How home furnishings brands can grow and flourish in 2019

Since Sunrise is headquartered in North Carolina, we are surrounded with reminders of the home furnishings industry. We even have the world’s largest chair. Everyone knows that mid-April and mid-October are terrible times to host out-of-town guests, as every hotel, restaurant, and highway is packed with the 80,000 people attending the High Point Furniture Market (or just “Market” to the locals). And yet, even though the home furnishings industry has such a big role in the economy, both locally and nationally, it is facing increasingly tough challenges.

There are the historical issues, like rising costs, and the ever-present desire to cut costs and increase profitability, but new concerns are working their way into the mix. The effort to keep costs low and profits high has led to increasingly complex, global supply chains.

Changing buyer behavior means potentially expanding into new channels, providing value-added service to brick-and-mortar locations, and an emphasis on exceptional customer service. These challenges are all part of the everyday conversation for furnishings executives – and it’s a lot to keep up with! This is especially true if the organization’s foundational technology is outdated or no longer a good fit for this more complex operational environment.

We’ve compiled nine of these common challenges (and their solutions!) into a new, interactive eBook. Each page addresses an issue that can put a strain on business operations, the underlying technological infrastructure, and ways to address them – before they impact the bottom line. Get your free copy today!

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Whether you’re exploring your options for new business platforms, or ready to get started, we are trusted business partners for some of the world’s most well-known brands. With over 25 years of experience with the Microsoft stack, we can help you understand all the capabilities Microsoft has to offer.

Don’t go chasing waterfalls: Comparing ERP deployment strategies

We all know that ERP implementations are tricky things. From 2012 to 2016, 55% of implementations exceeded their planned budgets and 66% took longer than planned. But…why? ERP isn’t exactly a new concept and you’d think, by now, there’d be a consensus on the best, easiest, and cheapest way to implement. Clearly, that isn’t the case. While there are many possibilities for these troubling statistics, let’s consider one that shows up in nearly every result when you Google “why ERP implementations fail”: project management. And more specifically, how best to approach an implementation timeline. Should you go waterfall, agile, or something in between?

Why Waterfall?

Waterfall approaches have traditionally been favored by companies with simpler, static business practices. It’s easy to see why this concept is alluring. Project owners have a strong belief that they understand how their business works, so why not just get all the planning for each process out of the way and get going already! But, as the name suggests, once you start going down a waterfall, there’s no going back up – at least not without extreme effort and pain. In fact, the more complex a technology project is, the more wasteful it is to write exhaustive requirements upfront.

A waterfall approach also doesn’t handle change very well and issues seem to most often appear at the very end. So, any expansion of scope, any process that didn’t make it into the initial planning, any deviation at all from the original plan is going to end up costing you. You also run the risk of finding out in the CRP (at which point go-live is imminent and most of the budget spent) that there are critical problems with the system that must be addressed. Finally, waterfall processes often assume that both a problem and its solution are contained in the same area. Well, you know what they say about assuming things… This operation-centric approach struggles to encompass multiple divisions involved in any given business process.

Waterfall deployments do have some positive aspects. For one thing, expectations are set early on regarding deliverables, making planning and designing more straightforward. Additionally, there are relatively clear benchmarks to measure progress. Finally, for businesses that don’t have many internal resources or stakeholders that are in different physical locations, after the requirements phase there is little need for input from the client until the very end of the project. But these benefits rarely outweigh the potential risks in moving forward with a waterfall approach.

Agile Deployments Suit More Complex Projects

On the other hand, a traditional agile implementation approaches each business process iteratively and considers how multiple business units may impact any given process. Instead of finding issues at the end, they can be addressed during multiple rounds of testing and design. For a more complex and dynamic business, an agile implementation gives the company more opportunities to ensure that the software accurately represents the business both at the outset of the project and at the end.

An agile approach isn’t without its own challenges. Although it is almost always better to have more input from the business at each stage, traditional agile deployments require a high degree of involvement, someone who is completely dedicated to the project, and teams that are in the same physical space. For many organizations, this is simply not possible for a wide variety of logistical, practical, and who-only-does-ONE-thing-in-their-role-anymore reasons. Additionally, because of the frequent reprioritization of a traditional agile deployment, it’s possible that not every sprint would be complete by go-live and it can be hard to track progress.

Hybrid Deployments = Best of Both Worlds

That leaves us with a hybrid approach that takes the best of both methods. A hybrid method defines the work upfront, borrowing defined phases of development and high-level requirement setting from the waterfall approach. Frequent iteration, testing, and cross-divisional engagement are added from the agile method. Combined, businesses can take advantage of a clear project roadmap with concrete, achievable phases where progress is easy to track, yet still flexible enough to accommodate any unforeseen challenges or changes to the business. All while exposing and engaging end users to the new solution for as long as possible (another well-documented key to implementation success) through frequent, but not all-consuming, check-ins.

This hybrid approach recognizes that any project with the scope and complexity of an ERP implementation is about more than just developing software. It’s about addressing broad operational concerns and transforming the business, so it can tackle challenges today, tomorrow, and years from now.

Ultimately, each method has its own pros and cons and it is up to the organization, along with a trusted partner, to determine which method is the best fit.

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

10 challenges facing the apparel industry (and how to solve them!)

Don't Let Common Problems Slow You Down

Whether your apparel business is manufacturing, distribution, retail, or a mix of everything, there are unique challenges inherent in the industry. These are just a sample of the problems we cover in this interactive eBook.

No two ways about it – apparel is a multi-dimensional product and sometimes it is even configurable! With thousands of potential combinations, you’ve got to have an intelligent management solution.

With long lead times and a complex supply chain, there’s little room for error when forecasting demand. Intelligent allocation is a must to avoid unhappy customers and a ding to the company’s reputation.

Keeping the perfect, balanced ratio of stock is a very fine line to walk. Retail replenishment engines can help but usually, these include a costly implementation and integration to your ERP or merchandising system. What if there was a better, faster, cheaper way?

Sunrise Technologies

Sunrise Technologies is a global, gold-certified Microsoft Partner specializing in the implementation and support of Dynamics 365. Sunrise also provides exclusive extensions and capabilities in key industries – apparel, footwear, consumer goods, and home furnishing companies with manufacturing, distribution, and/or retail operations.

Let us help you implement your great ideas today.

– sunrise.co –

Apparel operations in the cloud

Your Clothes Aren't One Size Fits All...and Neither Is The Cloud

It’s one thing if your “one size fits all” sweatpants start getting a little tight. But what happens when your business solutions start feeling pinched?

Prior to the mechanized loom, apparel manufacturing was a slow, costly business. Thanks to the industrial revolution, apparel manufacturers, retailers, and sourcing organizations are able to (mostly) keep up with a dizzying pace of change. We are in the midst of another revolution, but a technical one. Just as you wouldn’t use a foot powered sewing machine to make your clothes, the time of antiquated, inflexible, monolithic business systems is over.

Sunrise Customer Stories

Chrome Hearts Store: Apparel and Accessories Trend Setter Grows with Microsoft ERP

FILA: Will Better Serve Apparel and Footwear Customers with Cloud ERP

Vera Bradley: Dynamics 365 at the Heart of Its Digital Transformation

Get Your Money's Worth

Save time and gain instant value when you deploy Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Sunrise industry extensions.

Ready. Set. Retail. How new technologies and the cloud can help save retail

Future-proof your retail business with the cloud

There are a lot of gloom and doom stories about retailers in the news recently. However, this is just a symptom of changing times and consumer expectations — not a death sentence for existing organizations. With the help of new technology and the cloud, retailers still have a chance to strengthen their brands, increase revenue, and optimize operational efficiency. In this eBook, we cover:

Delighting customers with the most unlikely of resources
Building brand loyalty with superior customer service (all from one application!)
Using effective merchandise management to help expand product lines
How embedded BI dashboards can increase speed, flexibility, and visibility

Sunrise Technologies

With the help of new technology and the cloud, retailers can strengthen their brands, increase revenue, and optimize operational efficiency. The cloud is the critical ingredient needed to build a competitive advantage to ensure your retail brand stands the test of time. Fill out the form above to gain access.

61 % of growth-oriented businesses are focused on moving from on-premise to cloud solutions to better engage customers, empower employees, and optimize operations.

Select Retail Customer Stories

Chrome Hearts Store: Apparel and Accessories Trend Setter Grows with Microsoft ERP

FILA: Will Better Serve Apparel and Footwear Customers with Cloud ERP

Vera Bradley: Dynamics 365 at the Heart of Its Digital Transformation

Get Your Money's Worth

Save time and gain instant value when you deploy Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Sunrise industry extensions.

How retail replenishment runs on Microsoft Dynamics 365

Retail Replenishment is a Must

Let’s say you’re a typical brand – you’ve got retail stores, tens of thousands of inventory points to track, and multiple point of sale (POS) systems. You rely on nightly batch jobs to move your POS data into your retail, store inventory, as well as incoming transfers, many other data points into your replenishment engine, run some calculations, and push the data back into your ERP system or merchandising system. Unfortunately, these systems are all disconnected, held together by complex and fragile integrations that could break at any time. And not doing any of these steps is simply not an option — getting replenishment right is critical to sustaining any brand with retail. While there are many retail replenishment systems out there, most exist outside of your ERP/merchandising systems and require expensive integrations and ongoing maintenance. Which isn’t ideal, since the hard part of retail replenishment, the inventory management, is so intrinsically connected to those systems. But what if you could manage your retail replenishment directly in your core business application? This would eliminate much of the expense of implementing another solution and would significantly decrease the number of integrations. Well, if you have Microsoft Dynamics 365, you can!

SIMPLE. POWERFUL. ELEGANT.

As a retailer, it’s a given that you’re going to have some kind of retail replenishment plan. If you’ve already decided on Dynamics 365 as the solution for you (by the way — excellent choice) then why go through the hassle of implementing an expensive third-party retail replenishment system when you can do it all from within Dynamics 365? That’s where Sunrise 365^® comes in.

Retail Replenishment Directly in Dynamics 365

We created the Sunrise 365® Retail Replenishment tool so brands could run their retail replenishment engine directly inside Dynamics 365. We were inspired to create this tool based on the experiences of our clients. After years of implementing Dynamics, a common problem our consultants repeatedly saw clients face was the extra cost and time spent integrating these tools into their ERP and merchandising systems. Implementing these systems, no matter how smoothly the project goes, is not a walk in the park and adding retail replenishment on to that was often challenging for organizations. We knew there had to be a better way. Our solution not only represents an incredible value (thanks to a very low price point) but also leads to a faster deployment of Dynamics 365.

Minimize Integrations

Why implement more tools than you have to? Instead of choosing a costly, third-party system, Sunrise 365^® Retail Replenishment lets you store all of your data in one place! It requires no integration with the built-in POS in Dynamics 365 – and only minimal integration if you want to keep an existing external POS solution.

Embedded Insights

Don’t let spreadsheets slow you down! Our retail replenishment solution uses Microsoft Power BI to serve up near real-time visual insights. Embedded throughout the solution across key workspaces, valuable, actionable information is always at your fingertips.

Tremendous Value

The beauty of Dynamics 365 is that all key functionality (ERP, CRM, BI, POS, and more!) can be found in a single solution – reducing overall complexity and total cost of ownership. Sunrise 365^® Retail Replenishment builds on that foundation and makes it even easier for retailers to get the most out of their investment.

Sunrise 365^® Retail Replenishment is part of our Sunrise 365^® Supply Chain solution and cannot be implemented independently of that solution.

Replenish store inventory with an intelligent rules engine—without the hassle and cost of implementing an expensive third-party system.

Our solution is based on an engine that’s completely configurable inside Dynamics 365. Microsoft Power BI dashboards are embedded in the system for faster reporting and ensure that critical information is only a glance away. Built on years of retail deployment experience, our solution can:

Prioritize stores so flagship locations get scarce inventory first
Enabling multiple fulfillment warehouses
Manage replenishment parameters such as order frequency, minimal, multiples, frequency and more
Import seasonality curves for seasonal lines, or other collections, managed down to the SKU level
Be run in simulation mode for planning purposes
Show you where you’re hitting minimum or maximum stock quantities with full-blown, time-saving exception management
Eliminates the need to export and re-import data, since the results are already inside your ERP system

Best of all, the results of your replenishment calculations are published via Power BI dashboards.

Take a look at some of these examples.

Replenishment Dashboard

The replenishment dashboard gives you a bird’s eye view of replenishment quantities by store and product. It can also offer replenishment suggestions by and offers suggestions for both as well.

Exceptions Dashboard

The exceptions dashboard tells you at a glance which product categories or which stores have the most exceptions and which categories those exceptions fall under.

Work Smarter (Not Harder)

As a retailer, it’s a given that you’re doing retail replenishment. Why go through the extra pain, effort, and expense of integrating a third-party system to Dynamics 365, when you can have everything you need built-in, at a fraction of the cost? If you’re interested in seeing Sunrise 365 Retail Replenishment in action, you can sign up here to see a demo. Plus, check out these other resources especially for retailers.

ONE MORE THING...

As a Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, we get it. Retail is its own beast, with unique challenges and requirements. Check out some of these other resources we’ve put together, just for retailers.

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Sunrise 365^® Supply Chain & Retail

Industry Focus: Retail

eBook: Ready. Set. Retail.

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Whether you’re exploring your options for new business platforms, or ready to get started, we are trusted business partners for some of the world’s most well-known brands. With over 30 years of experience with the Microsoft stack, we can help you understand all the capabilities Microsoft has to offer.

Leading the way to the cloud

Sunrise Leads the Way to the Cloud with Dynamics 365 Upgrade

The magic of matrices for apparel and footwear brands

STEP INTO THE MATRIX

If you work in the apparel/footwear industry, then you know the challenges of keeping up with multi-dimensional products — but what do you know about the solution?

If your organization is an apparel and/or footwear company, then it’s a given that you are dealing with multiple sizes, colors, and styles. While these kinds of product attributes can cause complexity (like managing products when you have thousands of SKUs), the solution, a matrix, is a bit harder to come by.

Apparel and footwear companies require a comprehensive, multi-dimensional product structure to accurately model product variants. However, this capability is somewhat of a rarity in both “vertical” fashion ERP software systems and most Tier 1 applications. We’ve often found that so-called vertical ERPs are little more than a glorified inventory management system that’s only tenuously (at best) connected to other business operations. Plus, niche players come with the added risk of questionable longevity – you never really know if they’re going to be around for the long haul.

And while Tier 1 systems certainly have the operational chops, many are too big and unwieldy to easily handle something like a matrix, so they end up requiring heavy customization. In over 20 years of ERP implementations, we’ve yet to meet anyone who was excited about tacking on thousands of extra development dollars just to handle the basic needs of their business.

If you want to really get crazy, think about trying to maintain data on products that are multi-dimensional and configurable in one of these systems. Driven by the consumer’s specific requirements, you’re talking about thousands of possible combinations that all must be intelligently managed to avoid excessive data maintenance on the product variants, their respective BOMs, and production routes.

To find a Tier 1 solution that can easily handle sophisticated, global operations as well as multi-dimensional, configurable items would be a bit like finding a unicorn in your backyard.

Well, meet your unicorn — Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Of the Tier 1 players, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has out-of-the-box style, color, size, configuration, and fit dimensions which can correctly model the inherent complexities of apparel and footwear products. While many other legacy systems have limitations in product hierarchies and multi-dimensional product management capabilities, Dynamics 365 is ready to tackle these challenges, head on, from day one.

Dynamics 365 is flexible enough to handle a matrix with ease while being powerful enough to tackle global, enterprise-level operations. And while this may seem rather magical, Dynamics 365 isn’t powered by fairy dust – it was built specifically for the intelligent cloud, and features deep integrations with other Microsoft tools (which you’re probably already using), along with other solutions like Power BI, Power Apps, and Microsoft Flow which all pull from a common data service.

It’s worth noting that while Dynamics 365 is pretty amazing, just like any other Tier 1 platform it starts out as a horizontal solution. Depending on your unique needs, it may need some industry-specific tweaks.

Now, you may be thinking, “what does Microsoft know about my business?” Well, the truth is, not a whole lot. That’s why they rely on industry partners, like Sunrise Technologies, who live and breathe specific industries to create these unique enhancements and industry-wide needs. For example, for apparel and footwear brands that are considering Dynamics 365 as their next cloud business solution, Sunrise offers a ready-to-go extension that not only gives you the industry functionality you need, but also saves a ton of time and hassle.

How does it work? So glad you asked!

Improves speed of transaction entry with matrices
Improving the speed at which transactions are keyed reduces unnecessary hours that can be used to better the business elsewhere. Because apparel and footwear companies work with finished goods that require color, size, and fit characteristics, transactions of all types typically contain several lines for the same style, but different end SKUs. The transaction matrices for sales, purchase, and transfer orders allow for all lines of a given style/fit combination to be quickly keyed using a color/size matrix.

Improves customer service and order taking
Ensuring a positive experience for your customers is key during phone order entry or a customer service call. In these scenarios, customers will often request information regarding the availability of a given SKU. To ensure that the order taker can quickly access this information, inventory availability is displayed, using matrix entry functionality, while orders are being taken.

Enhances customer-facing documents
While every organization has its own flavor of customer facing documents, a common request from apparel and footwear companies is to provide order details in a concise matrix format by color and size. To help speed the process of refining sales order confirmations, packing slips, and invoices during an implementation, the option has been added to display a configurable matrix on each document.

Finding a Tier 1 business system that’s a perfect fit for apparel and footwear companies can be tough – until you realize Microsoft Dynamics 365 is perfect for the job (with a little help from Sunrise). Only Sunrise 365™ industry extensions improve the automation and usability of Dynamics 365 for apparel and footwear companies. This suite of add-ons and services extends the core functionality and ultimately saves time and costly customizations. And, only Sunrise is an award-winning and well-recognized industry partner crossing Consumer Packaged Goods, Manufacturing, and Retail industries.

Want to see the magic happen in real time? Sign up for one of our retail demos today!

ONE MORE THING...

If you’re wondering how else Dynamics 365 may help your business, then you’ll probably want to check out one of these additional resources.

Sunrise 365^® Supply Chain

Sunrise 365^® Retail Replenishment

Industry Focus: Apparel

Industry Focus: Footwear

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Spotlight on: Supply chain

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Powering and connecting your business with the cloud

Powering and Connecting Your Business with the Cloud

“The Cloud” is not a buzzword. It is a fixture of modern business. It’s how you scale and future-proof, always able to handle the complexities of global business with cutting edge technology. Are you ready to engage, empower, optimize and transform with the cloud and unlock the on-premise handcuffs that are holding you back?

How Home Furnishings Brands Can Flourish in 2019

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

Why Waterfall?

Agile Deployments Suit More Complex Projects

Hybrid Deployments = Best of Both Worlds

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Sourcing And Planning And Soft Allocation – Oh My!

Don't Let Common Problems Slow You Down

Sunrise Technologies

Your Clothes Aren't One Size Fits All...and Neither Is The Cloud

Sunrise Customer Stories

Get Your Money's Worth

Future-proof your retail business with the cloud

Sunrise Technologies

Select Retail Customer Stories

Get Your Money's Worth

How Retail Replenishment Runs on Dynamics 365

Retail Replenishment is a Must

SIMPLE. POWERFUL. ELEGANT.

Retail Replenishment Directly in Dynamics 365

Minimize Integrations

Embedded Insights

Tremendous Value

Replenish store inventory with an intelligent rules engine—without the hassle and cost of implementing an expensive third-party system.

Replenishment Dashboard

Exceptions Dashboard

Work Smarter (Not Harder)

ONE MORE THING...

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Sunrise Leads the Way to the Cloud with Dynamics 365 Upgrade

Matrix Magic for Apparel and Footwear Business Systems

STEP INTO THE MATRIX

If you work in the apparel/footwear industry, then you know the challenges of keeping up with multi-dimensional products — but what do you know about the solution?

ONE MORE THING...

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Spotlight On: Supply Chain

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Powering and Connecting Your Business with the Cloud

Start Your Journey with Sunrise Today!

Implementing Great Ideas

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