• s.Oliver Group was established in 1969. In just a few decades, it grew into one of Europe’s leading fashion companies, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019.

• The company employs around 6,100 people internationally.

• Besides the brand s.Oliver, the company’s portfolio also includes comma, Q/S designed by and Liebeskind Berlin.

The Technology Manager responsible for the Process Domain Product, Purchasing & Sourcing at s.Oliver, Silke Albuquerque-Fuchs:

“The time was right to implement a completely new PLM system and transition from their legacy My Collection solution, put into place almost a decade ago. s.Oliver needed to implement a new generation of PLM but very, very quickly. Through a series of virtual workshops, we set different tasks for the different vendors and after the final evaluation and calculation, Centric PLM emerged as the ideal partner for us.”

A system that accelerates the speed process

One of the most important requirements for s.Oliver was finding a PLM solution that could not only support its digitalization plans to reduce lead times by almost half, but to have a system that would accelerate the speed at which designers can create new styles by leveraging 3D technology to eliminate samples and eradicate time-wasting intermediary activities.

Rieke Schneider, Manager Sourcing Operations – Product, Purchase & Merchandise at s.Oliver:

“Centric PLM will enable us to achieve all our future plans, especially when it comes to 3D, as Centric 3D Connect seamlessly integrates our existing technology with its innovative system. Centric started the global analysis workshops in mid-April 2020 and the whole system – including every division, module, interface, agency and 700 users including sourcing offices – went live in August.”

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all meetings and activities took place virtually.

Rieke Schneider: “Our management team is amazed at how fast everything went. We receive support calls with Centric regularly, and users have adapted to the system incredibly quickly – it seemed they were already used to working with the system by day 2! This project is definitely going to be a model we will follow for future projects.We now have fewer design cancellations, as changes can be made quickly in the simulation, and the whole product development process has become easier, faster, more accurate and cheaper. 3D visualization means only one sample is required throughout the whole development phase, as patterns can be tested virtually before manufacturing, and this means shipping times and costs are reduced.”

• s.Oliver expects to gain many benefits on the creative side, including increased creative output and visualization, as well as decreased costs and enhanced product quality.

Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software:

“We are thrilled to be working with s.Oliver to help them reach their digital transformation goals such as reducing time to market and fully leveraging their creative talent. We are looking forward to continuing this exciting partnership and to innovate together.”