Retail Innovator Crocs Gives Old Platform "the Boot" in Favor of SAP

SAP NEWSBYTE - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Crocs Inc., a world leader in innovative casual footwear for men, women and children, is implementing the SAP Apparel and Footwear application to replace a legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Implementation is already underway and will help give Crocs complete control of its global supply chain — from procuring raw materials to delivering finished styles across the globe. The announcement was made at the NRF 102nd Annual Convention & EXPO, being held January 13-16 in New York City.

With more than 300 footwear styles sold in more than 90 countries around the world, Crocs continues to innovate and grow. But challenges often accompany rapid expansion, so Crocs felt growing pains in internal operations and systems. To continue the successful international expansion, the company needed scalable business software that could drive standardization of processes and support multi-currency, multi-language and local country business requirements — something its current systems could not handle. Crocs decided to replace its legacy systems with integrated industry-specific SAP software for apparel and footwear companies, including analytics, supply chain and database software.

“With SAP in place, we are confident we can expand our product and brand portfolio without feeling the growing pains through our technology platform,” said Scott Crutchfield, COO, Crocs. “As we extend global operations even further, it is important to maintain the right level of customer service and product availability as well as drive more operational efficiencies internally.”

SAP offered Crocs the strategic platform it needed to continue to grow. With SAP Apparel and Footwear, Crocs can effectively manage the enormous volumes of data associated with ever-increasing design variations, seasonality and customer value-added-services requirements for global business operations. The application has enhanced standard SAP software data structures, available today in the SAP ERP application, to facilitate the handling of potentially huge volumes of data. These enhancements derive largely from the size and seasonal requirements of the industry and relate to the building of product levels based on style, color and size as used throughout the logistical cycle.

Crocs President and CEO John McCarvel is known as an innovator when it comes to technology. NRF has named McCarvel as “Retail Innovator of the Year,” an award distinguishing an individual that embraces new, innovative or imaginative techniques and demonstrates an ability to sustain and build this concept in the face of challenges.

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