Birkenstock partners with Centric Software

Global lifestyle brand Birkenstock has opted to partner with software company Centric PLM and is in the midst of further streamlining product development processes, improving time to market and collaboration among teams. Centric Software provides innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury, consumer goods and home décor companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Birkenstock is a globally recognized lifestyle brand and the German footwear industry’s biggest employer, with around 4,300 employees worldwide and a heritage that can be traced back as far as 1774. Selling shoes in more than 100 countries across the world, the company works with a focus on quality, function and wellbeing across footwear, sleeping systems and natural cosmetics categories. A traditional, sixth-generation and family-run business based mainly in Germany, Birkenstock also operates its own sales offices in the United States and Canada as well as in Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Denmark, Poland, Spain, Switzerland the United Kingdom and Dubai.

With the dramatic growth in recent years, Birkenstock is now taking the opportunity to implement an innovative IT solution aimed at supporting the entire product creation process. The growth of Birkenstock has helped to highlight the increasing need to enhance daily business efficiency. This IT solution will allow the product creation team to better focus on key business areas and dedicate more time to the valuable end consumer and their needs.

After having Centric PLM implemented, Birkenstock will benefit from a fully centralized database. With a single database, the company will be able to standardize the whole product development process – from initial concept through to mass production. Having one globally-accessible system will also lead to enhanced data quality, especially product master data throughout all product divisions. Thanks to the optimized workflows, Birkenstock’s product creation department is going to be capable of eliminating non-value-added tasks and focusing its energy more on innovating and creating.  

The reasons for choosing Centric Footwear PLM were driven by configuration flexibility. After an implementation team assembled hands-on workshops focused on criteria such as “coverage of functions”, “user-friendliness” and “industry experience and background”, Birkenstock realized that Centric’s intuitive out-of-the-box functions would provide a good basis for a shorter implementation time compared to other software solutions. Centric’s market-driven, flexible and scalable approach gives the teams at Birkenstock peace of mind that more functions and modules can be developed as required, with fashion and consumer industry best practices built-in.

“It’s very exciting to see Birkenstock opting for Centric,” said Chris Groves, president and CEO of Centric Software, in a statement. “The company has a great history, with a focus on making their customers’ lives easier and better; an ethos we share. We look forward to helping this iconic brand expand its global footprint.”

photo: via birkenstock.com