Built for Speed

When Robert Redford purchased thousands of acres of land in Utah's Wasatch Mountains in 1969, his goal was to create a vibrant artistic community. Manufacturing and selling everything from art glass lamps to turquoise nugget necklaces to slides -- company lingo for sandals -- were likely among the furthest things from his mind.

Clearly he didn't anticipate that demand for tchotchkes from Sundance Village's tiny general store would crest as quickly as it did. In 1989, he almost reluctantly launched the Sundance Catalog, joking that "if for any reason this catalog should fail, I plan to change my name and move to Bolivia."

Splendor in the Grass
Fifteen years later, the Sundance Catalog has become a bona fide grassroots phenomenon, logging nearly 500,000 visitors per month to its Web site. The problem: given its humble origins, the company wasn't entirely equipped technologically to deal with growth. As late as a few months ago, the company used comparatively primitive Excel spread sheets and hand sketches for many of its development and design processes, and files were shared via bulky and unreliable e-mail attachments.

"We noticed how time-consuming everything was becoming, and that was a concern," concedes Sundance product development specialist Lynn Wilson. It became increasingly clear that the lack of a more sophisticated technology infrastructure served as a drag on the company's growth.

The challenge, according to Sundance vice president of design and creative Anne Peters, was to "tremendously streamline our product development... The demand for our apparel, jewelry and home furnishings has dictated that we not only use technology to improve our time to market, but also select state-of-the-art solutions and services that will shrink our processes from design concept to finished goods."

Enter Freeborders: A supplier of product lifecycle management software that counts a glut of big-name catalog retailers as clients (J. Crew, L.L. Bean, Lands' End), the company offered both the development and design tools that Sundance coveted. Too, Freeborders promised quick implementation -- less than a month -- and fast return on investment.

Flexible Offering
What made Freeborders the right fit for Sundance, according to Wilson, was the flexibility of its offerings, most notably its Web-based nature. The fact that product lifecycle management is the company's primary focus and that it counts former Ralph Lauren and Gap execs among its staffers clearly didn't hurt either.

The two Freeborders products chosen by Sundance, FB Product Manager and FB Designer, are built for speed and collaboration. Wilson points to a handful of features that sold Sundance on Product Manager, most importantly consolidation of product information and data and communication within the application.

Until now, Sundance juggled multiple versions of documents and other materials; only on rare occasions did every person within the development loop know exactly which version was most current. Once Product Manager is fully installed, however, all members of the development team will be access the most recently updated version via the Web.
"We'll be fully collaborative with each other and with vendor partners for the first time," Wilson enthuses.

Additionally, if revisions are made, development team members can be notified automatically via e-mail; if somebody has a question, he or she can pose it through the application with a single click. Increased visibility is another benefit, as product specs/prices are accessible at all times via Product Manager's centralized library. It's not hard to imagine how this could prove useful: Let's say Sundance uses a single buckle in more than a few of its products. If its price rises or falls, the company only has to register the new cost in the library -- all products using that buckle will be automatically updated. Before, the company might have had to manually make the adjustment for tens or even hundreds of products.

All in the Details
As for FB Designer, it should help Sundance jewelry and home goods designers create detailed sketches using apparel-specific AutoCAD drawing tools. Like with Product Manager, Designer ensures that each user is able to access the most current version of a sketch (previous versions can be viewed as well). Without having to worry about administrative and logistical nuisances, Freeborders believes Sundance designers will have more time to concentrate on creative tasks.

Given that as of mid-March Sundance was still in the throes of its Freeborders implementation, Wilson says it would be premature to evaluate its success. She noted, however, that training seemed to be progressing well and that the company had not yet experienced any of the hiccups usually associated with a major technology upgrade.

In terms of implementation time, Freeborders says that so long as no customization is required (and there is none in Sundance's case) it rarely takes more than a month for small- and mid-size manufacturers and sellers.

Wilson also declined to predict when the company would see a return on its investment. But if other Freeborders clients of comparable size are to be used as a benchmark, Sundance should start seeing returns by September or October. Included in the Freeborders package, in fact, is ROI tracking, which will continue for the duration of its relationship with Sundance.