You’ve most likely shopped at their stores or bought their items at a department store: PVH is the business that has brands like Calvin Klein, TOMMY HILFIGER, Van Heusen, IZOD, ARROW, Detector’s, Olga, Geoffrey Beene and True & Co

In 2019, PVH had a massive $9.9 billion in profits, a considerable percentage of which is direct-to-consumer retail. With multitudes of physical locations and practically 40,000 associates across approximately 40 countries, the company required to swiftly as well as efficiently supercharge its ecommerce procedures when the COVID pandemic caused the closure of its stores and also those of its wholesale customers worldwide in March 2020.

Investing for the future
In 2017, PVH experienced a monstrous snowstorm that triggered everyone in the New York City area as well as New Jacket area to work from home. As Eileen Mahoney, EVP and also CIO for PVH claims, speaking network infrastructure was a hard yet necessary conversation to have throughout that time. Making the decision to buy Cisco innovation– networks, cooperation devices, safety– was an aggressive strategy that confirmed essential for the future.

The Cisco modern technology that PVH made use of expanded past just physical areas. Collaboration modern technology like Webex enabled affiliates to connect with each other securely, RFID tags within the physical stores allowed PVH to recognize specifically where their supply was resting. The firm had actually digitized their whole item lifecycle process, from product testimonials with the style group, visual assortment, and satisfaction options, to customer experience. So, when the majority of people shifted to remote operate in March 2020, PVH prepared. The foundation was set to sustain PVH in providing a quick path to market, and when the transition came, they had the ability to move quickly..

Overnight, the PVH group was seeing unmatched needs on their shopping sites. Mahoney as well as her group looked to see where they had exposure of supply and then made the decision to relocate to the network where customers were going. With their Cisco tech investments, they had the ability to offer the info to service companions, quickly move inventory, accomplish from their stockrooms, and also offer the consumers specifically what they desired.

Internal and external security is key.

Enabling remote work for PVH’s almost 10,000 office associates was a success due to the right collaboration and security tools. When PVH suddenly had to fully enable remote workers from thousands of site locations, Mahoney and her team immediately thought of the security aspect.

” The first concern that came to mind was security,” says Mahoney, “Keeping our network protected with people working remotely, making sure our retail system data and consumer financial data were secure. Cisco Webex and Jabber were great for collaboration, but deploying VPN overnight provided that secure access remotely. We were able to go from 2,230 Webex users to 10,000 in the blink of an eye.”.

Security is crucial for associates to work quickly and deliver on what the company needed. When PVH digitized its entire lifecycle business model, being on a secure network made it so that associates could maintain ownership of designs. It also prevented internal systems from being compromised. Email security appliances, firewalls, Cisco AnyConnect, and Cisco Umbrella helped to ensure that security.

On the consumer side, transaction security needed to be part of the process, as well. PVH saw April 2020 as some of their top sales days, even breaking previous Black Friday records. This proved to be a true test of their network infrastructure, as consumer demands were at an all-time high and online transactions needed to be made securely.

Collaborating like never before.

PVH, like many other companies, may never be the same. Mahoney states that this time of reimagining the business allowed the company to use the right technology to transform their operating model.

” We are doing some things that we wouldn’t have done if we were in the office,” says Mahoney, “Having global calls to connect everybody together, it’s really enabling us to rethink how we’ll operate as a company even when we come out of the pandemic. It has really shown that with the right tools and technology, your operating model can change and change for the better. It’s allowed collaborations that we probably wouldn’t have had if we weren’t able to transition overnight.”.

Tools like Meraki Wi-Fi, Cisco security, and Webex have helped PVH create amazing experiences for both their associates and their consumers. Starting with foundational infrastructure and layering capabilities on top allowed the retail corporation to pivot exactly when they needed to.