Our team helped a leading global fashion retailer develop a user-friendly platform to streamline their garment creation processes, leading to faster time-to-market and increased profitability.
Our client is a leading global retailer that provides cutting-edge merchandising, design and technology solutions. Their specialists are highly skilled product, merchandising and technology experts, united by a shared passion for innovation and quality service.
They have successfully implemented licensed technology solutions for multiple brands within a global, multi-channel retail environment. Through the mechanisms established by the client, these technologies have been actively incorporated into product creation and commercialisation processes. This team boasts a combined 30+ years of experience.
In the context of a SaaS B2B marketing project in the clothing industry, particularly in apparel, sports, and fashion, the client aimed to streamline the process of going to market. The challenges faced included the need for digitalization, efficient assortment planning, seamless sharing, and effective sales processes. The primary tool, resembling an Excel-like interface with visual components, targeted merchandisers for line and assortment planning.
The primary value was to build a tool that facilitates connectivity within development teams throughout the initial line development life cycle. The emphasis was on ensuring that teams have access to the most up-to-date data as changes occur, thereby mitigating challenges related to collaboration, data-image disconnection, and manual updates. Computools’ solution aligns with the client’s vision, providing a user-friendly and efficient platform for the clothing industry to enhance the overall product development and sales process.
We offered the client a comprehensive solution, within which we developed a platform with three key workspaces:
We also provided integration with PLM-systems, enabled seamless data exchange between the platform and PLM-systems, automatic updating of information.
As a result of the project, the client gained:
Our client sought a trusted technology partner to bring their vision to life. Through a competitive tender process, they evaluated proposals from various companies, including Computools.
Our team was readily available to address their questions and concerns, ensuring a smooth development process. We were adaptable to their input and readily integrated their feedback into the platform’s design and functionality. Our development expertise instilled confidence in the client, knowing their project was in capable hands.
Background
The client turned to us in search of a solution. We studied the client’s business objectives and requirements, identified key problems and developed a plan to solve them. The development of a minimum viable product (MVP) of the Apparel platform gave the client the opportunity to test its main features and evaluate its potential.
Approach to solution
At the beginning of the collaboration between the client and Computools, a detailed requirements analysis was carried out, including the specifics of the development process, functional requirements and expected results.
Computools role
Our company acted as a main developer of the platform, implementing all its functionalities. The engineers developed a scalable and robust architecture that can withstand growing loads.
Key decisions and outcomes
In addition, the Computools team offered a number of add-on modules to extend the functionality of the platform:
This block covers design tasks within a project to develop software for the fashion and assortment industry.
Creating detailed profiles of users, including merchandisers, designers, and executives, to ensure that the design and functionality meets their unique needs and challenges.
Designing the structure of the web application, identifying key sections and interaction paths to ensure intuitive navigation and efficient use of functionality.
Creating the skeleton of the application through a set of wireframes that define the layout of interface elements, to ensure that information is organised in a logical and usable manner.
Designing the interface with brand identity in mind to ensure appeal and usability, including colour palette, fonts and visual elements.
.NET
The choice of .NET for backend development is based on its reliability and scalability. The .NET platform provides efficient data processing, multi-threading support and a high level of security, which is critical for a system that handles large amounts of sensitive fashion and assortment data.
Angular
Angular was chosen for frontend development due to its modular architecture and advantages in creating complex, interactive user interfaces. Its tools for state management and component reuse allow you to create flexible, high-performance web applications for your client.
Figma
Figma was chosen as the premier design tool due to its collaborative capabilities and real-time interactive prototyping capabilities. This allows the design and development team to collaborate effectively and dynamically adapt the interface according to user requirements.
Adobe XD
Adobe XD has been used to create more detailed and visually appealing user interfaces, enabling a high degree of creativity in the design process. Integration with other Adobe tools provides seamless work with vector graphics and media content.
Scrum methodology was chosen for effective project management. It easily adapts to changes in the client’s requirements, providing a mechanism to integrate them at the early stages of development. This avoids additional costs and improves the end result.
Computools was selected through an RFP process. They were shortlisted and selected from between 5 other suppliers. Computools has worked thoroughly and timely to solve all security issues and launch as agreed. Their expertise is impressive.