Overview
Tommy Bahama is a Seattle-based manufacturer of casual clothing, men’s and women’s sportswear, denim, accessories, footwear, and a complete home furnishings collection. The company is owned by Atlanta-based Oxford Industries. There are over 160 company-owned Tommy Bahama retail stores worldwide.
Opportunity
Before enlisting the help of ArcherGrey, Tommy Bahama was in the process of upgrading their FlexPLM system to a new version. The upgrade approach was being completed via a New Install with data migration. Tommy Bahama had a difficult time with the migration of data from their legacy FlexPLM version to a new Install of FlexPLM. There was a need for an organized and accurate data validation process for the migration to be successful. They sought to implement an upgraded FlexPLM system as soon as possible due to the increasing demand and tight timelines and requested that ArcherGrey complete the New Install.
Solution
ArcherGrey developed many custom loader utilities during the initial stage of the project. They began providing on-the-fly solutions for many migration issues and this boosted customer confidence. By gaining knowledge on Tommy Bahama’s existing technologies, ArcherGrey was able to successfully begin integrating the new FlexPLM V11 M30 system. A project with this magnitude of data migration can only be successful when the correct data processes are in place. The original solution lacked these processes. So, ArcherGrey introduced new data validation scripts to make sure all data sets were migrated accurately and mismatched reports were corrected.
ArcherGrey’s highly proactive and creative approach was characterized by the ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) approach. This includes 4 main stages: exporting and importing library data, linesheet data extraction, custom extractor and loader for components, and a custom query to extract the sample data, along with a java utility to load the data.
ArcherGrey implemented a staggered deployment process to reduce the risk of any errors by testing each phase before official implementation. The process included multiple deployment and testing phases, followed by 2 main dry runs, and lastly, have the production go live. Because of tight customer deadlines, ArcherGrey set a stringent timeline for go-live dates. They extended their support which helped production start on the agreed upon dates.
Impact
This project was unique because of the large-scale data migration it required. ArcherGrey’s diligence, expertise, and a dedicated effort made it possible for Tommy Bahama to implement the new FlexPLM system. The project went live on July 31, 2018 and has been running successfully since going live. Employees were able to utilize the latest FlexPLM features and functionalities and commence new projects which had been in the pipeline for a while, thereby adding more value to the business.
Client Quote “ArcherGrey has shown continued dedication to our success. We are grateful for their help in completing another critical milestone in our project.”