The event brought together roughly 60 people from over 30 fashion companies representing both Lectra and WGSN customers and industry associations. The guest list included Arcadia Group, Debenhams, House of Fraser, the ASBCI, UKFT, and many more.

“The Lectra & WGSN networking event at Sketch was one of the more fashionable events of the calendar. It is great to see Lectra and WGSN, two global players, working together like this. The retail update was athought-provoking and challenging presentation for the industry as a whole,” says Paul Alger – Director, International Affairs, UKFT.

After opening speeches by Anastasia Charbin and Catriona MacNab, Chief Creative Officer at WGSN,Lorna Hall, WGSN’s Senior Retail Analyst, presented a trend forecast highlighting the major themes that are driving change in the fashion industry today.

“Working at the product-making end of the industry I never seem to have the opportunity to keep up with what’s happening in retail. The presentation on current trends both in consumer behavior and retailers response was very insightful. If this is a taste of the Lectra & WGSN partnership—bringing the diverse aspects of the industry closer together—I look forward to more,” says Maggie Stott, Senior Pattern Cutter, Warehouse.

Lectra and WGSN: an industry partnership

The Lectra & WGSN partnership was conceived to bridge the gap between trends, design, and development with a combination of exclusive content, powerful technology, and industry best-practices. The first joint project is a set of Starter Packs created to improve information sharing and collaboration between the different phases of apparel development. The Starter Packs include mood and presentation boards; printed, woven, and knitted fabrics; colorway suggestions; seasonal palettes; spec information; flatpattern blocks; and 3D prototypes for key looks. The complete, ready-to-use Autumn Winter 2013/14 packs will be free for all Lectra and WGSN customers.

Catriona MacNab, Chief Creative Officer at WGSN, describes the partnership as “a very important strategic journey for both WGSN and Lectra—a first for the fashion and design industry. The next step in this partnership with Lectra will bring WGSN closer to our clients and develop a deeper and more powerful relationship with business. The future of fashion is determined by creativity and technology, and this partnership brings together and creates the perfect combination of both.”

“It was a pleasure to have so many of our UK customers join us for the launch of our partnership and to meet WGSN customers,” says Anastasia Charbin, Marketing Director, Fashion, Lectra. “It was the perfect occasion to address some of their questions about this partnership on a personal, one-to-one level.”

A second event will take place in New York in July. Meanwhile, Lectra and WGSN customers can look forward to discovering the women’s wear Starter Pack in June.

About WGSN

WGSN is the world’s leading trend forecaster. The company enables over 38,000 subscribers to make brilliant design decisions every day by identifying and analysing the trends that will shape commercially successful products and services in the future. WGSN’s inspiration and insight are available through online subscriptions to a variety of state-of-the-art digital tools and through bespoke consultancy services. WGSN is a 4C Service.

For more information, visit www.wgsn.com. Follow WGSN on Twitter: @wgsn

About Lectra

Lectra is the world leader in integrated technology solutions that automate, streamline, and accelerate product design,development, and manufacturing processes for industries using soft materials. Lectra develops the most advancedspecialized software and cutting systems and provides associated services to a broad array of markets including fashion (apparel, accessories, footwear), automotive (car seats and interiors, airbags), and furniture, as well as a wide variety of other market sectors, such as the aeronautical and marine industries, wind power, and personal protective equipment. Lectra serves 23,000 customers in more than 100 countries with 1,350 employees and $287 million in 2011 revenues. The company is listed on NYSE Euronext.

For more information, please visit www.lectra.com.

PTC

Beginning with a welcome session at 16:00, the event will then centre around a testimonial from PTC customers Devanlay (exclusive manufacturers for Lacoste), a demonstration of the latest version of the company’s FlexPLM solution and the capabilities that make it uniquely suited to the fashion industry, and finally a presentation from international management consultancy Kurt Salmon, who will examine the keys to a successful PLM strategy.

The event will close with a structured question-and-answer session and cocktail reception.

Register your interest by contacting Marie Lichtle directly, by emailing mlichtle@ptc.com

A detailed agenda (in French) follows below:

Recent shifts in consumer spending habits reflect a more discerning public that has learned to make choices in a challenging economic context. For fashion companies this means finding new ways to stand out through unique design, while also balancing business objectives and production constraints. Lectra’s textile design suite was developed to give designers the flexibility to experiment across fabrics and develop captivating collections while meeting business-side challenges.

“Design and innovation are the essential ways companies can stand out from the competition today. The newest version of Kaledo meets the absolutely fundamental need for fast time to market and product quality, while at the same time elevating design to its proper place as a strategic force for brand success,” explains Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO.

Kaledo’s newly enhanced yarn shading options give designers control over individual colors in any given yarn, allowing them to develop extremely realistic yarn and fabric simulations. Designers also now have a structured way to share information, which they can then save to capitalize on designs that have been created with custom yarns and patterns. In addition, technical reports are even more powerful, adding new dynamic features that update fabric specifications automatically, eliminating inaccuracy issues.

“Consumers are less convinced by price alone—today they crave something new and something they can value,” says Anastasia Charbin, Marketing Director, Fashion, Lectra. “Demand has intensified for original designs and high quality, which means that fashion companies now face the double challenge of producing rapidly and meeting consumer desires for something unique. Designers need a professional tool that allows them to turn inefficiency into design time.”

Lectra’s comprehensive textile suite brings print, weave, and knit design and development together to give designers the tools to balance the art and business of their profession and react with confidence to a relentlessly shifting market.

® Kaledo is a registered trademark of Lectra.

About Lectra

Lectra is the world leader in integrated technology solutions that automate, streamline and accelerate product design, development and manufacturing processes for industries using soft materials. Lectra develops the most advanced specialized software and cutting systems and provides associated services to a broad array of markets including fashion (apparel, accessories, footwear), automotive (car seats and interiors, airbags), furniture, as well as a wide variety of other market sectors, such as aeronautical and marine industries, wind power and personal protective equipment. Lectra serves 23,000 customers in more than 100 countries with 1,350 employees and $287 million in 2011 revenues. The company is listed on NYSE Euronext.

For more information, please visit www.lectra.com

Gloucester, Mass, May 15, 2012

News Facts:

• TradeStone Software, delivering Merchandise Lifecycle Management (MLM) solutions that unify the design, sourcing, ordering and delivery of retail goods, today announced it has partnered with MicroStrategy to introduce TradeStone Business Intelligence.
• TradeStone Business Intelligence is built on the MicroStrategy platform. TradeStone Business Intelligence includes the following
  • MicroStrategy Business Intelligence platform
  • Accelerator data models for TradeStone best practice based operational and analytical reports as well as management performance dashboards
  • Ability for clients to build and publish their own formatted reports based on TradeStone data models

• The reporting focus areas for TradeStone Business Intelligence are PLM, Sourcing, Order Management, Logistics, Quality, and Vendor Management.

• By providing a powerful business intelligence platform, a robust exception management engine and best practices across the entire design-to-delivery lifecycle, TradeStone has complemented its already widely-proven technology with the next level of analytical insight.

• Benefits of TradeStone’s Business Intelligence module include ease of use and greater flexibility to make report changes and updates, lower total cost of ownership for analytic tools, and integrated analysis and up-to-date pictures of the merchandise lifecycle to make better business decisions.

• For additional information on TradeStone Business Intelligence, please contact us at info@tradestonesoftware.com.

Supporting Quotes:

• “MicroStrategy provides a proven integrated business intelligence platform on which to build the new TradeStone Business Intelligence module,” said Sanju Bansal, MicroStrategy Chief Operating Officer. “By integrating MicroStrategy’s powerful reporting and dashboard capabilities with TradeStone’s Business Intelligence module, retail organizations have the market-leading analytical capabilities to fit their design-to-delivery needs for private label and globally branded merchandise.”

• “MicroStrategy’s strength in the retail market made them the perfect strategic partner in bringing TradeStone Business Intelligence to life,” said Kamal Anand, CTO, TradeStone Software. “This new module is enabling our customers to follow trends in their design operations, perform analytics, score vendors and make better costing decisions – all through very visual and compelling interactive reports and dashboards. The results we’ve seen from early adopters of TradeStone Business Intelligence have been phenomenal, and we anticipate the overwhelmingly positive response to continue to grow as we penetrate the market further.”

About TradeStone Software, Inc.

TradeStone Software helps retailers, brand manufacturers and suppliers increase market share and improve margins through the use of Merchandise Lifecycle Management solutions that unify the design, sourcing, ordering and delivery of their private label and branded goods. Organizations including American Eagle Outfitters, Belk, Boots, Family Dollar, Guitar Center, Kohl’s, Le Chateau, Macy’s, NBrown Catalog Company, Pacific Sunwear, Shoprite and Urban Outfitters use TradeStone’s solutions to help them bring innovative and highly profitable products to market at record speeds.

TradeStone Software is headquartered in Gloucester, Mass., with offices in Atlanta, Bangalore, Hong Kong and London. More information can be found on the Web at www.tradestonesoftware.com.

Reporting directly to Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO, and based at the headquarters in Paris, Bruno Mattia’s mission is to drive relationships with strategic clients worldwide.

“Since its creation in 1973, the most renowned fashion brands have been putting their trust in Lectra for a faster time to market of their collections, while respecting their know-how and the quality of their products. By promoting creativity, through agile management of their value chain, Lectra solutions enable them to combine demand and effectiveness, and become unique to consumers”, said Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO. “From continuous improvement of industrial processes to change management, Lectra has always contributed to the performance of fashion companies. Bruno’s 15 years of experience in the management of major projects, including PLM projects in the fashion, automotive and energy markets, will enable Lectra to take a new step in the development of its partnership strategy with major fashion companies”.

“Almost all of Lectra’s strategic customers are prestigious brands and a lot of their products have become icons,” said Bruno Mattia. “Accompanying them in the deployment of their projects has enabled me to understand how, from design to production; our customers constantly push the limits of their requirements. In this context, our goal, as world leader, is to support their ambitions and contribute to their performances”.

Prior to joining Lectra in 2006, Bruno Mattia was Senior Consultant and Project Director within the PLM Branch of IBM Global Services, in charge of complex international projects. During the last 6 years at Lectra, he was responsible for strategic projects for the fashion market, mainly in charge of implementing Lectra Fashion PLM.

About Lectra

Lectra is the world leader in integrated technology solutions that automate, streamline and accelerate product design, development and manufacturing processes for industries using soft materials. Lectra develops the most advanced specialized software and cutting systems and provides associated services to a broad array of markets including fashion (apparel, accessories, footwear), automotive (car seats and interiors, airbags), furniture, as well as a wide variety of other market sectors, such as aeronautical and marine industries, wind power and personal protective equipment. Lectra serves 23,000 customers in more than 100 countries with 1,350 employees and $287 million in 2011 revenues. The company is listed on NYSE Euronext.

For more information, please visit www.lectra.com

Using Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, and specifically its CATIA application, Riss is experimenting with new materials, such as colored glass or satin finish, as well as new color mixtures for the JAY AHR High Fine Jewelry collection.  By crafting his jewelry and embroidery digitally in a 3D life-like environment, Riss is able to collaborate with his global team and test the feasibility and functionality of his designs using virtual prototypes.  This process not only reduces the amount of waste generated in the production of physical prototypes, but cuts down on the cost of multiple iterations.  Rendering his designs as 3D virtual prototypes enables Riss to reduce the time it takes to finalize his designs and get them to the manufacturer.

“We created FashionLab as a hub for merging the creativity and artistry of those in the fashion industry with the technology and software that drives successful business processes today,” said Monica Menghini, executive vice president, Industry, Marketing and Corporate Communications.  “Jonathan Riss truly understands that need and deserves this acknowledgment for his efforts to transform the design process in an industry where that is not the norm.”

“Using 3D software has revolutionized my approach to design,” said Riss. “By designing virtually, I’m able to knock down the barriers of cost and practicality that typically constrain the creative process. The benefits of integrating technology and fashion – reducing limitations, cutting costs and saving time – are far-reaching, and I’m honored that Apparel has recognized my work with FashionLab to make that union a reality.”

The Apparel Magazine Top Innovator award, now in its fifth year, recognizes 35 innovative apparel retailers, brands, manufacturers and strategic business partners for their exceptional IT-related implementations, product launches and other outstanding business strategies that are changing the industry. Jonathan Riss will be featured alongside other top apparel companies in the May “Innovator” special issue of Apparel Magazine.

Dassault Systèmes’ FashionLab combines product design and development technology tailored to the needs of fashion designers and retailers. FashionLab is targeted towards designers of all kinds – from haute couture and leather goods to watches and accessories – as well as fashion retailers. FashionLab is working on a next generation of solutions that will enable designers to do everything from crafting a product and simulating its materials and interactions with everyday objects, to visualizing how it will look after production. For more information, please visit: http://www.3ds.com/fashionlab.

-

About Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systèmes, the 3D Experience Company, provides business and people with virtual universes to imagine sustainable innovations.  Its world-leading solutions transform the way products are designed, produced, and supported.  Dassault Systèmes’ collaborative solutions foster social innovation, expanding possibilities for the virtual world to improve the real world.  The group brings value to over 150,000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 80 countries.  For more information, visit www.3ds.com.

CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, GEOVIA, SIMULIA, DELMIA, EXALEAD, NETVIBES, 3DSWYM and 3D VIA are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.

“As PLM is extended across the global supply chain, the requirements for high performance at massive scale continue to increase,” said Peter Bilello, President at CIMdata. “The proven scalability of SQL Server 2012 combined with Aras’ partitionable Web architecture are well suited to perform in these types of distributed global deployments.”

“SQL Server 2012 was developed to give our customers capabilities that extend beyond the database, providing a cloud-ready information platform that delivers mission-critical confidence and breakthrough insight,” said Eugene Saburi, General Manager, SQL Server Product Marketing, at Microsoft.  “Aras’s enterprise PLM solution on SQL Server 2012 aims to give enterprises global scalability and demonstrate the company’s commitment to delivering the best new technologies to customers.”

“While the globalization of product development offers many advantages, it also presents businesses with new challenges, such as performance, always-on accessibility and the ability to accurately and efficiently manage ever-increasing amounts of data. SQL Server 2012 offers companies that run Aras the robust, reliable platform they need for a successful enterprise-wide PLM deployment that can manage big data and grow and evolve with their business,” said Peter Schroer, President of Aras.

SQL Server 2012 enhancements include:

• On-Demand Scaling – Scale beyond the constraints of any one deployment environment by taking advantage hybrid IT opportunities with a common architecture that spans traditional servers, appliances and the cloud.

• Open Portability – Gain operational flexibility with proven Microsoft cloud offerings, private or public, which deliver interoperable deployment options with open portability for the ability to freely move PLM applications and data quickly and easily from instances on-premise to private and public cloud environments.

• Accelerated Performance – Next-generation performance with SQL Server 2012’s xVelocity in-memory technologies and data compression capabilities that reduce growing volumes of data by 50-60%.

• Powerful Business Intelligence – High performance BI with reporting cubes that can scale to 10’s of Terabytes, expanded support for up to 640 logical processors, and massively parallel processing that scales to 600+ TB.

• Security and Compliance – Built-in encryption capabilities help protect confidential information without changes to the application.

For more information about SQL 2012, please visit www.microsoft.com/sqlserver

About Aras

Aras is the leading provider of enterprise open source Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software solutions. Freedom from licensing eliminates up-front expenses and per user costs while superior technology makes Aras the most advanced enterprise PLM solution suite available. Customers include Motorola, Freudenberg, GE, Hitachi, Lockheed Martin, Textron and TEVA Pharmaceuticals. Aras is privately held with global headquarters in Andover, Mass. For additional information visit www.aras.com or follow us on Twitter @aras_plm

Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

In this exclusive interview, Bambridge provides some insight into the steps that the company is taking to ensure that its core and E-PLM solutions continue to experience the pattern of growth that he says has characterised the last year for Gerber Technology.

First in the news this week were core PLM suppliers CGS, whose INSIGHT 2012 customer event took place in New Jersey at the end of last month.  The event attracted more than 200 customers, and WhichPLM will have an exclusive interview with CGS in the coming weeks that will provide some additional insight into the event itself, and into CGS’s broader activities for the year to come.

Also prominently featured in the news this week was the recently-devised “Codex of PLM Openness“, with both Aras and Dassault Systèmes declaring their commitment to the initiative.  The standard is something that WhichPLM supports in principle, and anything that helps to drive further transparency and standardisation is a step in the right direction for PLM.  How this Codex will develop from here will be interesting to see, and I hope to have the chance to analyse it in greater depth over the coming weeks.

Readers can look forward to a new column from popular contributor Kilara Le next week, along with more news, opinion, insight and event coverage from the growing WhichPLM team.

Our Editor, Ben Hanson, was afforded an exclusive interview with Bambridge following his appointment, and Ben set out to gain some insight into the progress that Gerber Technology has been making over the past year.

Ben: Congratulations on your new role, Peter.  Now, we’ve seen a great deal of change in the company’s operations since Gerber Scientific was acquired by Vector Capital in August of last year.  How would you characterise the last twelve months?

Peter: Thank you.  I would characterise this year as one of significant growth in our software solutions business.  This has been driven by two primary causes: the continued market dominance of the Accumark CAD solution, and the emergence of YuniquePLM as one of the leading PLM solutions for the retail, footwear and apparel industry.

Ben: You mention that Gerber Technology’s PLM business has seen some considerable growth over the past year.  Can you provide some context for that growth and give our readers some concrete examples?

Peter: When leading, multi-national companies make strategic commitments to a PLM solution, like YuniquePLM, it adds weight to something you and I already know: that PLM is a fully-fledged enterprise solution, suitable for companies at every level of the retail, apparel and footwear industry.  The customers that have adopted YuniquePLM this year are already experiencing the benefits of a centralised platform: realising flexible growth, global collaboration, and real agility.

Ben: Can you reveal the names of any of those companies?

Peter: Some of the most notable recent customers of YuniquePLM are: Jonathan & Fletcher, Consortio Fashion Group AB, Koi Design, Fruit of the Loom (comprising Spalding, Vanity Fair, Russell Athletic), Wolverine Worldwide, Merrell, Abercrombie & Fitch, Disney, and Randa Accessories.  Those new customers are also joined by several high-profile, global retailers who have asked not to be named at this stage.  In total, we now have more than 60 companies who have adopted YuniquePLM, with over 25 of those making this choice in this year alone.  It is worth noting, too, that the value of YuniquePLM does not end there: many of these PLM hubs are connected to thousands of further users across global supply chains – users who are also deriving indirect business benefits from the adoption of PLM.

Ben: I understand that YuniquePLM is beginning to replace Gerber Technology’s WebPDM solution, so can you tell me how many of those new customers are migrating from one solution to the other?

Peter: It is a fairly even mix.  We have many brand-new customers who are selecting YuniquePLM to fulfil their product development needs, and we equally have many satisfied customers of WebPDM who have taken the decision to migrate to a full PLM solution.  For those who are upgrading to YuniquePLM, we have developed our own dedicated migration tool, Yunique Yunify, which helps to ensure their migrations will run smoothly, without loss of data.

Ben: Obviously you’re seeing considerable interest from existing customers of your PDM solution, but you also mentioned that Accumark continues to be a cornerstone of the Gerber Technology family; are you seeing any of those CAD customers develop an interest in PLM?

Peter: Yes, we have seen rapid growth in interest in our unique ability to tightly integrate YuniquePLM with the Accumark CAD environment.  Exploiting that integration between CAD and PLM can deliver significant business benefits and improved productivity, and this is an example of where we see the extended capabilities of YuniquePLM making a real difference.  We have more than 25,000 companies worldwide using Accumark, so this is certainly another avenue through which we expect to see further growth in the adoption of PLM.

Ben: It seems as though both PDM to PLM migrations and CAD to PLM extensions are potentially significant areas for expansion.  How is Gerber Technology planning to manage that potential growth and ensure that customer needs continue to be satisfied at all levels?

Peter: As you are aware from recent announcements, we are actively recruiting the best people to join the YuniquePLM and PDM family, but we simply cannot recruit quickly enough to meet all of these potential demands. This is why we are taking steps to expand our partner network – taking in implementation, support, and distribution – around the world. Indeed, this growth and partner network management is one of the key focuses of my new role.

Ben: Alongside those new duties, what other responsibilities will you be taking on in this newly-created role?

Peter: In addition to the sales and distribution area, I will also be working on building up the ecosystem that surrounds Gerber Technology’s solutions, taking advantage of both our innovation, and that of our partners. As an example, we very recently pioneered integration between our extended PLM system and merchandise planning solution Torex. As we continue to deliver against our product roadmap, the need for further partnerships like this one will become more obvious, and I will work to ensure that each of them extends the capabilities and improves upon the value already offered by YuniquePLM.

Ben: I assume that global business development will involve a considerable amount of foresight and trend analysis.  How do you see the market changing over the coming years?

Peter: I believe we will continue to see consolidation between the growing numbers of vendors addressing this particular industry. We are fortunate to have the financial strength and backing of Vector Capital behind us, but I predict that many of the smaller vendors – those who don’t have the benefit of such a strong foundation – will struggle to survive alone in this increasingly competitive market.  The other factor that I believe will drive this change is the increasing focus on delivering solutions that address the needs of truly global, end-to-end business processes.  This is changing the need for point solutions, and so what we are seeing is an increased need for integrated, Out Of the Box solutions that are both robust and flexible and that, informed by industry best practice, will enable customers to achieve a rapid return on their initial investment at every stage of the modern product development process.

In 2011, when industry standards association ProSTEP iViP and several German automotive OEMs began developing the idea of an initiative dedicated to defining and addressing problems and standards for product data management and virtual product creation, Dassault Systèmes joined them in an early phase to support the creation of the Codex of PLM Openness.

”We are very pleased that Dassault Systèmes supports the idea of the CPO and actively participated in its creation. Dassault Systèmes was one of the major contributors and lead the workgroup defining the glossary definition“, says Dr. Steven Vettermann, General Manager of ProSTEP iViP e. V.

“For 30 years Dassault Systèmes’ executive team has driven PLM relentlessly towards an open, unified collaborative experience for our customers,” said Dominique Florack, Senior Executive Vice President, Products, Research and Development, Dassault Systèmes. “Openness is critical to collaboration and, thus, innovation. Dassault Systèmes is very much in favor of the CPO and actively supports this effort.”

Long a proponent of openness, Dassault Systèmes has architected its V6 3D Experience platform to take full advantage of its 20+ years of research and development in infrastructure protocols and interoperability. The V6 platform’s Web services infrastructure is compliant with a variety of interface standards and supports multiple exchange standards, such as STEP, IGES, FMI, AUTOSAR and JT. From open interoperability between V6 and competitive PDM, CAD and enterprise systems to thousands of publicly available APIs, the V6 platform has been developed from its inception to support openness.

In an early effort at extensibility, one of the Codex’s primary focal points, Dassault Systèmes created in the 1990’s an open, comprehensive development environment called the CATIA Application Architecture (CAA). A resounding success resulting in hundreds of third party applications for its V5 platform, the CAA concept of extensibility was enhanced when Dassault Systèmes released its open V6 CAA2 program and made thousands of APIs available to its partner community.

“Our support of interoperability standards between V6 and other CAD, PDM, and enterprise systems has been a key focus over the past years,” continued Florack. “I’m glad to see that the Codex of PLM Openness is defining what ‘open’ is, since the term has long been thrown about with little behind it. The irresponsible claims of openness and accusations of non-openness have engendered unnecessary fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the industry and have adversely distracted many customers of PLM solutions.”

With the signature of this CPO, Dassault Systèmes has officially signaled to the market its willingness to continue supporting openness throughout its valued solutions.

About Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systèmes, the 3D Experience Company, provides business and people with virtual universes to imagine sustainable innovations. Its world-leading solutions transform the way products are designed, produced, and supported. Dassault Systèmes’ collaborative solutions foster social innovation, expanding possibilities for the virtual world to improve the real world. The group brings value to over 150,000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 80 countries. For more information, visit www.3ds.com.

CATIA, SolidWorks, ENOVIA, SIMULIA, DELMIA, 3DVIA, 3DSwYm, EXALEAD, and Netvibes are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.