faster ROI for Furla.”
About Furla
Furla makes and directly markets luxury goods and leather accessories. The firm enjoys a national and international presence, with sales outlets in 59 countries, 9 subsidiaries and 130 single-brand stores in major world cities (Milan, Rome, Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, etc.). Furla collections are renowned for their clean, essential and distinctive style. The company was founded in 1927 and has its headquarters at the Villa Bellaria in Bologna, a stunning eighteenth century palazzo which has been restored to its former glory by the company itself. In the 1980s, the company penetrated the international market and launched subsidiaries in America and France, with flagship stores in Paris and New York. In the 1990s, subsidiaries in Spain, UK, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, China and Australia were formed. Products are distributed via a range of sales channels, from Furla stores to franchisees, from multi-brand stores to stores within larger points of sale.
Contact:
Bill Hankes
Sterling Commerce
tel: 614-791-6437
cell: 480-239-2329
bill_hankes@stercomm.com
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