During 2004, the Indian retail industry was moving from being largely unorganized to increasingly organized. The established companies such as Madura Fashion & Lifestyle and new entrants such as ITC, Reliance Retail and others wanted to invest in solutions that could quickly scale up their operations. At that time Freeborders Fashion PLM was being used by leading retailers, brands and manufacturers in USA, Europe and Far East including LL Bean, J Jill, Courtaulds and TAL. Realizing the imperative need of similar solutions in the Indian retail industry, Ptex Solutions decided to partner with Freeborders (later acquired by Infor) to offer their PLM solution to the Indian companies. Incepted in 2004, Ptex Solutions is a pioneer of PLM in Indian retail industry and provides innovative software systems and solutions for retail, apparel, footwear and textiles industry.

Sailing against the Wind
Apparel and footwear retail companies face numerous challenges for managing the life cycle of the product from its concept to delivery. Very often, designers, merchandisers, and garment engineers access information that is outdated and create samples and products that are incorrect. This ends up in poor quality samples with higher product development costs. “Companies without proper PLM systems are not able to maintain design, style, material, and colour libraries. They end up doing the same task again and again for the new developments of every season.We resell and implement Infor’s Fashion PLM, which is modular PLM system that can be used by creative, commercial and technical people to allows streamlining design, product development, sample development and sourcing process,” says Prasham. This enables, not just people within the company, but also the garment factories, fabric mills and trims suppliers are able to access up-to-date product information from a central database. This also helps users to create reports and specification document on the fly rather collecting information.

Break in the Clouds
Fashion PLM is designed for both left brained people and right-brained people. The user interface is developed by in-house design agency and has the ability to quickly create and update multiple products at one time. The software product is supported by highly qualified business consultants who have prior experience working in the retail, apparel or footwear industry. These business consultants can easily understand a customer’s business problems and requirements and provide solution through the system. “After having implemented more than 25 PLM projects worldwide, we are now able to share the best practices while implementing the PLM solution,” adds Prasham.

Enroute to Success
Over a period of time, Ptex has successfully completed PLM implementations across the globe, including companies in India, US, UK, Europe, China, Singapore and Hong Kong. This has helped the company to haveclients as Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, ITC’s Lifestyle and Retail Business Division, Big Strike, Courtaulds, Peacocks and Club 21. Ptex Solutions continues to find innovative solutions for the retail industry. “We are expanding our solution offering so that it can be accessible over the mobile phones and tablet. Also we are discussing with 3D Technology companies in order to partner with them to introduce their software to the Indian companies,” concludes Prasham.