Accenture and SAP launched an initiative to extend SAP’s current fashion management capabilities to a next-generation fashion management solution that will be designed to accelerate the digital transformation journey for fashion, accessory and luxury retail brands. The announcement comes after both companies announced in January a comprehensive program of ongoing collaboration on the core development and go-to-market for SAP S/4HANA.
Accenture will help bring this vision to life in an in-memory edition of the solution, which plans to enable vertical integration across retail, wholesale and manufacturing channels. “SAP and Accenture bring a culture of co-innovation to the table that has allowed us to collectively innovate and accelerate our development road map. The new solutions we are creating show a committed investment in our clients’ future success,” said Achim Schneider, global head, Retail Industry Business Unit, SAP.
The next-generation fashion management solution aims to take advantage of the technology capabilities of SAP S/4HANA, the flexibility of cloud services and Accenture’s deep retail industry knowledge. It is expected to help retailers build omnichannel solutions that manage inventory requirements more easily and effectively, and accelerate time-to-value to enable a customer-centric business. Retailers should be able to simultaneously view and manage retail, wholesale and manufacturing channels, allowing them to analyze and direct where and how products are stocked based on specific business rules.
“Retail demands speed – whether interacting with customers, bringing new products to market, expanding into new geographies, integrating merged companies or driving operational efficiency. Working to extend SAP S/4HANA to the fashion industry is the first of many planned actions in our collaboration,” said Jill Standish, Senior Managing Director of Retail at Accenture. “Together, we combine the best thinking, IP and experts at all levels, including development, go-to-market, customer support and outcomes. With our access to the platform code for SAP S/4HANA and our deep retail delivery capabilities, we are well-positioned to help retailers drive the most business value from SAP solutions and meet the unique needs of their industry now and in the future.”
In addition to building out core components, Accenture is working with SAP to create proprietary product extensions. With the help of Accenture, the next-generation fashion management solution from SAP will offer a truly vertical solution via end-to-end scenario integration across the extended retail supply chain. SAP S/4HANA enables game-changing new processes such as multi channel material requirements planning and order allocation with the ability to simulate scenarios that allow fashion organizations to effectively and efficiently run their businesses.