Client: Champion Europe Challenge: Replace seven IT platforms in use across the company with a single open platform. Solution: Provide consulting expertise for a Unix migration project and implement a new Oracle-based version of CSC’s Stealth 3000 fashion industry software. Results: Greater visibility of its operations, from purchase orders to production logistics, has allowed Champion to begin expanding from wholesale to retail, with new stores already opened in France and Belgium. Related Information: Learn more about CSC's retail business. Read about the broader impact of CSC consulting in the Italian fashion industry. Contact us and let our experience help you produce results.

Immersed in a tightening textile industry and faced with a complex internal structure, Champion Europe looked to CSC software and consulting to help integrate its information systems. The result — better visibility into everything from procurement to sales — is driving its push into retail.

“Now we have a system that we can rely on and that will save us money in the long term," says Enrico Vernetti, chief financial officer at Champion Europe. "This has already allowed us to open new stores in France and Belgium, and if we want to launch a new initiative, this open platform will enable us to do that.”

A need for unity
Champion Europe is a 200m euro business with 500 employees. It was formed in 2001 when Sauro Mambrini, the former managing director of Champion Italia, led a management buy-out from the Sara Lee Corporation. The Italian management team bought the Champion trademark for Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA), while American giant Sara Lee retained the trademark for all other territories.

Champion Europe now covers 125 countries across the EMEA region and is truly a global business. Although it originated as a wholesaler, selling to retailers and key accounts, the company has a small number of Champion stores which it is looking to expand as part of its new retailing strategy.

At the time of the acquisition, the business was divided into 12 companies, operating on seven different proprietary IT platforms. None of these platforms was deemed worthy of expansion. The company launched a project to select a new IT platform and roll it out across its operations.

“We’re a multinational, multi-lingual business and needed a robust platform that could be used wherever we did business in the future,” says Vernetti. “We knew this would be a large migration project with big changes in process and organizational culture, and would take between three and five years.”

A crucial decision
Champion Europe selected the open Unix operating system as the basis for its highly delocalized business operations and a database application from Oracle to give management information across the group. Following a CSC Italy presentation, Champion agreed to be a CSC pilot site for Stealth, an application used by the fashion industry.

“Stealth is used by the majority of textile companies and, crucially for us, by fashion businesses with operations abroad,” says Vernetti. “CSC Italy was developing a new version of the software based on Oracle and using Web-based technology, so we decided to join them as a pilot.”

CSC Italy is now providing consulting expertise for the Unix migration project and advice on software selection and systems integration.

Champion's Spain, France, UK, Ireland and Belgium units are currently live on the Unix platform, using CSC’s Stealth 3000 software. The rest of its regions are expected to come on board within the next two years. Through its partnership with Oracle, CSC Italy also developed an interface between Oracle Financials and Stealth, and all European countries but two are currently using the application.

Enabling a strategy for expansion
Having one platform on which to run the business means that Champion Europe will have more control over its operations: “We will have a common language,” says Vernetti. “Whenever an order is made or an invoice is sent out, we use the same process, based on the same system. Previously if we wanted to know how many orders had been made to a particular supplier, we had to gather data from multiple sources and piece it together. Now we have a common way to treat purchase orders and run logistical processes, for example, which gives us much better control and visibility across the business.”

Vernetti recognizes that the project is complex and involves considerable organizational change.

“We can’t expect easy short-term benefits from a change project on this scale,” he says, “but we know that the project will deliver a lot of value to the business in the medium to long term.”

The next phase is to exploit the possibilities offered by new technologies. The plan is to use Web-based systems to exchange information among suppliers, agents and Champion customers.

Vernetti is also confident that the new platform will stand the company in good stead for the next phase of its expansion strategy – to open retailing outlets in key markets where the Champion brand is strongest: “Our new retail application has been interfaced with Stealth. If we didn’t have the unified platform, we would have had to choose a different solution for each country and do expensive integration work."