FREEBORDERS LAUNCHES FB STORYBOARD™, ENABLING RETAILERS TO STAY AHEAD OF THE FASHION CURVE
Retailers Will Use FB Storyboard to Drive Increased Sales by Quickly Developing Design Concepts
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 18, 2004 – Freeborders, Inc. today launched FB Storyboard, a web-based application that revolutionizes storyboard development and enables retailers to speed the development of their product lines for greater profitability. Part of Freeborders’ suite of next-generation Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, FB Storyboard allows retailers to rapidly develop brand concepts based on trends and get optimal products to market before they fall out of favor with consumers.
Front-end production efficiencies offer the best opportunity for retailers to improve their overall performance. Using FB Storyboard, retailers and brands refine design concepts early in the product development process and then apply resources only to the styles that will actually be produced, thus reducing cycle time and saving costs.
Web-based FB Storyboard will enable brands to incorporate feedback from customers and global sales teams to stay ahead of trends and to maintain better relevancy with consumers, which is critical in today’s challenging retail environment.
“FB Storyboard helps brands and retailers to organize creative product concepts within a collection and to accelerate concept adoption and the sourcing of raw materials,” said Norman Beveridge, Global E-Business Manager, INVISTA Apparel Solutions. “We will use FB Storyboard, in concert with the INVISTA Online Fabric Library developed by Freeborders to provide access to over 35,000 fabrics from 500 mills in 40 countries; this is a critical network and resource for manufacturers all over the world.”
Freeborders, a leading provider of PLM solutions with over 350 customers around the world, developed FB Storyboard to enable retailers to boost revenues and garner savings in the most crucial phase of their business – product development.
“FB Storyboard provides a critical link between a retailer’s customers and product development teams,” said Ramsey Walker, co-CEO and co-founder of Freeborders. “It enables brands to track worldwide trends, garner direct customer and internal sales feedback early in the process, and plan the right lines at the right time. FB Storyboard allows retailers to realize vast savings in design and sampling, where 80 percent of the product’s cost is determined.”
FB Storyboard enables designers and merchandisers to:
• Deliver more “on-trend” products that can be sold at a premium by integrating trends better, gaining more accurate forecasts from sales teams, and garnering feedback on collections prior to making purchasing decisions.
• Significantly decrease the number of samples needed by determining early in the cycle what to produce, without creating as many costly physical samples.
• Achieve better worldwide brand consistency by easily incorporating worldwide trends, collaborating, and disseminating new concepts and themes to all supply chain partners worldwide.
• Improve productivity by quickly creating multiple iterations of trend theme, brand concept, and assortment storyboards. Retailers can easily add, change, copy, hide, or re-arrange assets online, decrease the time for creating and revising storyboards, and speed future development by storing and reusing assets or whole storyboards. They also increase the accuracy of their storyboard development and minimize communication errors.
• Reduce travel time and expenses for concept meetings by conducting them “virtually” online.
About Freeborders
Freeborders (www.freeborders.com) provides Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software and services to leading retailers and their suppliers, enabling brands to more effectively manage the increasing complexity of their supply chains. Freeborders solutions help drive profitable revenue growth, speed products to market, improve inventory management, and maintain control, consistency and quality.
Freeborders software and services are used by over 350 brands and retailers globally, including Dillard`s, DuPont, Gap, J. Crew, L.L. Bean, Lands’ End, Liz Claiborne, Marc Jacobs, Saks, Target and Williams-Sonoma. Freeborders is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Freeborders’ shareholders include Internet Capital Group [NASDAQ:ICGE], IBM, TAL Apparel Ltd., and Fountain Set.
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