Who is Monsoon Accessorize?
Monsoon Accessorize are well-known clothing and accessory retail brands with a significant presence both online and on the high street.
We spoke to Dawn Pine, Group Supply Chain Director and Matthew Flower, IT Product Owner to find out more about the WMS difficulties they’ve faced in the past and their new implementation journey with ModernLogic.
The problem: heavily modified legacy WMS
When Monsoon took their warehousing operations in-house back in 2005, they inherited a system implemented by their previous 3PL supplier – and a mountain of technical debt. As the business landscape changed, they faced some considerable difficulties with their WMS implementation. “What we had wasn’t really fit to serve both brands,” says Dawn. “There were a lot of, shall we say, modifications; well over 100.”
The system hadn’t been altered for years as nobody really knew what these modifications were and what would happen if they were changed. What’s more, the 3PL solution they inherited was designed to manage over 1,000 international stores, but, as Monsoon moved to a modern and much larger eCommerce operation, it no longer fit their needs.
Because of its extensive modifications, their version of Dispatcher couldn’t be upgraded to manage their growing eCommerce trade, and they were forced to install a second version of their WMS. However, with two versions of Dispatcher to take care of and a confusing, undocumented implementation, it was getting harder and harder for them to keep it supported and up to date.
Two versions causing twice the difficulties
Alongside the complexities of their systems, the team were facing other difficulties caused by their implementation.
“Sometimes, someone had to physically go into the building to turn something off and on to get it to work.”
“We could pretty much guarantee we were going to have downtime every weekend,” says Matt. “We had an issue with switching between GMT and BST. Every single year we had an issue with the old environments getting the clocks right, and they had to be changed in multiple different places across the servers and the applications”
When it came to getting the support they needed to get these issues fixed, there wasn’t a clear answer.
“We had multiple vendors supporting the system, so, whenever we had an issue, you didn’t really know which vendor you had to go to,” says Matt. “We had different people supporting the OS, the tin itself, the system, the integration, the networking…”
Legacy processes to prop up a legacy system
What’s more, their current ways of working were suited to a very different business model, and, in the age of eCommerce, they were no longer working for them.
“We had some operational challenges that needed to be reviewed,” says Dawn. “We’d been stuck in the ways of how the old systems worked and the shed layout.”
“It was overdue and a good time for us to review those operational processes at the same time as configuring the new solution.”
“We had multiple issues, and every time we got to peak, it was kind of a nervous time for everyone; is it actually going to stay up through the peak period for us to be able to have a live operation through the week?”
Something had to change. Monsoon needed a single vendor they could rely on to implement and manage their WMS.
Choosing the right vendor: ModernLogic
Monsoon started shortlisting options. After investigating other WMS providers, they made the decision to stay with Dispatcher WMS, as they had recently upgraded their merchandising system with it in mind.
After a considered consultation process, they finally chose ModernLogic to manage their Dispatcher implementation hosted by ModernLogic on AWS.
“The saving grace for Dispatcher and Blue Yonder was the relationship with ModernLogic. So that was definitely a big win”
Ultimately, Monsoon’s choice of partner came down to their ability to work with Dispatcher – and, when it comes to Blue Yonder implementation, ModernLogic are ahead of the pack.
“As Blue Yonder require a systems integrator to be involved with Dispatcher implementations, ModernLogic were the obvious choice due to their exceptional team,” says Matt. “The saving grace for Dispatcher and Blue Yonder was the relationship with ModernLogic, that was a big win.”
“They know that system inside out and backwards, and none of them were afraid to get out on the shop floor and deal with the teams themselves and stand there and do the job and work through it, so they had a full understanding of exactly what it was that element of the operation was trying to do on a day-to-day basis.”
“It wasn’t a case of them hiding away in a meeting room somewhere else, they were out on the floor and seeing it, living it, breathing it, project delivery.”
“When an issue comes up, they know it. They understand it because they were there at the beginning.”
What’s more, the ModernLogic team felt like a real business partner, not just a sales machine. “We like to have relationships with partners that we feel that we’ve got a synergy with and that we’re getting real support and not just a load of sales patter.”
“As I said at the beginning, one of the reasons we picked you guys is because we felt you were a good fit with us,” agrees Dawn.
Find out how we can transform your warehouse operations
The resolution
Thanks to ModernLogic’s considered Dispatcher implementation, Monsoon have one unified system instead of two instances of Dispatcher fighting with each other on a deprecated tech stack.
“They know what the operative is trying to do and why either the operative or the system are trying to fight each other, and that meant resolution was very, very quick because they understood it.”
Monsoon’s new Dispatcher solution is fine-tuned to their business needs, and, with ModernLogic’s support, will continue to serve them well into the future.
Because the system is now fully managed, hosted and supported by ModernLogic, their peak-time pressures have been taken away. The Monsoon team is now free to concentrate on long-term strategy, rather than being bogged down in the day-to-day management of an unwieldy solution.
“We removed all the 104 modifications. I mean, that in itself, it’s astounding that we managed to get rid of all of the modifications during the upgrade process.”
What’s more, after many years of struggling with clock changes, ModernLogic managed to resolve the issue for them ahead of the upgrade go live.
What’s next for Monsoon?
With their systems upgraded, Monsoon have been able to take a deep dive into their operations and shed layout. With ongoing improvements between their IT and Operation functions, they’re now able to explore further improvements proactively instead of reacting to issues.
“My team, I feel like they’ve got a good relationship with everybody that we’re working with. And you know, they engage better, far, far better.”
As Dawn and her team worked through their processes with ModernLogic, they found that they were changing their processes along the way, to the benefit of the business. With these new processes in place, the team can now focus on optimising their operations.
“It’s delivered benefit before the actual system had actually gone live.”
With a new, neatly implemented system, Matt’s team is freed up to pursue new ways to improve the business. “If we wanted to go after automation, we actually could,” says Matt. “ We knew that our old WMS was a complete blocker. It’s opened a lot more avenues for us to investigate, for us to potentially look at in the future, as well as natural upgrade paths.”
Would you choose ModernLogic again?
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Monsoon’s reaction is an emphatic yes – if they were given the option, they’d work with ModernLogic again.
“In fact, I think hindsight is a wonderful thing,” says Dawn. “I think I’d have pushed for it earlier if I’d known what benefit we were going to get. Money normally gets directed to things that are making more money, whereas this is seen as an overhead, although in reality it’s saving money. You know, quite a lot of savings have already been delivered.”
If you’d like to join Monsoon and get the WMS implementation your business deserves, contact ModernLogic today.
