Woolworths Proprietary Limited, a leading South African retail chain, has successfully implemented Centric Software’s 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.
Woolworths South Africa, part of Woolworths Holdings Limited, is a leading retailer operating in South Africa and 11 sub-Saharan African countries. The retailer offers a unique blend of food, fashion, beauty, homeware and financial services.
Woolworths chose to implement Centric PLM to address challenges related to the company’s growth.
“Our previous product development process was inefficient and time consuming,” explains Shane Butlion, Head of Central Business Optimisation, Woolworths Fashion, Beauty and Home. “We lacked visibility across our product development lifecycle. Our business has evolved significantly, with expanded sourcing and trading regions, creating additional complexity in the management of these new channels.”
Woolworths selected Centric PLM to transform end-to-end product development and provide a platform for collaboration.
“Centric PLM is a modern and future-fit solution that can be accessed on the move,” says Butlion. “Centric’s Agile DeploymentSM project approach and highly configurable system, as well as the culture fit between us, Centric and their local implementation partner, Cogworks, were critical to our decision. Centric is the PLM leader in our industry, and the fastest-growing PLM solution provider globally.”
Woolworths completed the initial implementation stage and is already enjoying the benefits of Centric PLM.
As Butlion says, “We approached this as a transformational project, not just a system implementation. With Centric’s guidance and best practice experience, we have introduced future-fit improvements to our ways of working. From our initial rollout we expect to see improved collaboration and teamwork in product development, costing efficiencies, better visibility, improved supplier collaboration, a single source of the truth for data, a full audit trail and improved milestone management.”
“It has been a pleasure working with the Centric team,” he concludes.
“We are delighted that Woolworths has successfully gone live on Centric PLM,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “Woolworths has undergone a total digital transformation with this implementation, and we are proud to partner with them in their business evolution now and into the future.”
