PTC Retail has unveiled Flex Insights, a low-code platform aimed at helping brands and retailers harness the potential of their data to enhance decision-making in planning and product development. PTC Retail, which serves a diverse clientele including textile corporations, conglomerates, PSUs, and commercial industries with contract demands of 1 MW and above, tailored this launch to meet the specific demands of its wide customer base.
Flex Insights expands upon PTC’s robust retail product lifecycle management platform, FlexPLM, offering a range of user-friendly, visually intuitive apps. These apps include critical path management, compliance tracking, visual line planning, and sustainability analytics. Personalisation features enhance the user experience, granting instant access to real-time data, imagery, and actionable insights.
Bill Brewster, Senior Vice President and General Manager of PTC’s Retail Business Unit, acknowledges the challenge of managing copious data in the fashion industry. He emphasises that Flex Insights, with its capacity to analyse vast data sets, empowers companies to make faster, more accurate, and efficient product development decisions. It enables the discovery of correlations and patterns that were previously elusive.
PTC’s easily deployable apps are designed to address specific business needs and challenges, offering features such as:
- Critical Path Management: This app provides product teams and senior management with real-time visibility into each product’s progress and the entire season’s line. This helps them take swift action to meet market deadlines.
- Compliance Tracking: Product teams can define the sustainability and social compliance documents required for specific products and manage the data in those documents for reporting purposes.
- Sustainability: This app facilitates seamless integration between FlexPLM and leading sustainability solutions like Worldly (formerly Higg) and Made2Flow. Users gain access to scorecards for products, materials, and suppliers, supporting proactive corporate sustainability goals.
- Visual Line Planning: Streamlining seasonal line reviews, this app simplifies setup, collaboration with remote team members, note-taking, and plan updates.
PTC collaborates with more than 1,500 apparel, fashion, and retail brands, serving a global user base exceeding 300,000 individuals. Over 75,000 of these users are integrated into the global supply chain, emphasising the platform’s reach and influence in the industry.
