Barbour injects high tech management into country casuals

The system will run on an IBM iSeries platform and cover Barbour’s operations in the UK, France, Germany and the US – involving everything from sourcing to design, manufacturing, distribution and retailing of its products. Brenda Readman-Bell, finance and IT director at J. Barbour & Sons says the company opted for Lawson QuickStep Fashion, because it is scalable and pre-configures more than 70% of fashion industry business processes – cutting normal implementation times in half. She says that Barbour will focus on improving productivity through enhanced supply chain planning and execution, as well as purchasing efficiency. The company will also be implementing Lawson’s Demand Planner, Supply Chain Planner, Warehouse Mobility and Smart Office software. “With our busiest period beginning in June, it was crucial that we found a software vendor that could deliver within a tight timeframe,” says Readman-Bell. “Lawson is able to offer lower cost of ownership and faster implementation times, and we’re already on the way to achieving this. “Just days after signing the contract, Lawson delivered and began installing software and conducting training. This will help position us well for full implementation of the software system.”