The Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) is implementing an end-to-end supply chain suite covering everything from initial product selection to point-of-sale, VNUNet reported.

The retailer of clothing and traditional Scottish gifts chose the Connected Retailer suite of enterprise applications from BT Expedite.

The suite includes planning, sourcing and product development, warehousing, sales analytics and merchandising applications.

EWM group finance director David Houston says the technology will enable EWM to react quickly to customer requirements, reduce lead times, improve the efficiency of the business and gain a competitive advantage.

'It offers a functionally rich, end-to-end solution that we could implement in a phased manner in line with the needs of the business,' he said.

'This approach means that we will gain incremental benefits from each new module that we implement and roll out without unduly straining our available resources.'

The suite will provide the retailer with the ability to share critical information across the business, support complex operations with flexible systems and automate tasks to improve productivity and responsiveness.

It can also manage changing seasonal products and allow tailored allocation and stock replenishment for optimum stock availability.

EWM needs to be able to manage its entire product development cycle closely, from selection of raw materials, to spinning of yarns and weaving of cloth, design and manufacture of garments and knitwear.

Connected Retailer provides visibility of information and functional flexibility that will enable the reduction of planning, production and logistics supply chain cycles.