Centric Software announced that the latest releases of its flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, Centric 8 PLM versions 6.4 and 6.5, are now available. The newest releases are driven by feedback from Centric’s Customer Advisory Board and close partners from retail, fashion, outdoor and consumer goods.
“This update of Centric 8 responds to the increasing pace of new product introductions, the necessity to maximize best-sellers and the need to create innovative designs quickly,” explains Ron Watson, VP of Product at Centric Software. “In order for brands and retailers to offer a variety of well-designed goods, hundreds of thousands of design proposals or prototypes might be reviewed with as few as ten percent retained for development. Brands and retailers also want to minimize risk and keep consumers happy by offering variations of best-selling, core designs. Of course, all of this has to be done quickly as time to market and time to trend are key.”
During the past year, Centric Software worked with large retailers and brands on many innovations that facilitate the high volume development of products such as tools that enable the simultaneous development of hundreds of styles and multiple seasons, streamline the development of goods for multiple markets and the groundbreaking AI Image Search for faster decision-making in design and development.
Centric 8 PLM v6.5 continues this theme with several new innovations including 3D and CAD-agnostic 3D Sample Review. Retailers and brands can use 3D technology from any CAD vendor for rapid product visualization and prototyping thus dramatically speeding product iterations while also reducing time to market and prototyping costs.
High-volume sourcing capabilities found in v6.5 are particularly well-suited for brands, retailers and multi-category retailers that co-design and source finished products from suppliers. New tools allow users to quickly issue design briefs to many suppliers and agents simultaneously, gather and iterate designs in Centric 8, and seamlessly launch development leading to a dramatic increase in both product innovation and the number of products launched, said the company.
It is also now possible to easily vary a core design in many different materials, colors, sizes, trims or other styling details. New innovations in Centric 8 introduce new levels of efficiency by drawing on common product characteristics but simultaneously varying key details. With these new tools, one technical designer can manage hundreds of styles at once and companies can easily produce thousands of variations to serve different target customers, geographies and sales channels.
“Centric PLM, specifically the new tools for sourcing included in Centric 8 v6.5, will help us provide our customers with even more great products at great prices to deliver on our promise of Trustworthy Value. With Centric PLM, we are leveraging innovative technology to collaborate more closely with our vendor partners so that Big Lots teams can provide our customers with improved quality, fashion and value.,” says Ryan Shuster VP OF Global Sourcing at Big Lots.
“We are delighted to announce that Centric is expanding the definition of what PLM can do with the release of version 6.5,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “We worked in close partnership with large retailers and brands to create innovations that will make it easier for companies to retail, develop and source a wider variety of products faster and more efficiently. Centric continues to provide solutions that give our partners the edge in a competitive global marketplace.”
