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Bernhardt Fashion CZ, s.r.o. (BFCZ) is a company dedicated to luxury tailor-made fashion production for demanding clients in 40 countries on 5 continents with about 800 Point-of-Sales. Each BFCZ product is an original. Data about individual product configurations set by customers (fabrics, colours, measures, cutting patterns etc.) is sent to the ERP system through a unique Made-to-Measure (MTM) configuration environment serving as ordering IS.

BFCZ manufacture their products in the Czech Republic, producing 300 products/pieces a day on average with delivery time of 3-4 weeks or shorter. With such a large product diversity and so many varied details for individual men's and ladies' suits, BFCZ's unique MTM configuration environment requires adequate support provided by a reliable IT ecosystem. This is why BFCZ decided to make a step forward and modernize their systems, with intention to

• perform a global reengineering of all business processes on brand new technologies based on SAP products,
• respond to customer/Point-of-Sales requirements and
• simplify processes and the structure of the company's information systems.

As a result, BFCZ decided to implement SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management and SAP Commerce in cooperation with MIBCON Group.

In the Business Blueprint phase, the project was divided into 2 stages which were managed separately:

Stage 1 – Finance, Logistics and Production (SAP S/4HANA 1709)
Stage 2 – Sales and Ordering Portal (SAP Hybris Commerce)

One of the main steps was the replacement of two ERP systems (IFS system AMF Reece and SAP ERP 4.6 Bernhardt Fashion) with just new and only solution (IS SAP S/4HANA 1709), maintaining the company's unique MTM development.

The main challenge of the project was to replace old systems (IFS, SAP R/3) with one and only solution that would be able to provide better funcionality and user focus and enable further innovativon.

Among other requirements, the new system was also expected to work with the original know-how and to cover central processes within the frame of Czech legislation.

The key mission of the project was to implement a new global multi-language IT ecosystem that would:

• be available 24/7, 
• enable the business partners to place their orders through web with maximum Point-of-Sales support, 
• process the orders through production,
• support the effective management of the production, logistics and financials in the real time.

The new solution was also expected to:

• accelerate financial and logistics processes and execute them more efficiently, 
• equip the company with most up-to-date and progressive systems and support their expansion on the global market.

As a result, SAP S/4HANA 1709 was implemented as greenfield implementation, followed up with SAP Hybris Commerce implementation.

The SAP S/4HANA implementation has brought BFCZ several significant enhancements:

• Faster and smoother dispatch of goods. 50% of manpower was saved due to reduction in administration and documentation tasks related to export of goods. The entire shipping process was optimized and accelerated in the new system, resulting in 20–40% savings on shipping costs.

• Simplification and acceleration of invoicing. Originally, invoices were issued via an additional international entity. Now, all of invoicing to trading partners is done electronically and directly from SAP S/4HANA.

• Enhanced receivables management. The solution includes the possibility to block deliveries until unpaid invoices are paid and to notify customers about their open receivables simultaneosly, with automatic notifications.

• Accelerated goods takeover at the warehouse. In the previous information system, each item of goods had to be taken over individually. The new system can take over the entire set in one click. It reduced the time needed to take goods into stock by almost 70 %.

Faster decision-making process, real-time data analysis. Originally, it could take days to prepare reports and financial statements. Now, the system is able to report results and financial statements instantly.

This innovative project was awarded with a Bronze Medal at SAP Quality Awards.