aworkbook combined case studies

Re-imagining the printed catalogue

Case Studies

T: +44 (0)1460 279744 F: +44 (0)1460 271783 | [email protected] | www.aworkbook.comT: +44 (0)1460 279744 F: +44 (0)1460 271783 | [email protected] | www.aworkbook.com

• Efficientandtimesaving

• Cross-platformisa“must-have”forus

• Useitforproductrangeplanning

• Assortmentsellingissmarter

• aWorkbookisacentralhubforresources

New Zealand’s pioneeringmerinowool apparel brand

Icebreakerisshakingupthefiercelycompetitiveworld

ofoutdoorapparel,equippingitsglobalfieldsalesteam

withaninnovativelaptopandiPadbasedsolutioncalled

aWorkbookforassortmentplanningandselling.More

than 80 of Icebreaker’s account managers and some

distributors areusing thesystemacross12of the 43

countriesIcebreakerissoldintodrivetheirassortment

selling.Theprojectrolledoutinjust4-5weeksinearly

2012.

aWorkbook, from UK based Hark Solutions, is the only

cross platform sales enablement tool designed for the

apparel and footwear industries. Using aWorkbook, sales

representatives can plan an assortment for their customers,

working interactively with a pool of data of the entire product

line, to create a dynamic digital catalogue assortment for a

customer.

Sarah Sherriff, Strategic Projects Director for Icebreaker

said, “The sales team was looking for tools to help them sell

more effectively and to improve their efficiency. We knew

assortment selling would build the relationship with our

customers and that over several seasons it would have a

positive impact on sales. We had ventured into assortment

selling, which for us was about making a better commercial

presentation to our customers, rather than the old school

way of selling.”

“We were labouring away with PowerPoint slides of our

products and it worked but it wasn’t at all dynamic and if

you got feedback from the customer it wasn’t easy to go

back and change what you had done. It took our account

managers hours to do this for each sell-in presentation. It

was a major time sink at certain critical points in the year.”

NZ’sIcebreakerbreakingicegloballyonnewsalesenablementsolution

T: +44 (0)1460 279744 F: +44 (0)1460 271783 | [email protected] | www.aworkbook.com

“We thought there must be a better way. We looked at

several options, some costing significantly more - from NZD

400,000 to NZD 4 million over three years. The numbers

were pretty ridiculous. We thought there must be an app in

the app store that does this, and we were so pleased to find

aWorkbook.”

“We didn’t want any barriers to adoption. One of the benefits

of aWorkbook was we could very quickly get some wins on

the board for the sales team while we are installing both an

ERP and a PLM system elsewhere in the business, which

are consuming IT/IS resources but have little to no direct

benefit for the sales team. With aWorkbook the sales team

is more efficient in preparing for their meetings.”

“Due to the other systems under development, we just

couldn’t put in something that needed integration. The

aWorkbook rollout was about getting quick wins for the

account managers versus doing nothing. We found with

aWorkbook the solution was relatively low cost, low impact

for deployment, yet able to generate substantial quick wins

across the business. aWorkbook really suited Icebreaker’s

philosophy of the rapid prototyping model. We were very

quickly able to get success with a small group and extend it.”

Projectstatus

Icebreaker has rolled out aWorkbook across its entire

product line of over 900 products style colours, using it in

each market worldwide. The project was rolled out in just

4-5 weeks, using the equivalent of just one full time project

manager for five weeks.

“Working with Hark Solutions we were able to easily get

our data into the system using XML and familiar business

software like Excel.”

“We’re using aWorkbook across 12 of the 43 countries

Icebreaker is sold in. Implementation was very straight

forward. Usually we have 500-1000 style colours per season

and we’re now onto our second season with aWorkbook.

One of our distributors wanted it too so we have opened it

up for them too.”

“We’ve broken down our range into separate catalogues,

creating one aWorkbook catalogue for each market due

to varying pricing structures, imagery and brand promises

from market to market. In some markets it’s more relevant

to show certain attributes. aWorkbook lets us do that so

we can slice and dice our assortment for each market. For

example some markets are more interested in showing

silhouette, colour or perhaps price point ranges. aWorkbook

gives us the flexibility to approach it for each market.”

“We went from project green light to deployment in the field

within 4-5 weeks. We had this goal but we didn’t think we’d

be able to do it. Some of the time was just tidying up our

data, we could have deployed it in just two weeks otherwise.

We dealt with Hark Solutions using Skype and email. We’ve

never met face to face. We’ve worked in multiple time zones

and Hark has been one of the best vendors we’ve ever

worked with. They’ve been brilliant.”

“We decided to go with one market at a time, and started

With aWorkbook the sales team is more efficient in preparing for their meetings.“


with Australia first, and then rolled it out to the US, Canada

and Europe. We shared success from market to market

and just followed their sales meetings and seasons. We got

success with a small group and extended it. We didn’t have

to launch it all at once.”

TheSolution

Running on iPads and laptops and desktops, aWorkbook

digital catalogues are populated with the product

specifications and photography for the entire product range.

The data structure gives us the ability to filter on product

attributes like gender, product hierarchy (layering), consumer

activity (run, hike, snow), inventory promise (replenishment

style etc), colours and so on.

“We also have campaign assets such as product

photography, key looks, seasonal photography and videos,

technical sales sheets and other reference materials for the

sales reps. Now we can break up our entire range for a

customer and plan an assortment say just for outdoor, or just

for running and plan what we want a store to take.”

“We’re using it as soon as we can get 2D line drawings

and information before we even think about the customer.

So it really starts during the prototyping phase, letting the

markets select what is right for their market.”

“Before aWorkbook all of this was in a bunch of different

places. Now its all in one hub. - aWorkbook is the one stop

shop to hold everything the sales team needs. We’d like to

expand further into product displays in store, for example,

which fixtures are required for different products.”

“We’re creating the rules in the business, not the tool.

aWorkbook is surprisingly powerful yet easy to use, even for

the technophobes. About 15-20 per cent of our users are

on iPads, while most are using the app on laptops. Back

in the office, it also runs on desktop computers. This cross

platform functionality was really important to us and a major

reason why we went with aWorkbook.”

aWorkbook is the one stop shop to hold everything the sales team needs.“

Useinthefield

“Using aWorkbook, our account managers can go to a

customer, such as a ski store, and we can just show the

customer the physical apparel assortment relevant to them

along with the accompanying PDF rather than flipping

through the whole catalog.”

“The account managers love it because it saves them loads

of time, and makes them look good. It helps them focus on

the thought process for each customer, rather than wasting

time on formatting. It makes them more efficient and helps

them respond to the customer during a range showing. We

were able to train the account managers in just 30 minutes.”

“One of our sales representatives said it was a million times

better than PowerPoint. I think they’re pleasantly surprised

with aWorkbook we’ve quickly achieved something very cool

looking, intuitive and yet incredibly powerful and flexible.”

“Account managers can use aWorkbook to generate a PDF

of their assortment which can be emailed off to the customer,

right from the app. In the past we just had printouts from

Powerpoint with a bunch of scribbles. aWorkbook has

changed all that.”

“Not only that, but we can show more information to the

customer than with a printed catalogue. For example before

we might just have one product photo in a printed catalogue.

In aWorkbook we can have a lot more, showing details of

the product graphics or fabric contrasts. Sometimes the

physical product sample on hand is not final, so we can

show the customer the final item in the aWorkbook solution.

It doesn’t replace selling, just gives us a few more assets

along the way to the sale.”

“For us one of the biggest shifts has been to use aWorkbook

in Europe to sell using the assortment selling philosophy.

It’s a new concept for our team and that’s the biggest win

for us. It’s helping us sell in new ways and appear more

professional, in a market where we’re just getting recognised.

aWorkbook helps us stand out from the crowd.”

FuturePlans

“Different markets globally are at different stages of adoption

of B2B tools so we wanted to start with some easy wins and

build from there, so we started with the assortment planning

functionality.”

“Next season we’ll be using the order functionality more,

where sales reps can place an email order from aWorkbook

during their customer meeting, using the solution as a sell in

tool for order capture,” said Sarah Sherriff.

The account managers love it because it saves them loads of time, and makes them look good.

“

ContactustogetstartedwithaWorkbook



Legendary apparel brand O’Neill

is using an application called

aWorkbook to win over its customers

in the competitive snow gear sector

across North America. O’Neill Snow

is using aWorkbook to create and

produce digital catalogs which its

sales representatives use to build

assortments, tailored for each retailer.

The application is helping O’Neill’s

sales reps generate bigger, better

orders and significantly reducing the

company’s need for paper catalogs.

Juliet Korver, Product Manager for

O’Neill Snow said, “We’re using

aWorkbook for a number of reasons.

Firstly, we wanted to reduce the need

to print so many catalogs. Secondly,

we wanted a place where customers

could build assortments to see what

they’re picking. And thirdly I wanted a

way to show each style and colour in

a large sized full colour picture.

“I’m responsible for product and

marketing for the North American

market. The sales reps would come

to me to put together a visual plan

for their customer and we’d rework it

a few times getting it looking good.

We could do that for some bigger

customers but we couldn’t do that

for every customer. We were really

looking for a way to merchandise with

the customer and build out what they

were looking at.

“We had a successful season while

many other brands were slow. There’s

probably a bunch of reasons why, but

at the end of the day we looked very

professional out there. Our sales reps

were really well prepared for their

meetings. aWorkbook makes them

look tremendous. It’s an impressive

piece of software that’s simple to use.

Right now I don’t feel with traditional

paper catalogs you get a visual on

what you are choosing and how the

pieces are going to look together.”

O’NeillNorthAmericapoweringintothesnow

Our sales reps were really well prepared for their meetings. aWorkbook makes them look tremendous.

“


aWorkbook is from UK based Hark

Solutions and is the only cross

platform sell-in application designed

for the apparel and footwear markets.

Betterpreparedreps

“We have 13 rep groups out in the

field across Canada and the United

States. With aWorkbook they’re truly

mobile, with the application working

offline if they’re in a remote area

where internet connectivity is poor,

said Korver.

“We’re in our second year now using

aWorkbook. It’s a great sales tool.

The sales reps really love it. A lot

of them pre-plan, they’ll go into a

meeting with an account, they already

know what they’re going to choose,

what their target is, they can go into

a presentation and already have a

selection made, it makes things go a

little bit more quickly. It’s making our

sales representatives more efficient.

“We’re getting bigger, better orders.

The reps are all getting ready now to

head out for their product knowledge

clinics where they get their accounts

up to speed on O’Neill products.

Really we’re equipping the sales team

with more ammunition for their sales

calls.

“The sales reps can create a PDF of

new selections they’ve made for the

customer and send the file from within

the application. It gives the sales reps

a tool to say here’s something new

specifically for that customer.

“It’s saving them time and helping

them focus in on targeted collections

and cross sell and up sell to their

customer. I’ve seen a few sales reps

use it as a catalog and go along and

star items along with the customer

and produce a PDF of the selection

right there in the meeting.

The reps are using it to target new

remote accounts which may not be

able to make it to trade shows or a

range showing, targeting them with

a specific assortment created in

aWorkbook rather than sending them

a huge catalog.”

Replacingpapercatalogs

“With aWorkbook we haven’t

completely replaced catalogs, but

we’ve dropped the catalog print run

by 25 per cent last year and this year

we’re hoping to reduce it again. We

can create say a 12 page PDF for a

specific customer from within the app,

instead of 120 pages. We can give the

retailer everything they need to make

their order now.

“The catalogs are huge and really

expensive. Everyone is watching their

bottom line. They’re big collections,

they’re 3/4 of an inch thick. Reps

hand them out all the time, I can’t

imagine how many get trashed or just

used 2-3 times. If piled high we would

have had 350 feet of catalogs, for one

season for one market. These are

colour catalogs, spiral bound. That’s

a lot of paper and a lot of money, just

for one season.”

We’re in our second year now using aWorkbook.

It’s a great sales tool. The sales reps really love it ...

We’re getting bigger, better orders.

“


Tellingadynamicbrandstory

“Before aWorkbook we had CAD

images in a paper catalog, but the

images were too small, just 1x1 or

1x.1.5. We started doing PDFs on

the iPad of all the jacket designs and

customers could flip through them

on the iPad but they couldn’t select

a look and see how it merchandised

together.

“Now we can create a custom

assortment within aWorkbook for

each customer. We can show them

big photos which really showcase the

products beautifully. We can show the

full rainbow of colours in the range.

When I give the sales reps a samples

kit, they often don’t get all of the

fashion colours. Now with aWorkbook

they have all the access to a sales

tool that shows all the colours. Its

more compelling than showing a little

photo in a printed catalog.

“We’ve also done colour stories up

front in the resources section where

we show the colour stories from the

collection and link through to the

items that are associated with that

colour story. This helps the customer

because they can choose an

assortment with colours that appeal

to them. It allows them to build an

assortment using base colours and

adding a few fashion colours from the

story, and see how it is going to look

together. Customers are not going to

buy it from a little photo in a printed

catalog but they will buy it from a

photo 6 inches tall in aWorkbook.

“We also created capsule collections

to combine the product catalog with

the campaign videos and colour

story. For example we did an Athletes

Collection, showing which athletes

are using the O’Neill products, and the

photo shoot, and a mini PDF up front

that links to the products inside the

aWorkbook catalog. We did another

collection for our 60th anniversary

with a video up front and teasers from

a major film coming out this year. It’s

really powerful and flexible.”

Crossplatform:rollingouttotheretailers

“Last year we just ran the application

on the sales reps iPads. This year

we’re giving out direct access to

the retailers, giving them download

codes so they can view the app on

their own equipment. So the app is

in front of them at the range showing

or a trade show, they’re using it at the

showing and then back in their office

or working from home.

“One of the great things about

aWorkbook is it runs on Macs, PCs

and iPads. I have it on my iPad

and desktop, I used it more on my

desktop at work because I am not

doing sales presentations, I’m doing

merchandising things, kits to send out

to my PR crew, product planning and

so on, I use the filters a lot to make

sure I have a mix of price ranges for

example.

So I’m using it more on the desktop,

where as the sales reps are often

using it more on their iPad.

“You can’t expect all your buyers

are going to have a certain piece of

technology. We can just give out the

aWorkbook access codes and they

can use the application on whatever

equipment they have.”

WhywechoseaWorkbook

“People were telling us we needed

to build our own application. I just

felt there had to be an application

that could do what we were looking

for. There was a bunch of catalog

applications but I wanted something

that ‘merchandised’. After speaking

with a few companies, I found Hark

Solutions and aWorkbook.

“I found Hark to be really open and

their pricing to be very reasonable.

They were willing to find solutions for

things I was looking for. I was one of

their earlier customers. I found them

very open and forward thinking and

they were always welcome to give us

a helping hand. They were really into

making it work for me. Their approach

Contact us to get started with aWorkbook


was ‘What do you need to make it

happen.’.. I felt really at ease.

“Their pricing was really reasonable. I

can make this work within my budget.

They were really easy to work with and

really focussed on problem solving

with me.”

RapidDeployment

“I decided to use it around end August

2011, we had the catalogue end of

October 2011. It only took say 25-40%

of my time during that 8 week period.

I think the catalog for this year which

we’re creating now, we have scheduled

it for 4 weeks and we’ll do it in just 2-3

weeks.”

To get the sales team on board, O’Neill

used the annual sales meeting to get

the team excited about aWorkbook.

“We hinted it was coming, we saved it

for our sales meeting and said, wow,

check this out. We had ordered all the

iPads and logo’d them all up with our

O’Neill heritage wallpaper and handed

them out at the sales meeting and took

them through it step-by-step. They all

got that this was a crazy tool and they

needed to learn how to use it.

“We had a couple of reps that really got

it, that this was going to help them, and

the other reps saw how they could use

it. Now I’m getting calls from the reps

exploring what new things are coming

in the app for the season ahead.

“It’s only going to make bigger

differences as we find new ways to

use it. There are so many applications

we’re not using it for yet,” said Korver.


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It’seasytothinkoftropicalislandsasarelaxedplace

farfromthelatesttechnologies,butnothingcouldbe

furtherfromthetruth.

From its home in Honolulu, iconic Hawaiian resortwear

brand Tori Richard is transforming its sales operations

using a cross platform solution running on iPads, Macs and

PCs. The application, called aWorkbook, is by UK-based

developer Hark Solutions.

The program automates Tori Richard’s sales orders,

dramatically improving the speed and accuracy of orders

placed by its sales representatives out in the field.

Founded in 1956, Tori Richard, Ltd. is still a family business,

driven with a unique legacy of vibrant globally inspired

prints and tropical style.

In December 2008, Tori Richard became one of the world’s

first solar powered apparel manufacturers and retailers and

has expanded it’s power generation in 2011 to ¼ megawatts.

Tori Richard President, Josh Feldman said, “The

fundamental problem was our order writing and order entry

processing was still completely manual. There was a lot of

multiple entry of orders, a lot of handling of paper orders

before they were entered into our ERP system”.

aWorkbooksolution

aWorkbook is the only cross platform sales enablement tool

designed for the apparel and footwear industries. Using

aWorkbook, sales representatives can plan an assortment

for their customers, working interactively with a pool of

data of the entire product line, to create a dynamic digital

catalogue assortment and order for a customer.

“What aWorkbook allows us to do is eliminate several

bottlenecks and points of entry and provide a very user-

friendly interface for the sales person in the field to write an

order, submit the order to us, and simultaneously provide

an order copy to the customer.”

aWorkbookapphelpsfabledHawaiianbrandToriRichardbreezeintothefuture

“aWorkbook helps the salespeople work with their customer

on an assortment. It’s very speedy and efficient, 100

percent accurate too so we avoid any transcription errors.”

iPadsrunningaWorkbookeasesorderentryinthefield

“We used to even get handwritten orders on cocktail

napkins. I’m not exaggerating. Now salespeople can

do the orders in the field or back in the office. And with

aWorkbook’s API so friendly, we can automate the back

end entry to our ERP.”

“At the moment we have 7 sales representatives using

aWorkbook in the Tori Richard Menswear division. We’ll

be rolling it out to all five divisions later this year covering

29 salespeople. We’ve rolled out iPads to the whole team.”

“We were one of the beta users of aWorkbook. We wanted

to phase it in so the application would be embraced. The

need and urgency was in the men’s division, we felt they

would be best equipped and that’s where we had the most

senior people.”

“It’s being used by our in-house employees and independent

sales people and the feedback has been overwhelmingly

positive. There’s a sense of relief about how user friendly it

is. The sales people had heard about a sales entry tool and

they had been gnashing their teeth, now they’re relieved.”

“They’re using a range of platforms in the field and in the

office, and aWorkbook has the same seamless interface,

so the same actions are done the same way between the

iPad and desktop applications for example.”

“For the sales people, speed is the most obvious benefit.

Once we get the ERP integration completed on our side,

accuracy will be the huge improvement. Comparing a

hand written order or a keyed in Excel file to a pre-filled out

assortment with styles and colors - it’s a huge step forward.

We’ll eliminate 100 percent human error in the order entry.”

Easyimplementation

“Right now we have about 500 skus in the system and in the

next few weeks we’ll add the next season’s range, taking it

to about 1000 skus.”

“We implemented the solution very swiftly, in just 8 weeks,

all told, with just one person. Most of this time was for us to

modify our workflow, collect style information and arrange

our data for entry into the system. Once we had our data

together in a consistent form, the implementation was a

breeze.”



CRAFTchoosesaWorkbookfordigitalcatalogues

LeadingSwedishfunctionalsports

apparelbrandCRAFThasselected

aWorkbook, a laptop and iPad

based solution for assortment

planning and selling, for use by

its distributors in North America,

Europe,AsiaandOceania.

Christine Sandstedt, Manager of

International Marketing Projects

at CRAFT said: “The main reason

for CRAFT choosing to work with

aWorkbook is that it is a perfect sell-

in tool for our distributors. It’s a flexible

and adaptable digital publishing

solution for our international catalogue

requirements. And it gives us direct

time and cost savings because now

we don’t have to print and distribute

hard copy printed catalogues world-

wide. aWorkbook, from UK based Hark

Solutions, is the only cross platform

sales enablement tool designed for the

apparel and footwear industries. Using

aWorkbook, sales representatives

can plan an assortment for their

customers, working interactively with a

pool of data of the entire product line,

to create a dynamic digital catalogue

assortment for a customer.

AboutCRAFT

Swedish brand CRAFT is a producer

of functional sports apparel. The

company is based in Boras, an old,

traditional textile industry town in the

South of Sweden. The initial concept

of founder Anders Bengtsson was to

develop underwear, which propels

moisture away from the skin during

physical activity – and thus guarantees

the perfect microclimate. CRAFT

started with technical base layers

and soon developed the three layer

principle with a 2nd layer of insulation

and moisture transportation and an

outer shell for protection. Today, the

company offers gear for all kinds of

sports focussing on running, alpine

skiing, bike and cross-country skiing.



aworkbook combined case studies

Documents

sales team

sales representatives

aworkbook rollout

benefits of aworkbook

icebreakers account

account managers hours

low impact

substantial quick wins