In PART ONE we talked about the Sustainability accomplishments of Hunkemöller and how Hunkemöller, amongst other companies such as Scotch & Soda communicates its climate targets honestly and transparently, and makes an active contributions to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A lot of mid-sized companies are demonstrating their commitments to climate and people in their promotional campaigns, but frankly we can and should question whether they are really investing in making the world a better place to live.

🚧 Technology, at last

Quickly a chronological wrap up of the partners Hunkemöller hook up with before 2022 and 2023:

inriver (2014), Logility (2017), OneStream Software (2017), Marigold-Selligent (2018), Salesforce (2019, 2020).

In PART TWO we talk about the recent digital initiatives | innovations that are enabling Hunkemölleer to further grow and get a grip on its Supply Chain: Bamboo Rose PLM, SAP S/4HANA and Google Cloud.

🌄 Bamboo Rose PLM | January 2023

Hunkemöller selected the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Sourcing, and Purchase Order Management applications of Bamboo Rose to connect and streamline design, development, sourcing, and supply chain processes.

Bamboo Rose’s Multi-Enterprise Retail Management Platform and suite of connected business process applications will help Hunkemöller digitize product development processes to improve transparency to downstream teams, suppliers, and logistics partners.

At the same time the solution will help Hunkemöller to get a grip on their suppliers and sustainability initiatives. Just recently Bamboo Rose acquired Supply Pilot, a leading provider of supplier engagement and collaboration software, that transforms the way retailers work with their suppliers.

The enhanced supplier collaboration capabilities, will provide further supply chain visibility and foster Environmental, Social Governance (ESG) initiatives.

Digitizing the product lifecycle and supplier collaboration on Bamboo Rose will enable Hunkemöller to more cost effectively prepare products for different selling markets and account for upcoming Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) regulations that will impact core product development and sourcing operations.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Bamboo Rose and Columbus Consulting who will be key players in digitizing and streamlining our product management processes through seamless digital transparency and communication”

— Charlotte Davies, Chief Product Officer at Hunkemöller.

[See References: Hunkemöller Selects Bamboo Rose to Support Digital PLM and Sourcing Operations Amidst Growth Plans]

The Bamboo Rose Multi-Enterprise Retail Management Platform consists of:

For more details about the Bamboo Rose PLM solution check out: Bamboo Rose Multi-Enterprise Retail Management Platform.

🌄 SAP S/4HANA for Fashion Management | July 2023

How can a leading brand better serve its customers and accelerate omni-channel growth strategy in less than a year?

At the beginning of the year, lingerie specialist Hunkemöller decided to switch to SAP S/4HANA for Fashion Management.

Hunkemöller is active in 23 countries with more than 850 stores and several state-of-the-art webshops. Hunkemöller sells its lingerie through its own store channels and through other channels such as marketplaces, wholesalers and franchise organizations.

The lingerie collection is designed by the in-house team and the products are fully tested to ensure a high quality. The design team from Hunkemöller is constantly working on developing new products and innovations for a good price-quality ratio.

Hunkemöller is one of the fastest growing lingerie brands in Europe and wholesale is seen as an important pillar for future growth of the company in Europe and globally.

Unfortunately the existing on-premise SAP ECC environment and underlying IT architecture were having a hard time keeping up with the extensive growth of the wholesale activities.

At the beginning of the year Hunkemöller consciously chose 'Rise with SAP' to enable further growth ambitions in the coming years. The decision was taken based on the long relationship with SAP, the promising SAP Fashion Management solution and the fact that SAP was one of the few ERP providers that offered Hunkemöller complete freedom and flexibility in the choice of Hyperscaler.

Hyperscalers are large Cloud Service Providers (CSP) that offer Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and/or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) services.

In terms of architecture, in addition to its SAP Converged Cloud, built on OpenStack technology, SAP solutions must be able to run on the 4 largest Hyperscalers, namely Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure and Ali Cloud.

Hunkemöller selected Google Cloud because it offers not only an IaaS environment, but also data and analysis applications for more accurate customer segmentation.

“Many of our other processes already run in the Google Cloud. In addition to the SAP platform, we also do our application development on Google Cloud.”

— Gordon Smith, Global IT Director at Hunkemöller

This summer, Hunkemöller migrated to SAP ECC in the Google Cloud after a 6-month preliminary process during a smooth GO-Live migration.

Hunkemöller opted for a lift-and-shift approach in which its existing environment is first brought to the Google Cloud with minimal adjustments. The main advantage of lift-and-shift is that it allows to move a SAP system quickly to the cloud with minimal disruption or downtime.

However, Hunkemöller is far from ready. The transition to the SAP S/4 HANA-based Fashion Management solution has yet to be initiated.

Hunkemöller can now focus all its efforts on realizing the business wishes and requirements in/with SAP Fashion Management.

Hunkemöller’s digital transformation journey through RISE with SAP

In this interview with SAP, Gordon Smith, Global IT Director at Hunkemöller, discusses how "RISE with SAP" enabled the migration of Hunkemöller’s SAP environment to Google Cloud.

Note: For an extensive comparison of SAP S/4HANA with other ERP providers visit my Cloud ERP Comparison Table.

🌄 Google Cloud with Devoteam G Cloud | June 2023

Google Cloud announced a new partnership with Hunkemöller, a leading women's lingerie brand, to help improve its customer experience and accelerate its omnichannel growth strategy.

By leveraging Google Cloud's Data and Analytics capabilities including Looker, BigQuery and Vertex AI, Hunkemöller will be able to more precisely segment and activate its customers in accordance with its local data policies.

Using the data on its registered members — from both inside and outside Hunkemöller’s SAP® software environment — Hunkemöller can suggest the right size for customers based on their purchase history and preferences.

This will not only deliver a more personalized shopping experience, but also enable the company to reduce returns, streamline processes and provide an improved omnichannel experience.

Working together with Devoteam Hunkemöller discovered they needed to overcome several challenges before embarking on their digital transformation journey.

👉 Lack of in-house expertise, driving up the cost and complexity of the project because external teams have to dive deep into the bits and bites, the culture and processes of the company.

👉 Out-dated on-premise data architecture which was not scalable or agile enough to support the rapidly growing business of Hunkemöller.

👉 The existing on-premise systems couldn’t provide what was needed, leaving Hunkemöller without a big data analytics solution.

👉 Hunkemöller couldn’t use Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence with their current setup.

Reading the announcement on the website of Devoteam I realize that the new Data Analytics Environment which Hunkemöller needed was the first step for going to the Google Cloud.

So Devoteam paved the way for the lift-and-shift transition of SAP ECC to the Google Cloud.

[See references: How Hunkemöller optimises its retail business with a data transformation]

Hunkemöller Collaborates with Google Cloud

On June 26, 2023 Google Cloud announced a new partnership with Hunkemöller, a leading women's lingerie brand, to help improve its customer experience and accelerate its omnichannel growth strategy. The global retailer will use the RISE with SAP® solution to move its SAP® software workloads and IT infrastructure to Google Cloud to realize a more flexible, scalable, and data-driven approach that will enable a seamless omni-customer experience across its brand.

"Hunkemöller, like many other brands, has access to large amounts of data, which is frequently stored in SAP® software systems. This data can be used to gain better insights into customer behavior and market trends. We are excited to collaborate with Hunkemöller to migrate its critical business systems and data to the cloud, and to help the brand establish a data-driven foundation for future growth."

— Joris Schoonis, MD of Google Cloud Benelux

"By moving our on-premise data to the cloud and leveraging Google Cloud technologies, we can provide our customers with the best possible customer experience—digitally driven and supported by data. Developments happen at lightspeed in retail, and we want to be a market leader when it comes to digital applications and use of data for a better customer experience and operation of the business. We worked intensively with experts from Google Cloud and partners to realise the blueprint for cloud migration."

— Gordon Smit, Global IT Director at Hunkemöller

[See references: Hunkemöller Collaborates with Google Cloud to Provide Data-Driven Retail Experience]

🌄 Clientele APP developed with SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) by Expertum | October 2022

Expertum, last year in October, announced they developed an in-store Clientele App for Hunkemöller. The app is deployed internationally in over 900 stores, and delivers improved in-store customer experience and upselling through omnichannel technology.

Hunkemöller wanted to expand its omnichannel strategy to include an on-site sales tool that would boost in-store customer experience and increase upsells. Unable to find a suitable off-the-shelf solution, they turned to SAP experts Expertum to deliver a tablet-based clientele app built for this purpose.

The Clientele App needed to make Hunkemöller’s complete online catalog available in an inspirational and visually attractive way for sales staff in every store; the sales potential of smaller stores would then no longer be limited by their capacity to carry physical stock.

At the same time, the app needed to fit perfectly with Hunkemöller’s exquisite brand and close attention to delivering great customer experience.

Expertum chose the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) because it allowed them to use SAP’s UI5 technology to exactly match Hunkemöller’s branding, while also combining this with other technologies available on the platform.

This choice guaranteed stability, speed, product integration, and good looks!

On SAP Business Technology Platform, Hunkemöller and Expertum have developed an iPad app that is used by the store employee and that supports the sales process of any item, in-store or delivered via omnichannel services on the same receipt. If an article is not available in the store, the customer simply scans her customer card and the items is delivered to their home in the following days.

The iPad app has made ordering in store an inspiring, user-friendly process that has a strong positive impact on overall revenue and mainly on the revenue generated by the order in store process.

The Clientele App is now successfully running on sales representatives’ tablets across 900+ stores. The look and feel match Hunkemöller’s perfectly, and it runs with the speed, stability and features required from true enterprise software. It also has remote-to-local support capabilities available.

[See reference: SAP Innovation Awards 2023 Hunkemoller Clientele app]

Gordon Smit, Global IT Director at Hunkemöller, in an interview with SAP, tells the whole story.

[See references: Hunkemöller boosts omnichannel experience with Expertum and SAP]

What is Clienteling? - See the definition of Mercaux who provided both Scotch & Soda and Emma, The Sleep Company, its Clienteling App

Being able to provide a highly personalised customer experience is quickly shifting from a competitive advantage to a minimum requirement across the retail industry.

Clienteling is a technique that allows retailers to improve the shopping experience by personalising the interactions they have with customers.

When clienteling is used to its full potential, retailers have easy access to data about consumer preferences, behaviour and purchase history - these insights allow retailers to deliver a seamless and hyper-personalised customer experience.

When it comes to online shopping, the personalised experience is seamless as the majority is achieved through automation, but what about other channels where the data is not so readily available, such as in-store?

One of the main reasons that clienteling is so valuable is that it impacts heavily on a very important success metric: customer lifetime value (LTV).

[See references: Mercaux’s Composable End-to-End In-Store Platform]

References

✅ Hunkemöller's digital transformation journey, powered by the best-in-class technology (Part one)

✅ Green Claims Directive: COM/2023/166 final- 52023PC0166 (23 March 2023)

Procedure 2023/0085(COD)

Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive)

✅ Hunkemöller Brand Journey 2021

✅ Together Tomorrow - Sustainability Report 2022

✅ Hunkemöller Selects Bamboo Rose to Support Digital PLM and Sourcing Operations Amidst Growth Plans (January 2023)

✅ SAP S/4HANA for fashion and vertical business

✅ Hunkemöller migreert SAP-omgeving naar de cloud met RISE with SAP

✅ Hunkemöller boosts omnichannel experience with Expertum and SAP

✅ SAP Innovation Awards 2023 Hunkemoller Clientele app

✅ Mercaux’s Composable End-to-End In-Store Platform

✅ How Hunkemöller optimises its retail business with a data transformation

✅ Hunkemöller Collaborates with Google Cloud to Provide Data-Driven Retail Experience

Sustainability

Why talk about the Sustainability accomplishments of Hunkemöller?

“Today it is difficult for consumers to make sense of the many labels on the environmental performance of products (both goods and services) and companies.

Some environmental claims are not reliable, and consumer trust in them is extremely low. Consumers can be misled, and companies can give a false impression of their environmental impacts or benefits - a practise known as greenwashing."

[See references: Green Claims Directive: COM/2023/166 final- 52023PC0166]

[See references: Berlin, 22 July 2023 - The winners for the Green Product Award Fashion have been determined!]

Hunkemöller sued for greenwashing

Hunkemöller in April 2022 was sued for greenwashing when marketing a part of their collection as being made from ‘sustainable cotton’.

Hunkemöller responded by making changes to their website.

"Hunkemöller is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). BCI is a global, on-profit organisation which aims to make global cotton production more sustainable and help farmers find more water efficient and productive methods for cotton cultivation. Better Cotton materials are sourced via a mass balance system and not physically traceable to end products. This means that sourcing from Better Cotton is not about a content claim on a product but rather about creating demand and encouraging more farmers to adopt sustainable practices."

— Hunkemöller, Together Tomorrow - Sustainability Report 2022.

The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) responded recently to the proposed Green Claims Directive of the European Community

Better Cotton is the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world. Their mission is to help cotton communities survive and thrive, while protecting and restoring the environment.

One of the pillars of the Better Cotton Standard System is their Claims Framework, which was created through a multi-stakeholder consultation process and is subject to an annual review.

It is interesting to see that the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is stating:

"It is because of the multifaceted nature of Better Cotton’s operations that the organisation is supportive of the EU’s decision not to limit claim substantiation to just one standard methodology, such as the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) or Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

Whilst such a mechanism is effective, it would fail to encompass all of the complex, interconnected aspects of cotton production, therefore jeopardising a company’s ability to make claims about its commitment to more sustainable cotton."

[See references: Better Cotton Calls for Alignment on EU Greenwashing Proposals]

Note: One conclusion could be drawn there is still a lot of uncertainty in the world of sustainable products.

Hunkemöller won a Green Product Award recently

But Hunkemöller just recently (July 2023) hit back by winning a Green Product Award for their recycled underwear line.

Note: One should really question whether all these mid-sized companies that have outsourced their production to manufacturers overseas have a grip on what is happening there.

Last year I wrote about the biggest challenges companies face to comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Scope 3 emissions are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by the reporting organization, but that the organization indirectly affects in its value chain. Scope 3 emissions include all sources not within an organization's scope 1 and 2 boundary.

See Scotch & Soda releases its annual Environment Profit & Loss (EP&L) impact report and Sustainability "priorità numero uno" in Value Chains of Organizations.

Technology, at last

Maybe you are already on the verge of skipping further reading because you thought it was all going to be about the 'digital transformation journey' of Hunkemöller and instead till sofar it is about Sustainability.

Let me tell you it is threefold - Business - Technology - Sustainability.

Business is about PEOPLE working and living in/for companies

Technology is about SYSTEMS making the working-lives of PEOPLE pleasant and comfortable

Sustainability is about taking care of the PEOPLE and the CLIMATE they live in, both working climate as natural climate

Well is all about mixing the right ingredients at the right moment with the right people to become successful.

[See references: Hunkemöller Brand Journey 2021]

BUT Let us look at a few recent digital technology initiatives that are changing the way of working of Hunkelmöller

Quickly a chronological wrap up of what Hunkemöller did before 2022 and 2023:

[See references for links to respective initiatives]

More in Part two

Hunkemöller selects Bamboo Rose PLM.

Hunkemöller migrates SAP ECC to the Cloud in a lift-and-shift approach.

Hunkemöller collaborates with Google Cloud for its data and analytics capabilities.

References

✅ Green Claims Directive: COM/2023/166 final- 52023PC0166 (23 March 2023)

Procedure 2023/0085(COD)

Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive)

✅ Hunkemöller Brand Journey 2021

✅ Together Tomorrow - Sustainability Report 2022

✅ Better Cotton Calls for Alignment on EU Greenwashing Proposals | July 2023

✅ The winners for the Green Product Award Fashion have been determined! | Berlin, 22 July 2023

✅ Hunkemöller Turns to Logility to Support Growing Omni-Channel Business | October 2017

✅ OneStream Corporate Performance Management Success Story: Hunkemöller | November 2017

✅ Dutch Lingerie Brand Uses the Power of AI to Increase Email Efficiency & Revenue - Selligent Marketing Cloud | October 2018

✅ Hunkemöller migrates 12 websites from Magento to Salesforce Commerce Cloud | November 2019

Hoe kan een toonaangevend merk in minder dan een jaar zijn klanten beter bedienen en omnichannel-groeistrategie versnellen?

Begin dit jaar besloot de lingeriespecialist Hunkemöller over te stappen op de Cloud-gebaseerde versie van SAP Fashion Management, een voor de mode-industrie geoptimaliseerde SAP S/4HANA.

Hunkemöller is met 850 winkels en 15 webshops actief in 23 landen. Hunkemöller is een merk dat zijn lingerie verkoopt via de eigen winkelkanalen en via andere kanalen zoals marketplaatsen, groothandel- en franchiseorganisaties.

Echter de groei van die groothandelsactiviteiten werd steeds meer belemmerd door de bestaande on-premise SAP ECC-omgeving en de onderliggende IT-architectuur.

Hunkemöller koos heel bewust voor 'Rise with SAP' omwille van het veelbelovende SAP Fashion Management.

Bovendien is SAP één van de weinige ERP aanbieders die ook met SAP Fashion Management bedrijven volledige vrijheid en flexibiliteit biedt in de keuze van Hyperscaler.

Hyperscalers zijn grote Cloud Service Providers (CSP) die Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), en/of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) diensten aanbieden.

Op architectuurgebied kent SAP naast zijn SAP Converged Cloud, gebouwd op de OpenStack technologie, het principe dat de oplossingen moeten kunnen draaien op de 4 grootste Hyperscalers zijnde Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure en Ali Cloud.

Hunkemöller koos voor Google Cloud omdat deze ook data- en analysetoepassingen voor bijvoorbeeld nauwkeurigere klantsegmentatie biedt en omdat andere processen al in de Google Cloud draaien.

Afgelopen zomer migreerde Hunkemöller na een voortraject van 6 maanden tijdens een soepele GO-Live migratie naar SAP ECC in de Google Cloud.

Hunkemöller heeft bewust gekozen voor een lift-and-shift aanpak waarbij haar bestaande omgeving met minimale inspanningen / aanpassingen eerst naar de Google Cloud wordt gebracht.

Hunkemöller is echter nog verre van klaar.

De overstap naar de op SAP S/4 HANA gebaseerde Fashion Management oplossing moet nog worden ingezet.

Echter Hunkemöller kan nu wel al haar pijlen richten op het realiseren van de business wensen en eisen in/met SAP Fashion Management.

Bedrijven kunnen wijze lessen trekken uit de aanpak van Hunkemöller:

1️⃣ SAP biedt als enige leverancier ondersteuning voor al de grote Hyperscalers

2️⃣ ERP hoeft niet altijd in de Cloud van de aanbieder te draaien

3️⃣ Een stapsgewijze aanpak maakt het mogelijk om te focussen

4️⃣ Rise with SAP helpt bedrijven om naar de Cloud te gaan

(Andere ERP leveranciers soortgelijke programma's: Accelerate, Innovate, Move, Grow, O³, do less with more, RISE)

5️⃣ Last-but-not-least, naast het zelf verzetten van veel werk zijn fijne partners zoals myBrand, Devoteam en Ctac goud waard.

Experienced Sparringpartner & Digital Leader | Trusted Technology Advisor & Business Architect

Lees meer:

Hunkemöller's digital transformation journey, powered by the best-in-class technology (Part one)

Hunkemöller's digital transformation journey, powered by the best-in-class technology (Part two)

Hunkemöller implementeert Bamboo Rose PLM met Columbus Consulting

De wereldwijde omnichannel retailer heeft de hulp ingeroepen van retailadviesbureau Columbus Consulting om toezicht te houden op de digitale en procestransformatie die met de samenwerking gepaard gaat.

Hunkemöller heeft onlangs (4 januari 2023) Bamboo Rose Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Sourcing en Purchase Order Management-applicaties geselecteerd om ontwerp-, ontwikkelings-, sourcing- en supply chain-processen te verbinden en te stroomlijnen, terwijl het merk agressieve binnenlandse en internationale groeiplannen nastreeft.

Columbus Consulting werkt samen met Hunkemöller om hun groei- en transformatiebehoeften te ondersteunen.

De teams werken al jaren samen om allocatie- en aanvullingssystemen te controleren, sourcen en implementeren, de groothandelskant van het bedrijf te optimaliseren, het masterdata-initiatief te beheren en nu de implementatie van de Bamboo Rose PLM te ondersteunen.

In deze rol zal CCI samenwerken met het Hunkemöller-team om ervoor te zorgen dat de ontwerp-, integratie-, uitvoerings- en changemanagementaspecten van het project naadloos worden aangepakt.

Het Multi-Enterprise Platform en de suite van connected business process-applicaties van Bamboo Rose helpen Hunkemöller bij het digitaliseren van productontwikkelingsprocessen om de transparantie voor downstream-teams, leveranciers en logistieke partners te verbeteren.

Deze end-to-end zichtbaarheid en samenwerking helpen het merk om ontwerp- en ontwikkelingscycli te versnellen, administratieve lasten te verminderen en teams in staat te stellen zich te richten op het ontwikkelen van hoogwaardige, innovatieve producten die aansluiten bij consumententrends en -verwachtingen.

Door de productlevenscyclus en de samenwerking met leveranciers op het gebied van Bamboo Rose te digitaliseren, kan Hunkemöller producten bovendien kosteneffectiever voorbereiden op verschillende afzetmarkten en rekening houden met toekomstige ESG-regelgeving (Environmental, Social, and Governance) die van invloed is op de kernontwikkeling van producten en de inkoopactiviteiten.

“We zijn verheugd om samen te werken met Bamboo Rose en Columbus Consulting, die belangrijke spelers zullen zijn in het digitaliseren en stroomlijnen van onze productmanagementprocessen door middel van naadloze digitale transparantie en communicatie”, — aldus Charlotte Davies, Chief Product Officer bij Hunkemöller.

“Hunkemöller heeft een sterke reputatie opgebouwd in 19 landen in Europa voor hoogwaardige producten, innovatieve nieuwe collecties en gerichte submerken, ongeacht smaak en budget”, — aldus Chirag Patel, President bij Bamboo Rose. “We zijn verheugd om samen te werken met het merk, aangezien zij hun toonaangevende reputatie uitbreiden naar nieuwe markten en verkoopkanalen, terwijl ze hun toewijding aan productuitmuntendheid en innovatie behouden.”

Op dezelfde manier kijkt Columbus Consulting Partner Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski ernaar uit om het partnerschap met Bamboo Rose uit te breiden en door te gaan met de samenwerking met Hunkemöller. “Onze relatie met Hunkemöller is zowel lonend als spannend geweest. Het brengen van nieuwe technologieën en processen naar dit sterke merk heeft de organisatie geholpen door hen verder te vestigen als leider in de industrie. Het benutten van het Bamboo Rose-platform zal een andere succesvolle laag blijken te zijn voor hun digitale transformatie.”

Bronnen

[1] Bamboo Rose: Hunkemöller Selects Bamboo Rose to Support Digital PLM and Sourcing Operations Amidst Growth Plans

[1] Columbus Consulting: Hunkemöller Selects Bamboo Rose to Support Digital PLM and Sourcing Operations Amidst Growth Plans