NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash., April
25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Marc Jacobs International, a
global fashion house with hundreds of doors across 80 countries,
has partnered with Microsoft Corp. and Medius to ensure it can
continue to deliver on the avant-garde and fine-arts-driven brand
its customers have come to expect with each collection. Achieving
this requires more than harnessing the talents of some of the most
creative and forward-thinking designers in the industry; the
company realized that to let creativity flow freely, it had to
streamline and automate a key part of its supply chain.
In the fashion industry, inspiration strikes quickly, and
innovation happens every few months in the form of the newest
collection, making supply-chain management a complex task. The
success of each collection depends on Marc
Jacobs' ability to quickly engage with these suppliers,
receive the materials needed, and get products from the runway to
the rack in as little time as possible. Further complicating the
process, designers and creatives are working months in advance to
anticipate trends for next season even before this season's
collection is available.
This model of engaging many suppliers for each collection
creates a high volume of invoices. To solve this challenge,
Marc Jacobs automated its accounts
payable (AP) workflow by leveraging a hybrid cloud approach. The
company uses MediusFlow, a Microsoft Azure-based AP invoice
automation solution that integrates directly with Microsoft
Dynamics 365, the company's on-premises enterprise resource
planning (ERP) solution. By having better control over its AP
processes, Marc Jacobs was able to
immediately improve supplier relations by ensuring invoices were
correctly routed and paid on time.
"At Marc Jacobs, we're launching a completely new offering every
four months — a model that's rather unique to the fashion
industry," said Regis Litre, Marc Jacobs CIO. "By embracing this
hybrid cloud model, we're better enabling and empowering creativity
to continue to push the envelope when it comes to our designs. Now,
we're able to tap into the most talented artisans around the world
to bring our avant-garde creations from the runway to our vast
network of stores and retailers as quickly as possible."
Today, 92 percent of Marc Jacobs'
invoices are routed to the correct approver without human
intervention, and time to pay invoices has been reduced from up to
90 days to just five days. Now, when invoices arrive in
Marc Jacobs' centralized AP inbox,
they are automatically routed to the appropriate approver by
MediusFlow, eliminating the age-old problem of invoices getting
buried in inboxes when someone is on vacation or even simply when
volume is high. Because the solution is cloud-based, approvers can
receive and approve the invoice from any device, anywhere – whether
they're in the office or out meeting with a new vendor. This not
only significantly improves the company's ability to innovate, it
also provides better insight and more transparency into the
company's bottom line.
"Marc Jacobs' success with
MediusFlow, Azure and Dynamics is a great example of how we can
combine the power of the Microsoft Cloud with the unique expertise
of our partners to help solve our mutual customers' most complex
business challenges, transform their businesses and allow them to
innovate as quickly as needed," said Judson
Althoff, executive vice president, Worldwide Commercial
Business, Microsoft. "Fashion trends change on a dime, and thanks
to the cloud, Marc Jacobs can now
stay well ahead of those trends to continue to delight its
customers."
About Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs (www.marcjacobs.com)
is a global brand that produces womenswear, menswear, accessories,
kidswear, jewelry, watches and fragrances. Started in 1986 with
business partner Robert Duffy,
Marc Jacobs has grown to include
hundreds of doors worldwide. Jacobs is one of the most celebrated
American designers to date also serving as the Design Director of
Louis Vuitton since 1997.
About Medius/MediusFlow
Medius is a leading global provider of accounts payable (AP)
invoice automation solutions in the cloud. The MediusFlow solution
automates and simplifies the entire accounts payable process,
enabling an unprecedented level of truly touchless invoice
processing, shortened lead times, greater control, and improved
visibility of financial metrics. The company has more than 2,500
customers around the globe – and over 150,000 unique cloud users.
www.mediusflow.com.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.