Elie Tahari

This Windows on Technology focuses on the company of Elie Tahari, a top fashion designer. The company is considered the pioneers of the "shop-in-shop" concept. This means that high fashion department stores like Saks and Bloomingdales set aside a dedicated section in their stores solely to sell the Tahari line.

Just a few years ago, Tahari was still using shipping documents to track goods. The sales data received was "misleading" because it was incomplete, redundant, or inconsistent. It would take many days for Tahari's employees to sort through and make heads and tails of the data and wouldn't be able to provide the information until midweek.

Tahari has implemented new systems. These systems allow managers visibility and provide them with up to date information. Tahari has outsourced with Edifice and KWI to collect and cleanse the weekly retail data from stores before entering the corporation data warehouse. They also have a reporting and analysis system called Inseam which comes from WebFOCUS. It provides users the ability to run reports on orders, inventory, sales, and finance which is generated from Apparel Computer Systems supplied by Computer Generated Solutions.

The sales department is able to determine what is selling and what customers have on order. Executives can drill down to the detail to further customize these reports.

WebFOCUS has a function called Reportcaster that allows reports to be sent via email on a scheduled basis or any time they want. It makes gathering information much easier and on a timelier basis. It also has a security feature that only allows authorized personnel to access the functions relating to their job.

The ability to access information instantly has decreased Tahari's inventory in the warehouse and allows the company to know what merchandise needs to be replenished at each store. The costs at one key shipping delivery process were lowered