10 March 2008

Clothworks Textiles, a Seattle-based manufacturer of quilting fabric, has selected Microsoft Dynamics NAV to serve as the technology foundation for its business. A designer and distributor of fabric to independent stores around the world, including 3,000 shops in the United States, Clothworks chose Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 over an upgrade of its previous software because the Microsoft product best fit its fashion-oriented business needs.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning solution that allows small and midsize businesses to automate, integrate and better manage finances, e-commerce, manufacturing, supply chains, accounting, field service, customer relationships and human resources.

Clothworks Textiles and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner MicroAccounting Systems integrated the Pebblestone Fashion software into Microsoft Dynamics NAV, enabling Clothworks to access business intelligence and analysis of sales for each fabric design, brand, colour and season. In its second phase of implementation, the technology will allow the clothing company, for the first time, to sell fabric directly to its wholesale customers through e-commerce.

“With our old DOS-based software, all our internal processes were managed with paper,” said Clothworks Textiles president and CEO Ted Hoffman. “Now we will eliminate all the paper and run our business on the software. Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Pebblestone Fashion will enable us to keep everyone in sync as to where we are for every piece of the process, from design conception to customer service.”

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV-Pebblestone Fashion integration allows Clothworks to meet a number of requirements specific to its industry and to expand its business efficiently. Beyond integrating with Pebblestone Fashion software, Clothworks Textiles’ Microsoft Dynamics NAV is integrated with Tableau Software’s application that provides advanced visual modelling of business data.

In phase two of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV rollout, Clothworks will add DVP.Nav-to-Net Web store software to gain an e-commerce channel that is expected to expand revenue, speed the ordering process and give customers visibility into the status of their own accounts.

Hoffman anticipates that, compared with his previous system, five times as much information will be available through the new solution, and that it will be easier to view with the Tableau software. “We can slice and dice information like we were never able to do before and be better in touch with what’s selling, providing more of the most popular products to customers,” Hoffman said.

“Microsoft Dynamics NAV is helping companies fashion new ways to look at their businesses, new online channels of revenue and new levels of customer satisfaction,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president for the US Dynamics business at Microsoft. “With this product, small and midsize companies are gaining the kinds of competitive insights and scope that once were available only to the largest companies.”