Dimensions Corporatewear evolved from Sketchley’s rental and laundering service that was acquired by the Johnson Service Group in early 2000. Due to Johnson’s regarding the Dimensions business as non-core it was put up for sale, giving a management team lead by Chief Executive Simon Hughes an opportunity to instigate a Management Buy Out in December 2000. The long working history and functionality of the OpenLogistix package were key factors in OpenLogistix Systems being awarded one of the largest orders in the company’s history – exceeding half a million pounds. Dimensions Corporatewear was looking for a business partner for it’s IT, software, hardware and infrastructure requirements, which included the right mix of people skills and the required level of support, borne from the need to move away from the Johnson organisation.

Dimensions at it’s inception had an annual turnover of £2million, it now employs 135 people, has moved away from the Johnson office site to a new 8,000 sq ft office suite in Castle Donington and turnover has increased to £35 million.

“We awarded the business” said Simon Hughes, “to OpenLogixtix Systems because we felt comfortable that OpenLogistix Systems have a reputation for delivering on time and to budget. Our special requirements as a recent MBO necessitate a rapid and effective implementation of a complete IT infrastructure, and we have every confidence in OpenLogistix Systems providing this”.

Gill Haylock – Sales & Marketing Director of Dimensions, said “we see the venture with OpenLogistix Systems as teaming up with specialists like us, to add value to our business”.

Business Critical decisions

The solution needed to achieve:

A replacement system to give what Dimensions currently had but with more functionality. The existing system was character based, used old technology, gave insufficient management and reporting information, was not an online system, was difficult to bespoke and therefore very costly to maintain.

To be a market leader in the Corporate Clothing sector, Dimensions needed a fit for purpose, modern, online system that would allow growth, expansion and change as the market dictated.

Products & Services

The IT investment was to manage the entire supply chain bringing together further improvements to efficiency and costs. OpenLogistix Systems software manages the supply chain from receipt of order, product design, product sourcing, bespoke tailoring, warehouse management and after sales care.

Dimensions through their unique bar coding system monitor and allocate

exact individual requirements. This unique tracking system has given Dimensions greater control with stock and allocation efficiencies.

Modules supplied by OpenLogistix Systems include Open Accounts Financial package, OpenLogistix Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing and Inventory, Corvu Management Reporting, Stock Tracking & Warehouse Management.

The Benefits

Dimensions clothe more people than anyone else in the market place. They pride themselves on the despatch of 3 million garments per year and clothe more than 650,000 employees.

One of Dimensions unique selling propositions is that ‘they clothe the person not the company’

The business ethos has resulted in Dimensions being one of the leading suppliers of corporate clothing to major retailers such as Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco, Somerfield and Woolworth’s, High Street Banks, Hotel Chains and a recent contract win with Easy Jet has meant Dimensions diversifying into new markets, adding an additional household name to their already impressive portfolio.

The perceived benefits of OpenLogistix Systems business solutions were as a fully integrated supply chain management solution, project managed by a business partner. “We were buying a packaged solution, one system that interfaced with Accounting and Warehouse functions” said Steve Nicholson of Dimensions.

The business benefits have resulted from seamless data transfers to the Accounts and Warehouse Management. The Windows environment has given staff familiarity to easily interrogate the depth of the software giving concise access to much needed customer / product information

Dimensions are now able to predict long and short-term demands using historical accounting information, current order situations and future business variables such as staff turnover or seasonal demands.

The system has coped efficiently with the extensive range of product lines offered to customers by Dimensions.

The Future

Dimensions have inevitably gone through a dramatic change, which they have achieved without loss or minimal disruption to their existing client base.

Their future marketing strategy is ‘to remain market leaders in the retail market’

OpenLogistix Systems software solution has had to grow and continue to evolve with Dimensions to achieve business efficiencies that it has done to great effect.

The system Dimensions set out to achieve has been created and the future looks healthy for Dimensions and their business partner OpenLogistix Systems.