EEKA Finds a Perfect Fit with Centric PLM

CAMPBELL, Calif., 9 May, 2018 – EEKA, the Chinese apparel company specializing in made-to-measure (MTM) women’s clothing, has selected Centric Software to provide its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury and consumer goods companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

EEKA Fashion Corp was founded in 1994, offering good quality and fine design in womenswear. The company owns respected brands such as Naersi, Naersi.Ling, Nexy.co and Koradior and has more than 1300 stores with two manufacturing centers and over 10,000 employees in mainland China. EEKA is the first apparel company in China to offer an integrated made-to-measure (MTM) service for womenswear and has invested significantly in smart manufacturing processes to transform the clothing industry. EEKA will make it possible for customers to order individually customized clothing through a mobile app.

EEKA launched its MTM strategy in 2017, aiming for fully integrated MTM ordering, delivery and alterations across its operations by 2020. As Jian xiong Hu, CIO at EEKA explains, the company needed to update its existing digital and physical operations in order to make this complex business model a reality.

“We want to deliver customized womenswear in seven days from the time measurements are taken,” says Mr.Hu. “We are building a system to manage the MTM service with intelligent product development, a flexible supply chain and omni-channel shopping – for a full 360-degree view of the customer experience.”

“Configuration between different IT systems and collaboration between internal and external teams are the key challenges. We needed a PLM solution to be the foundation platform for different systems like order management, computer-aided design (CAD) and supply chain management. The total budget for the program was significant and attracted the best hardware and software vendors from across the world.”

As part of this investment, EEKA tried two different PLM solutions simultaneously, eventually selecting Centric PLM to support the innovative MTM project.

“The first phase of the project started in February 2017 and we were so impressed with Centric’s terrific performance that we have now entered into phase two with Centric as our sole PLM vendor,” says Mr.Hu. “Female MTM clothing is a complicated endeavor, but Centric rose to the challenge. The Centric team is extremely professional, and their PLM solutions are the best on the market. The flexibility of Centric technologies and also of their team are other key advantages.”

As Mr. Huconcludes, “Centric has helped EEKA to streamline the product development process of key product lines since early 2017. The new Centric platform will give strong momentum to our strategy for multiple brands, youth product lines and occasional wear. In this end to end MTM program, involving eleven different IT suppliers, Centric really stands out. We were looking for a long-term, stable, reliable partner and Centric is the perfect fit.”

Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software, says, “We are very proud that EEKA, a very innovative Chinese manufacturer and retailer of high-end womenswear, is partnering with Centric on this exciting MTM journey.”

EEKA Fashion Corp

EEKA Fashion Corp was founded in 1994, offering good quality and fine design in womenswear. The company owns respected brands such as Naersi, Naersi.Ling, Nexy.co and Koradior and has more than 1300 stores with two manufacturing centers and over 10,000 employees in mainland China. EEKA is the first apparel company in China to offer an integrated made-to-measure (MTM) service for womenswear and has invested significantly in smart manufacturing processes to transform the clothing industry.

Centric Software (centric-staging.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals around the world, Centric Software provides a Digital Transformation Platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods.  Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) is a visual, fully digital collection of boards for touch-based devices like iPad, iPhone and large-scale, touch-screen televisions. Centric VIP transforms decision making and automates execution to truly collapse time to market and distance to trend. Centric’s flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, business planning, quality, and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB packages extended PLM including innovative technology and key industry learnings tailored for small businesses.

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan Global Product Differentiation Excellence Award in Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM in 2016 and Frost & Sullivan’s Global Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM Product Differentiation Excellence Award in 2012. Red Herring named Centric to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015, and 2016.

Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.