All-Star Apparel

One of the common characteristics among this year's Apparel All-Star winners, featured in this issue, is the way in which they have implemented technology solutions to enhance productivity, achieve goals and make their business processes more efficient, without taking their eyes off the ultimate target: The consumer, and how to serve him or her best.

Most companies aspire to achieve this objective. Apparel's 2005 Readership Survey indicated that 96.4 percent of respondents are continually seeking new products, technologies, solutions and services to improve competitiveness. The survey results also indicated many of you will implement new systems in the coming year, with your top three investment priorities focusing on product development and pre-production processes (53.6 percent of respondents); sourcing (44.2 percent); and merchandising, planning and allocation (41.5 percent).

Furthermore, the top two goals of your companies in terms of business evolution include increasing speed to market (50 percent) and differentiating your product lines from those of your competitors (49.2 percent).When the holidays are over, and you're back at your desk mapping out objectives and analyzing solutions for your company, remember that implementation does not take place in a vacuum, and that technology alone cannot fix faulty business processes.

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