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Background
Established over a century ago in Newtownards, Bridgedale Outdoor Ltd is the UK's number one brand for technical outdoor socks. The very first Bridgedale socks were designed for the army during WW1 and were only available in three colours and two lengths. Since then Bridgedale has expanded into an international organisation supplying over 40 countries with their well-known technical socks. Today there are over 400 products in the range and Bridgedale socks have become the most trusted socks on the market.
Bridgedale are proud of their market-leading reputation, continually striving to ensure superior product quality and excellent customer service. "We set out to design and manufacture socks that give enduring comfort," says Gordon Raffan, Director of Bridgedale, "using the most progressive designs and combining natural fibres with man-made through the latest yarn technology. We have a panel of gear testers to help with comfort and durability trials - some of whom walk over 100 miles per week - and our product development team is continually listening to our customers should we need to make any improvements."
Business Issues
As a growing international organisation, Bridgedale needed to replace their ageing systems and platforms. "Our objective was to increase our turnover by over 30% within the next 3 years," says Gordon, "and we knew that integrating our global operations for a company-wide view would be crucial in gaining accurate business intelligence insight and effective collaboration necessary to achieve this. One of our key requirements was software that enables remote user access via the internet as we knew this would be vital to ensuring effective communication with our subsidiary in South Africa. We also wanted a system that would enable us to drill-down for important data on aspects such as customer performance, as this is often fundamental in meeting customer needs and remaining competitive."
System Selection
Bridgedale spent over eight months investigating business software systems and providers in order to find a solution that would meet their needs. "We weren't just looking for a system that would meet all our requirements," explains Gordon, "we also had to find a company with extensive experience in the textile and clothing sectors to ensure a smooth implementation with minimal disruption to the business. It was time well spent though, and I would advise anyone with a software project that finding the right software partner is as important as the product itself."
Solution
Bridgedale chose specialist software provider Syscom PLC (www.syscom.plc.uk) to implement SyscomERP throughout their business. "SyscomERP stood out as the best match for our current and future requirements due to its flexibility and integrated structure," says Gordon. "The system is easy to use whilst at the same time providing advanced, industry-specific functionality. What's more, the scalability of the system means it will continue to meet our needs as we grow."
With over 30 years experience providing software solutions to the textile, apparel and footwear market place, Syscom's customer base includes companies from across these sectors and the SyscomERP system includes fully integrated finance, stock, sales, manufacturing and purchasing modules, which have been developed specifically for these industries. "The fact that the system has already been tried and tested within the textile and apparel industries gave us confidence," says Gordon, "and Syscom's expertise became evident during the selection process.
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