SilverBlaze Solutions and IBM Help Picadilly Fashions Boost Sales

Automated Supply Chain System Processes Orders 60 Percent Faster in a Secure E-Commerce Environment

SilverBlaze Solutions and IBM today announced that Picadilly Fashions has transformed its business operations into a successful business to business enterprise by implementing an automated supply chain management system. As a result of the new system, Picadilly Fashions has seen a 25 percent uptake in sales and a 60 percent increase in order processing time.

Built on IBM's open standards technology, the SilverBlaze and IBM solution deliver the highest levels of service, by processing orders around-the-clock for its global customer base. The joint solution is connected to the company's back-end applications that manage inventory, customer order and credit history and product pricing. This tight back-end integration ensures that the right products -- drawn from an inventory of 10,000 styles -- are shipped to the right customers at the right time.

Moving from a manual to an automated system, Picadilly Fashions has cut order-processing time from an average of 15 minutes to less than 5 minutes by moving to an online model.

As a global supplier of women's apparel to retailers in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and more, Picadilly Fashions is a small-to-medium business with less than 200 employees. Although the business had a respectable revenue stream and customer base, it was important for Picadilly Fashions to update its technology and machinery to continue growing its business and meeting customer demands.

In addition to improving the customer buying experience, the Silverblaze and IBM solution will help Picadilly Fashions employ new marketing and advertising techniques to explore new markets. By publicizing special promotions and publishing banner advertisements over the Internet, the company hopes to attract new customers and double the number of online registrants within the next year.

"Our investment in the open and integrated SilverBlaze and IBM solution has given us the tools to become a more flexible and responsive on-demand business," said XXX of Picadilly Fashions. "By moving our customer ordering system online, we have simplified and shortened the administrative process for our customers and increased business productivity and profits within our organization. Undoubtedly, this solution will play a critical role in our growth strategy in coming years."

Picadilly Fashions adopted SilverBlaze's CAPRICORN module for Catalogue Ordering, combined with IBM's WebSphere Application Server Express 5.0* and DB2 Universal Database Express 8.1 for Linux* platforms. As one of Canada's most successful apparel manufacturers, Picadilly Fashions has grown from a company of 15 employees to a thriving manufacturing operation with more than 200 people within the past 20 years. The company's line of apparel can be found in many countries, including the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and others.

"Picadilly Fashions is a good example of how a company can transform itself into a powerful e-business entity by making a strategic technology investment," said Dan Mair, director of e-business solutions, SilverBlaze Solutions. "IBM's non-proprietary middleware platforms, coupled with SilverBlaze's Internet transaction processing application, can not only strengthen the backbone of a customer's e-commerce site, but can seamlessly fit into any organization's IT infrastructure -- harnessing the power of existing applications and databases."

SilverBlaze Solutions is an IBM Premier Business Partner and a member of IBM's PartnerWorld Industry Networks program.

*Denotes a trademark or registered trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation.

About IBM

With 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate, IBM is the world's largest information technology company. IBM is a leading provider of e-business solutions and is dedicated to helping companies, business partners and developers leverage the potential of the Internet and network computing across a wide range of businesses and industries. The company offers a host of cross-industry and industry-specific solutions designed to meet the needs of companies of all sizes. For more information on partnering with IBM, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld.

About SilverBlaze Solutions

SilverBlaze Solutions provides small and medium business (SMB) customers affordable and responsive on demand business solutions.

Headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, SilverBlaze Solutions provides IBM WebSphere and Lotus Domino-based e-business solutions, as well as consulting and development services, to organizations throughout North America. SilverBlaze's robust, cost-effective e-business products emphasize ease of integration and management, and rapid return on investment -- empowering organizations to maximize productivity, and reduce the cost of doing business.

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