Case Study: Liz Claiborne Inc.: Reengineering Wholesale To Retail

By Matt Pillar, Integrated Solutions For Retailers magazine

When Suzanne Winter joined Liz Claiborne Inc., she walked into a well-oiled wholesale distribution machine. But as director of business process and systems integration, Winter and her team were challenged to implement a new set of systems that would parlay the company's success into the development of its burgeoning, multibrand, multichannel retail enterprise.

To be sure, Liz Claiborne Inc. already had a successful retail business at the time, operating hundreds of Juicy Couture, Kate Spade, and Lucky Brand stores, in addition to Liz Claiborne outlets, worldwide. But the systems that ran those businesses were rooted in the company's wholesaling heritage. Company executives knew that retail-specific business processes, and the applications to support them, were in order.