West Coast Cos. in Sights for Tech Companies in 2010

NEW YORK—Technology providers have their eyes on West Coast business as an area for growth in 2010 as the economy is expected to rebound and many apparel makers look for ways to boost productivity and streamline operations.

Software companies are looking at a wide range of companies, from mid-size apparel makers looking to grow in 2010 to nimble quick-turn specialists catering to the mass market to under-the-radar companies manufacturing for solid niche markets.

“We had four new deals in the last six months on [the West Coast],” said Ray Hein, executive vice president of marketing and business development for Centric Software, a PLM (product lifecycle management) and sourcing-solutions provider based in Campbell, Calif. “There are probably more real deals on the West Coast than there are on the East. People who’ve had modest growth, they say, ’Now is the time to invest in IT.’” It’s a similar story for New York–based Computer Generated Solutions, makers of BlueCherry PLM software.

“The business has taken off out there,” said Brian O’Connor, regional vice president of the company, which maintains a West Coast office in California. “[West Coast companies] want new technology, and they want to know how quickly you can implement it, and they want to know how cheaply. And they always want their reports on their Blackberry or iPhone.

CGS recently introduced its latest version of BlueCherry, called Infinity, which runs on the Microsoft .NEW framework, including the Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation extensions. Infinity allows each user to customize a portal, or opening page, to focus on upcoming tasks specific to the user. For example, a customized desktop could feature a to-do list, memos, notes, recent history and most-often-used reports. Other applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, can also be accessed from the desktop, and everything is “threaded” to allow the user to run multiple applications at the same time.

CGS was one of several companies demonstrating its latest software solutions at the recent Tech Conference, sponsored by Apparel magazine and held Nov. 11–12 at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

The conference drew attendees from companies such as JCPenney, Target, Ellie Tahari, Lafayette 148 New York and Tory Burch, who attended educational seminars and met with representatives from several technology providers that set up table-top displays to demonstrate their software offerings. Weathering the storm

For many companies, the recession curtailed or delayed plans to invest in new technology, which can be both costly and time-consuming to implement. With that in mind, conference organizers scheduled seminar and panel discussions focused on decision making and preparations needed to invest in new technologies.

Darren Silver, IT director of Alternative Apparel, discussed the multi-year timeline the Atlanta-based contemporary T-shirt and apparel maker took to investigate and ultimately implement a new ERP (enterprise resource planning) system from Schaumburg, Ill.–based Lawson.

Alternative began researching the market in 2005. “We wanted to share as much about our company as possible with all of our vendors,” said Silver, who joined the company in 2007. Department heads at Alternative met with several ERP providers and conducted an extended question-and-answer survey that gave the apparel maker an idea of how it would be to work with each company. The company ultimately selected Lawson, but the economic downturn put the project on hold in late 2008. “We took the opportunity to refine the organization and the internal processes,” Silver said, noting that the company added to the executive ranks and reviewed its sales. The implementation of the Lawson ERP system began in July.

“It’s all about how [companies] weather the storm and how aggressive they are in coming out—you don’t want to be the last one to implement a solution,” said Mikael Andren, vice president of fashion for North America for Lawson. “We see a turnaround already. We’re seeing some serious movement in the market. We’re engaged much more now than six months ago—there are companies that are ready to rock ’n’ roll. It’s still a question of financing, but there are solutions for that.”

Although ERP solutions provider Simparel launched two years ago, the company’s founder, David Roth, got his start in supply-chain-management software at Garpac, which launched BlueCherry in 1995 (sold in 2001 to CGS). Roth later launched another ERP solution, eReplicator, which evolved into Simparel.

The company has offices in New York and Guangzhou, China, and is currently looking for strategic partners on the West Coast.

“The West Coast is extremely interesting,” said Chief Executive Officer Ron Gilli. “If we can have a partner there, they can do the implementations.”

Falls Church, Va.–based CSC is another tech company with its eyes on the West Coast market.

“We’re getting some activity on the West Coast,” said Charles R. Troyer, partner in the strategic services group at CSC, which is introducing its Stealth 3000 ERP system to the U.S. market. “There are some good customers out there, particularly in Southern California. There’s a fashion center out there.”

Stealth 3000 was created for European apparel makers and is now used by 120 customers, including Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Diesel, Champion and Armani.

“The fashion industry is a tough beast to tame when it comes to packaged software,” said Troyer, who noted that apparel companies frequently produce multiple units (an “SKU explosion”), operate seasonally and have “a development cycle that often exceeds the sales cycle.”

“Fashion companies reinvent themselves each season,” he said. “When we come into fashion companies, it often appears to be a controlled-chaos situation.”

Although many of CSC’s customers are large international brands, Troyer said, Stealth 3000 clientele ranges from companies with five people using the system to companies with nearly 2,000 users.

For French software and equipment maker Lectra, the point of difference is design. The company bills its Kaledo Collection PLM solution as “Design Lifecycle Management,” stressing its focus on streamlining operations from the design department’s perspective.

“Nearly 60 percent of a product’s life is spent in design development,” said Simon Poulton, vice president of sales for strategic fashion and PLM for the company, which is based in Bordeaux, France.

“[With Kaledo], designers can focus on design because a lot of repetitive processes have been taken out,” he said. The program allows the user to quickly generate multiple colorways, update fabric patterns throughout the production process and provide access to a retrievable database.

“We’re not looking for designers to become data managers,” Poulton said. “We’re talking about a design tool, not a database tool.” Growth through efficiency

The U.S. economy has made many companies extremely cautious about spending for big-ticket items, such as a new software system. But companies are also looking for ways to maximize efficiency and realize growth potential.

“What PLM is designed for is exactly what people need now,” said Glenn Funk, principal solutions consultant, Americas Enterprise PLM for Dassault Systemes, based in Lowell, Mass. “In the economic crunch, the staff needs to be more efficient and nimble; you need to eliminate redundancy and [enhance] speed-to-market. We’re always looking to buy time.

The recession hit California earlier than other parts of the country, and many say the state will rebound sooner, as well.

“With this jobless recovery, companies are looking for more-affordable employees with great skills,” said Yoram Burg, president of New York–based OptiTex, which was at the conference with its latest 2-D and 3-D CAD software.

The company recently launched a Wiki site (www.optitex.com/help/en/index.php/main_page), allowing visitors to watch video tutorials and share tips with other OptiTex software users.

“We started wearing two hats—selling CAD and being consultants to the industry,” he said.

Some manufacturers can’t grow beyond a certain point without realigning their operations and upgrading their technology to maximize efficiency.

“As [companies grow], they’re asking for structure,” said Jonathan Smith, sales manager for PDM/PLM solutions in North America for Tolland, Conn.–based Gerber Technology. “They want to be bigger, and they have to think smarter.”

According to Centric’s Hein, many companies reach that point when their annual sales are in the $200 million to $700 million range. “They’re trying to grow, but they’ve hit a wall,” he explained.

CSC’s Troyer said his company saw that phenomenon in action at Milan-based luxury label Versace—and at sportswear brand Champion Europe.

“At Versace, we had four fully developed businesses, all very different,” Troyer said. “We did an enterprise strategy structure realignment. The answer was to create a central sourcing company that they all shared. We were able to take 10 to 15 percent from inventory and reduce costs significantly. At Champion Europe, there were seven different systems across 12 different regions in different languages and different currencies.”

West Coast Among the All-Stars

At the recent Apparel Tech Conference, Anaheim, Calif.–based Lunada Bay Swimwear was named among this year’s All-Star winners in recognition of its creative thinking and commitment to customer service.

Lunada Bay was nominated for the award by the California Fashion Association.

Other All-Star winners included Alternative Apparel. The Atlanta-based company, with offices in Los Angeles and New York, was nominated by Lawson. SEAMS, the national association for the sewn-products industry, nominated military-apparel and military-themed clothing maker Cockpit USA, and software maker Preditix nominated teen retailer Delia’s. La Crosse Footwear was nominated by Apparel Business Systems, and uniform maker Majestic Athletic was nominated by the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association. Professor Marsha Dickson, who is on the faculty at the University of Delaware, was nominated by the International Textile and Apparel Association, and cycling and activewear maker Pearl Izumi USA was nominated by Yunique Solutions. Gerber nominated Varsity Spirit Fashions, and solutions provider [TC]2 nominated Spoonflower, a North Carolina company that allows consumers to create and print their own custom-designed fabrics on demand.