Over the last 13 months, consumer goods companies across the globe have experienced dramatic change in response to supply chain disruption and pandemic-related upheaval. Ready or not, businesses pivoted toward alternative revenue streams, distribution channels and operational strategies in order to keep the lights on. Consumers were equally affected, adapting to the ways of the new normal.
Also in 2020, employees transitioned to “work from home” status for the first time, making Zoom meetings a part of the everyday routine. By December of that year, nearly 350M users participated daily. For perspective, that’s 340M more users than the year before. Similarly, there was a surge in the use of Microsoft Teams. In October of 2020, at least 115M users were active on the platform, as opposed to July of 2019, when there were only 13M. Everything from planning sessions to fit reviews had to be done virtually, and companies without a solid digital foundation scrambled to get up and run.
Rethinking How You Do Business
Pandemic-induced changes haven’t just forced fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies to rethink the way they conduct business; they’ve also sparked a retail revolution of sorts, compelling industry professionals to reconsider new ways of achieving strategic goals. What these retailers eventually learned is that in today’s fast-paced, ever-collaborating world of consumer goods and apparel, it’s essential to modernize business processes—or else.
An Essential Tool for Modern Brands: Product Lifecycle Management
What modern retailers have come to find is that in order to stay successful in today’s disruptive market, it’s crucial to implement digital technology to help build organizational resilience, and that technology comes in the form of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).
PLM enables digital transformation and strengthens companies’ remote collaboration capabilities via cloud-based communication. That means no matter where your teams set up shop—be it two doors down or two time zones away—they can easily and effectively communicate project-related updates in real time, instantaneously.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 100 companies representing 500+ distinct brands have selected Centric PLM™ as their digital platform of choice. Retailers like TechStyle and Frankies Bikinis have leveraged the many capabilities of Centric PLM, including its social features to maximize efficiency and drive effective remote collaboration across the product development chain. Features like Slack integration, instant messaging and annotation—combined with top-notch mobile functionality—ensures companies a streamlined product development process that dramatically quells costly mistakes.
Come join us on April 15 as we chat about this—and a whole lot more—at our digital event, “Supercharge Digital Collaboration with Social PLM by Centric.” Gain valuable insight into how businesses build agility and resilience in response to supply chain disruption, and discover what PLM empowers them to do.
Discover Social PLM by Centric Software. Register today and learn to enable remote collaboration, drive visibility throughout product development and increase speed to market.
