Christine Laure, which sells women's clothing through 150 stores in France and a network of 500 multi-brand resellers, has purchased Centric's Calendar Management, Product Specification, Product Sourcing and Line Planning modules.

"With Centric 8, our teams around the world can share product and design information faster and more accurately," said Jean-Marc Delattre, general manager and chief operating officer at Christine Laure. The fast-growing, family-owned company works with a global supply chain, with sourcing in Asia, and manufacturing in France, Asia and Africa.

Replacing Spreadsheets and E-mail

Previously, Delattre explained, Christine Laure's product development process relied on myriad spreadsheets and e-mail messages. The company's growing number of product lines, across multiple seasons each year, compounded communication issues. "We needed to speed product development and production, while assuring the high quality for which our products are known," he said.

Christine Laure chose Centric after careful research and evaluation, according to Delattre. He cited Centric's specialization in and understanding of the fashion market, as well as Centric 8's ease of use. "We can rapidly adapt Centric 8 so that each user — in each department — sees the information needed to do his or her job, but is not distracted by extraneous information."

"Quality is important at Christine Laure, and that includes the companies with which we partner," he added. "Centric is the right team to move forward with as we address the opportunities before us."

Centric 8 will provide accurate, real-time information to support enhanced collection and line planning, and help the company's teams make faster, more effective decisions in the product development process, according to Delattre.

Good Company

Centric's Web-based Centric 8 suite will integrate with Christine Laure's Orliweb system from Cegid, the French provider of ERP and retail software solutions for the fashion and specialty retail sector. Orliweb is used by more than 700 brands.

Christine Laure joins other Centric fashion-industry customers in France — including Longchamp, Groupe Overall (Dellalui, El Internationale), INTERSPORT France, and Le Coq Sportif — and solidifies Centric's position as the PLM leader in the French fashion industry, asserted Chris Groves, president and CEO of Centric.

"By selecting a PLM suite that clearly meets the specific needs of a fashion business, and partnering with a company with deep fashion-industry expertise, Christine Laure's team can concentrate more on the creative processes that enable them to deliver desirable, high-quality products to their markets, and drive their growth," said Groves.