MARC O´POLO has been positioned for more than 50 years as one of the leading producers in the premium modern casual wear segment – a success that could have been hardly achieved without continuous progress and consistent further development of the company. The practiced symbiosis of tradition and zeitgeist is not only reflected in the fashion collections but also in the corporate culture, the distinguished brand image, and in the future-oriented process design.

As early as in the year 2010, Koppermann accomplished to win over MARC O´POLO with a Product Lifecycle Management solution (PLM) – a successful partnership that has brought about numerous innovations to this day.

Another milestone was now to follow in 2019: For the first time, Koppermann implements the new PLM solution TEX-DEFINE™ CS PLUS at MARC O´POLO.

Special focus rests on a quick and intuitive application in the everyday processes of the fashion line development, which requires organised functions and simple input possibilities. TEX-DEFINE™ CS PLUS made a compelling case here, especially with the clearly structured and manageable OpenDialogue, which is the central control centre of every user. It stands out for the highly flexible formatting options of the tabular result display that each user can configure quickly and easily, using drag & drop to match his personal requirements. A complete restructuring and lasting optimisation of the user interface has furthermore resulted in much shorter mouse paths and significantly simpler user guidance. In this manner, the buttons were designed very closely along the collection’s development process, so that the first test users at MARC O´POLO do not want to do without TEX-DEFINE™ CS PLUS anymore. The clearly noticeable application speed, the modern user interface and especially the convenient usability have convinced the team from the second go.

This is because besides the numerous new filter functions in combination with multi-level free text searches, any item is now available within seconds and even comprehensive queries via the SQL-based database server delivers instant results, even when the complete search is not finished yet.

For Tobias Kneißl, Group Manager IT Application Management & Collaboration at MARC O´POLO, this complete 64-bit based performance of TEX-DEFINE CS PLUS is clearly the biggest benefit. “Usability has tremendously improved for us with CS PLUS and the well-organised menu guidance allows us a quick and precise application. Also the favourites setting, as well as the picture and Unicode display in the OpenDialogue are particularly helpful,” reports Kneißl.

User friendliness and efficiency were also in the foreground for the output of documents. Accordingly, a completely new and independent printing mechanism was developed for TEX-DEFINE™ CS PLUS, which not only allows the precise sending of variants but includes also a native display of PDF files.

Transparent data management

Another important point of a successful product lifecycle management is the high transparency of data management. With TEX-DEFINE™ CS PLUS, the entire input process becomes exportable and trackable without omissions. This means a plus in efficiency for MARC O´POLO, because error messages, false input and incorrect applications can thereby be understood easily and consequently be fixed immediately. This way, the administrator receives a detailed report on occurring errors and their frequency, so that he can respond to insufficient applications or system problems with the utmost precision, without being influenced by individual error reports or driven by subjective perceptions.

This transparency played a decisive role especially in the course of the implementation.
“In a pilot project, you have to overcome lots of obstacles,” says Jacqueline Mack, IT Application Manager at MARC O´POLO, “we first had to struggle with many bugs and related energy losses. But the excellent cooperation with Koppermann, the direct lines of communication, and quick response times let us master the project together. Our cloud-based shared priority list was the linchpin for the entire team in the process.”

Release management

MARC O´POLO sets the highest of standards for a high-performance and efficient process structure. For example, also numerous individual modules were added to the existing PLM application. As part of a special RELEASE MANAGEMENT, Koppermann offers the possibility here to make testing or changing the various database versions as easy as child’s play. This way, MARC O´POLO was able to test the upcoming rollouts with select key users already at an early stage of the project, and this way, contribute to a permanent error minimisation. Features and versions are distributed simultaneously to different user groups without affecting compatibility between them. This unique handling of different versions within one solution enables MARC O´POLO not only to run a simple test procedure for updates but also to integrate individual projects incredibly easily and quickly into the existing application environment. Koppermann and MARC O´POLO are looking forward to many exciting projects and developments in the future as well.

About MARC O´POLO

MARC O´POLO stands for sophisticated, contemporary premium modern casual wear. The preference for natural materials, high quality and special details characterise the particular style of the premium brand with Scandinavian roots – quite according to its founders’ philosophy: Freedom to stay true to yourself. With this claim, MARC O´POLO has become one of the internationally leading brands in its segment.

Founded in 1967 in Stockholm, the MARC O´POLO world today includes the independent collections of MARC O´POLO Modern Casual, MARC O´POLO DENIM, MARC O´POLO Shoes and MARC O´POLO Accessories as well as the licenses Bodywear, Beachwear, Eyewear, Home, Junior and Legwear. The headquarters of MARC O´POLO AG are located south of Munich in Stephanskirchen. From there, nationally and internationally, around 2,200 retail and franchising partners as well as the company’s own stores are supplied. MARC O´POLO is available in more than 30 countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Ireland, France and China, Poland, Russia and in the Eastern European region. Moreover, the MARC O´POLO collections are offered via its own online shops in 20 countries at www.marc-o-polo.com.