Getting There: Long Journey To New Systems

Ellen Martin knows firsthand what it's like to spearhead a complex, multiyear, multimillion-dollar business-technology overhaul at one of the world's largest companies. As VP of supply-chain management at VF Corp. and one of the five business-technology executives leading the transformation under Boyd Rogers, she's been in the trenches since VF began planning its rollover to best-of-breed, packaged software in the mid-'90s.

The hard work has paid off for VF: a stellar reputation for being on the leading edge of deploying applications tailored for an underserved industry, and deeper relationships with the vendors it has partnered with to develop expertise in their software. For Martin, the work also has meant opportunities to collaborate with business partners at every level to ensure that IT is in line with business goals. "To actually do a good job, you can't be totally focused on technology," she says. "Five-billion-dollar companies don't judge software on its coolness. You have to understand the problem and where the company is going."

There've been times when the task has been almost overwhelming. For example, Martin calls i2 Technologies Inc.'s supply-chain planning application the "hardest piece of software I've ever dealt with." But her team members have become whizzes at wringing more value out of the tool by figuring how to exploit it and writing new code around it.

VF's IT staffers have written more than 80 programs to let the i2 software pull data from all its different systems, such as a Cobol-based mainframe application and SAP enterprise resource planning software. By leveraging data from different sources, the planning software can incorporate last year's financial information, for example, to more accurately plan next year's forecasts. Martin likens the effort to exercise: no pain, no gain. "This system is for the very savvy," she says.

She also learned that you can't depend on vendors to tell you the true functionality of their systems. Sometimes it's because vendors don't really have the apparel-manufacturing industry knowledge to recognize that their products, as is, aren't up to the task. Martin had to work closely with SAP and i2 to develop systems that could handle VF's particular requirements. "We get in on the ground floor and tend to share our intellectual property so we can get a pretty slick product," Martin says. "Our relationship with SAP goes way back, and so does our relationship with i2. These are partnerships. It's not like going out and buying an appliance."

Even though VF had already chosen SAP for its enterprisewide ERP applications, it turned to i2 for supply-chain planning software because it was the more robust. But its close relationship with SAP in developing software for its operation resulted in the SAP Apparel Footwear Solution that's available today. Among the improvements: the ability to combine sales forecasts with minimum buys, in order to get price breaks from bulk sourcing without affecting demand.

Martin can look back and ahead with pride. VF's Outdoor division's switch to the common systems architecture is nearly finished, with its Intimates, Playwear, and Imagewear divisions to follow. "Outdoor went much more smoothly than Jeanswear, and I expect the next one will go even more smoothly," she says. It all proves the value of VF's--and Martin's--philosophy: "Break things into smaller chunks, get them in, and show value. The more moving parts, the less likely you'll be on time and on budget."

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