Download Fossil integrates retail and wholesale operations with IBM and SAP

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Fossil integrates retail and wholesale
operations with IBM and SAP
Fossil, based in Richardson, TX, is a
Overview
global company specializing in the
design and manufacture of watches
easily with existing SAP software
and other fashion accessories, which it
To provide global business insight
environment, reducing the need for
markets under the Fossil, Relic,
and optimize inventory levels, Fossil
expensive customization or manual
Michele, Zodiac, and other brands.
wanted to integrate information
processing. Flexible
The company employs over 10,000
systems for its growing retail
implementation plan minimized
people and generates annual
operation with the SAP software
business disruption.
revenues of approximately US$1.25
 The Challenge
billion.
environment that supports its
wholesale business.
 Key Solution Components
Industry: Retail
Founded in 1984, Fossil originally
Applications: SAP® for Retail
concentrated on wholesale distribution
Working with IBM Global Business
including SAP ERP 5.0, SAP
of its products in North America,
Services, Fossil selected and
Apparel and Footwear, SAP
Europe and Asia. The company also
implemented the SAP for Retail
NetWeaver®
began to develop and manufacture
solution portfolio. The new software
SAP NetWeaver Exchange
products for prestigious brands such
runs on a number of IBM System p5
Infrastructure, SAP POS Data
as Burberry, Diesel, DKNY and
570 servers and is supported by an
Management
Emporio Armani.
IBM DB2 database.
Hardware: IBM System p5™ 570
 The Solution
 The Benefits
Single source of global business
Business Intelligence,
Software: IBM AIX® 5L™, IBM DB2®
As the business grew, it became clear
Services: IBM Global Business
that the company needed a
Services
centralized enterprise resource
data for both retail and wholesale
planning solution. Fossil chose the
operations supports shared
SAP Apparel and Footwear
inventory, and enables rapid
application, to manage its wholesale
reaction to market conditions –
business, developing electronic data
stock can be quickly shipped to
interchange (EDI) interfaces to
wherever demand is highest, and
connect its systems directly to large
manufacturing decisions can be
chains like Walmart and Macy’s, and
based on the latest sales data.
Standard global template for
business processes and SAP
footprint facilitates expansion into
new markets. Solution interfaces
B2B systems to help sell to smaller
them could meet its specific needs, as
retailers.
Ed Jurica explains:
Meanwhile, Fossil had also started to
“Most of the solutions on the market
investigate other distribution channels,
presumed that retailers own their own
launching one of the earliest
warehouses and inventory. But in our
e-commerce sites on the Internet. It
case, the warehouses are owned by
had begun to experiment with retail
the wholesale business, and the
outlets as a means to build the brand,
inventory is shared between the
gain direct contact with consumers
wholesale and retail operations. We
and test new product ideas. The
needed a solution that would be
Ed Jurica
company was soon operating more
flexible enough to handle the shared
CIO
than 160 stores in the US, Canada and
inventory, without requiring a lot of
Fossil
the UK.
expensive customization work.”
“At first, we decided to outsource the IT
Leveraging investment in SAP software
systems governing our retail operation,
Fossil decided to investigate the
and treat it as a customer of the
possibility of integrating the SAP for
wholesale business,” explains Ed
Retail solution portfolio with its existing
Jurica, CIO of Fossil. “But as our retail
SAP Apparel and Footwear
interests grew, this became a less
environment – leveraging its
tenable strategy. We wanted a solution
investment in SAP technologies and
that would interface easily with the SAP
minimizing the amount of
applications that managed our
customization required.
“All in all, this was a
very successful
implementation. IBM
Global Business
Services played a
significant role in our
success.”
wholesale business.”
“We decided that we needed advice
Fossil considered a number of
from an organization that doesn’t just
solutions designed for the retail
understand the technology, but has
industry, but found that almost none of
real insight into the retail industry as
well,” says Ed Jurica. “SAP
recommended consulting IBM Global
Business Services, which turned out to
be excellent advice.”
IBM Global Business Services
designed a global SAP for Retail
template, based on Fossil’s Global
Retail Business Blueprint, in
accordance with standardized and
best practice processes. IBM Global
Business Services worked with the
in-house IT team to deploy the
solution, rolling it out to Fossil stores
across the US, Canada and the UK.
With the global template in place, it will
be much easier for Fossil to extend its
SAP environment to new markets as
the retail business expands.
“IBM Global Business Services
an elegant solution for our SAP
showed an amazing ability to adapt
environment,” says Ed Jurica. “Our
and meet the changing needs of our
SAP software environment involves
business,” explains Ed Jurica. “We
many different applications and
wanted to time the go-live of the SAP for
components, so virtualization is a
Retail solution to match our store
really intelligent way to improve
rollout, and in the end this led to a lot of
hardware utilization – we can even run
rescheduling. The IBM team took these
our SAP NetWeaver Business
changing requirements in stride.”
Intelligence environment and its
underlying IBM DB2 database on the
The SAP for Retail solution interfaces
same physical server.”
“The Advanced Power
Virtualization features
of the IBM System p5
provide an elegant
solution for our SAP
environment.”
Ed Jurica
CIO
with point of sale (POS) systems in
Fossil’s 160 stores, using the SAP POS
The company chose IBM DB2 as the
Data Management application to
database platform for its SAP software,
aggregate sales data and make it
and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager to
available for analysis using the SAP
handle backups, because of IBM’s
NetWeaver Business Intelligence
close relationship with SAP and the
component. The solution interfaces
joint roadmap for the future of their
with the company’s wholesale systems
alliance.
via the SAP NetWeaver Exchange
Infrastructure component, increasing
“We have become an IBM shop, but it
automation.
wasn’t by design,” explains Ed Jurica.
“We evaluated other options at every
“Because the new solution shares
point – but whether we looked at
information automatically between the
hardware, software or services, IBM
retail and wholesale environments, we
seemed to have an offering that would
can manage our supply chain more
best meet our needs.
effectively and with fewer manual
processes,” says Ed Jurica. “Having an
“All in all, this was a very successful
SAP platform for our global operations
implementation. IBM Global Business
simplifies our infrastructure, making it
Services played a significant role in
easier to roll out consistent best
our success. Their highly motivated
practices as we expand into new global
team provided experienced
markets.”
leadership, with considerable
expertise in both SAP software and the
Fossil chose to implement the SAP for
retail environment, and formed a
Retail solution on IBM System p5 570
flexible partnership with our own IT
servers – the same platform it was
staff. “
using for its existing SAP ERP and SAP
AFS applications. The company now
Responding to consumer demand
has a total of six p5-570s running SAP
With the new solution from IBM and
software, as well as a number of smaller
SAP, Fossil has gained the ability to
System p5 servers running IBM
manage its retail and wholesale
WebSphere Commerce for the
operations from a centralized point of
company’s consumer Web site.
control. With improved visibility of
business processes and changing
“The Advanced Power Virtualization
market conditions, and tighter control
features of the IBM System p5 provide
of shared inventory, Fossil is able to
Fossil
respond more quickly to consumer
demand and drive higher efficiencies
in inventory management.
“To take one example: one of the
advantages of the watch and
accessory business is that our
“IBM Global Business
Services did a great job
– ensuring that the
solution went live
on-time, on-budget and
it worked.”
products are small and light – very
easy to transport,” says Ed Jurica.
Ed Jurica
“With the new solution, when we see a
certain line selling well in our UK retail
CIO
Fossil
stores, we can quickly move stock
from one of our global distribution
centers and make it available for local
wholesale customers to sell in their
department or specialty stores. The
speed and quality of business
intelligence provided by the IBM and
D-70548 Stuttgart
ibm.com/solutions/sap
SAP solution simply wasn’t available to
us before, and it makes a big
IBM Deutschland GmbH
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System p, IBM System i, IBM System x, z/OS, z/VM, i5/OS, AIX,
difference in a fast-moving fashion
DB2, Domino, Lotus, Tivoli, Rational and WebSphere are
trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
industry.”
Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or
both.
IBM and Fossil’s working relationship
trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its
was so positive that the team was
subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. UNIX is a
awarded a Fossil Collaborative Culture
registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States
and other countries. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in
Award, and executives sent personal
the United States, other countries, or both. Microsoft, Windows,
letters of commendation to key IBM
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Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
team members. Ed Jurica concludes:
“IBM Global Business Services did a
great job – ensuring that the solution
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Other company, product or service names may be trademarks,
or service marks of others.
went live on-time, on-budget and it
This case study illustrates how one IBM customer uses IBM
and/or IBM Business Partner technologies/services. Many
factors have contributed to the results and benefits described.
worked.”
IBM does not guarantee comparable results. All information
contained herein was provided by the featured customer and/
or IBM Business Partner. IBM does not attest to its accuracy.
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© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2007 SAP AG
SAP AG
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SAP, the SAP logo, SAP and all other SAP
products and services mentioned herein are
trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG
in Germany and several other countries.
GK12-4316-00 (11/07)