The Nookie & Nookie Beach labels are available in over 200 stores. We produce up to eight collections a year. We use The Grand Social currently to manage our online sales. We will soon launch the Nookie flagship store online.
I felt Nookie was a perfect candidate to receive the grant this year. We are in a good position to invest the time into implementing the new system. We felt that the introduction of an Enterprise Management System (EMS) was very important at this time as it will enable Nookie to go to the next level with respect to managing larger orders and generally communicating effectively. I’m sure, like most businesses of this sort, we have been using spreadsheets to manage all the information relating to our day to day activity. Even though we have developed some great systems over the years, this still means hours of re-keying information. The EMS we chose enables us to key information only once and then use and access that information many times simply by clicking a button. This should save us hours of time and let us get back to what is the crux of our business and that’s designing and selling fashion clothing. The other key thing that an EMS needs to do for a business like Nookie is improve communication. For this reason I felt that it was essential to choose a web-based EMS. The system will improve communication within Nookie and also enable us to provide other people like customers, factories and suppliers with direct access to specific information that they need from us no matter where they are in Australia or the world. Same goes for myself and Nookie staff; being a web based system, we can access the entire system wherever we are.
I think one of the really great things about this EMS is that I can log on to my com system from any computer in the world. This EMS will allow me to manage my entire company from the one system, from sampling and taking sales orders to production, warehousing and distribution. We are currently rolling out the system in stages, and will develop, sell, manufacture and deliver a season as we implement. The role out is staggered in a way that allows us to continue running the business and not impact too heavily on our time and resources throughout this period. We have already put all of our customer, supplier and style information into the system and the sales orders will be next to go. Already we are seeing fantastic time savings as the web-based technology that runs the system allows us to do “Google like” searches to find information while sales order creation is just a matter of simply dragging and dropping styles as opposed to keying endless amounts of data into spreadsheets. I think there are two key challenges that a web-based EMS helps solve: managing large amounts of changing information and communicating effectively both internally and with customers and suppliers. Information needs to be correct so as to avoid costly mistakes and an EMS is the only thing that can ensure that the same information is shared across all steak-holders.
Once a business like this gets past a certain size I think you need to be incredibly organised to be able to keep track of where you are, especially in terms of sales and production. This system is not going to make decisions for me, however it will provide me with the information I need to make the right decisions with the click of a button. I also plan to increase my travel to continue to grow the Nookie brand here and abroad. It will be great to have all the information at my finger tips wherever I am. Things are changing, it is not a traditional marketplace anymore. People are still spending but it is all about communicating with them on a different level. Engaging in social media, Facebook and online sales are paramount to making sales and promoting growth in this new climate. Another key area of concern is debtors. More and more stores seem to be closing down or struggling to pay their bills. It is a huge risk to small fashion businesses to have trade debtors unmanaged.
We are embracing the challenge and are excited about the possibilities of brand building and growth on a global scale that the new world of online retail/branding provides. We are dedicated to developing social media strategy and online presence. Our flagship Nookie online store will launch soon and we will invest in communication, search engine marketing and optimization, as well as continually support our stockists here and around the world with increased brand building. With regards to managing debtors, this is an every day commitment to keep on top of. We are also revisiting our trading terms to minimize the risk as best we can. In 2011, we will introduce the online EMS and the webstore, as well as commence distribution into Japan and Europe.
Head to www.ragtrader.com.au/blogs to see how Nevenka director Rosemary Masic will use her $50,000 grant.Designers Studio
