Our new software blue us away

The days of walking down the corridors at Blues Clothing holding a paper copy of the latest Spider-Man T-shirt design is now a thing of the past.

Communication barriers are a thing of the past for children's clothing manufacturer, Blues. Financial Director Steve Bennett knew only too well that to stay on top of the competitive international market the company needed bespoke new software that was smarter, faster and savvier than the current fractured systems in place at Blues. "What was happening was we were typing the information ourselves, and then re-typing it at design, the re-typing it at manufacture and then again at finance," reported Mason. This less than ideal business practice wasn't enough for Blues who provide children's clothing to some of the UK's biggest retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Next.

Mason has implemented new desktop software that enables each new design, along with the company financial information, manufacturing status, royalty payments and more, to be directly accessible to all staff involved. "The whole key to this is that the information goes onto one system, once, by the person who is best qualified to do it. Previously, everyone was in their own compartments using spreadsheets or various other basic old order-processing systems. It didn't allow information to travel," said Steve.

Sue Black, academic supervisor for the project felt that implementing new technology with staff is often the biggest challenge in using new software. "The key reason for IT project implementation failure is that people are resistant to change. If they don't see the direct benefits to themselves right away, they might think it is a threat." A large part of Mason's role will involve managing relationships with people, managing the software and helping the company's Project Managers. "He has done an excellent job," praises Sue.

The KTP programme has given Blues an efficient flow of information and has greatly improved upon the in-house technology expertise. The relationships built through the KTP programme are helping both Blues and London South Bank University, and a second KTP project has now been initiated to focus on planning and forecasting.

"The KTP is involved in improving us commercially. It has given us more readily available commercial information which is making us smarter and sharper, and more easily able to respond to the trends within the business," comments Steve.