British lifestyle brand Ted Baker has selected Microsoft Dynamics AX with high level support services to bolster its global expansion plans and increase competitive advantage in the UK and abroad.
It is hoped that Microsoft’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology will enable the business to significantly enhance the efficiency of its people and processes, by automating and better streamlining operations from stock and warehouse management, to financial and resourcing systems, right through to production.
Ted Baker needed an ERP platform that could better support business growth for the next 10 to 15 years by improving reporting, facilitating better regulatory compliance, reducing duplication and ensuring information is easily available across the organisation. A key challenge for Ted Baker is having the right technology to underpin the future business. The brand began life in 1988 as a specialist shirt shop in Glasgow and is now one of the fastest-growing leading lifestyle brands distributing across five continents through brick-and-mortar stores, retail concessions, localised e-commerce sites, wholesale, export, and licensing. It is a truly international brand with 362 stores and concessions worldwide.
Ted Baker is working with Microsoft and K3, a long-standing Dynamics AX partner with a successful track record, deep heritage and expertise of the retail space to deploy the technology and is benefiting from Microsoft’s highest level of support throughout the implementation. It chose to work with them after considering offerings from a number of major businesses in this field, recognising it needed a transformational solution that could expand comfortably with the business.
Craig Smith, brand communication director for Ted Baker, said: "We have a very clear vision and ambition for our business, and it was important we worked with a vendor that had the right cultural fit as well as powerful technology. Microsoft’s brand aligns very closely with our core principles, and Dynamics AX is a highly robust, reliable ERP system."
The Dynamics AX implementation has already begun and the first pilot deployment is expected to go live in early 2015, with other geographies following soon after.
Dustan Steer, IT director for Ted Baker, added: "The Dynamics AX deployment, with strong support services from Microsoft, will enable us to equip the business with the right tools and processes to streamline our operations and reduce people-intensive activities. Dynamics AX will give us the ability to better anticipate and embrace change and support future global growth."
