JAKO AG: With teamwork to a successful ERP project

To this end, in 2018 they began the search for a strong and reliable partner with sufficient industry experience - especially in view of a certain project size and a professional project methodology. The company opted for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and the industry solution BE-terna Fashion. At the moment, JAKO has 350 users working within the system.

All roads lead to BE-terna

As early as the first meeting in Leipzig, BE-terna impressed JAKO with profound knowledge of the industry and a variety of well-known and informative references, so the prerequisites for a successful partnership were there from the very beginning. As a result, the joint preliminary project was launched in August 2019.

Above all, it was the extensive industry experience and know-how regarding complex requirements such as availability check; finishing and assembly; connection of logistics systems; representation of product development processes etc. that gave BE-terna the edge. The high level of technical expertise for large databases to enable high-performance work was another argument for going with BE-terna.

A whole range of industry-specific requirements on JAKO’s part

However, this industry experience and expertise is also necessary because JAKO did have a whole range of special industry-specific requirements that the newly introduced software solution had to fulfil: for example, the product development process at JAKO is rather complex, especially in terms of customised special products, i.e. customisation of the products requested and ordered by customers. As the company is a manufacturer of team sports kit, a wide variety of requirements had to be taken into account. From simultaneous delivery of the full team kit to considering different delivery dates in the future in order to be able to optimally carry out partial deliveries. In addition, JAKO offers certain "value added services" at the customer's request and integrates them into the various logistics processes via the sales orders.

Furthermore, numerous interfaces such as logistics conveyor technology, the existing AutoStore warehouse system, Tradebyte and web shops had to be connected. The efficiency of the logistics and billing processes had to be at the maximum. Another focal point was monitoring of availability, which had to be continuously guaranteed both during the day and at night in order to be able to communicate the ability to deliver the products to the customer at all times.

After careful examination, BE-terna's BE-terna Fashion met exactly the requirement profile that JAKO was looking for. In particular, they saw huge advantages in having a high-performance and scalable solution with established industry standards and best-practice processes. The project started in June 2020 and went live in June 2022.

Streamlined and optimised processes thanks to clearly defined project aims

A number of clear project aims were defined and implemented. By switching to the fashion industry solution based on Business Central, various processes at JAKO could be streamlined and optimised massively.

For example, thanks to central master data management with additional financial accounting clients, there are no longer separate databases for Switzerland and Belgium. The reduction of local databases and the consolidation in a central database is the basis for group-wide reporting. Product data management (PDM) is completely represented in BE-terna Fashion and extended by the JAKO-specific adjustments. The master data was completely revised and restructured in order to use the BE-terna Fashion standard solution as widely as possible.

Various improvements in day-to-day business at JAKO

At JAKO, the entire value chain is now covered with a fully integrated solution: from PDM, sales and purchasing, to planning and scheduling, logistics and webshop, to finance and BI. This is accompanied by a huge number of fundamental improvements that are directly noticeable and support the company in its day-to-day business.

For example, the availability of the goods is now calculated immediately at running time. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to resort to batch processing and time-consuming and performance-intensive reservation calculations for data processing. Export implementation was considerably accelerated by the full integration of all necessary data and documents. Ultimately, this means that JAKO can now get things that used to take days done in just a few hours.

The allocation of goods is highly automated. Factors such as priorities, availabilities, the postponement of delivery dates and order splits are taken into account.

Optimum solution concepts and ideas

Maik Weber, project manager at JAKO AG, is positive about BE-terna and the project:

From the very beginning, we were convinced that with BE-terna we would have a partner with great industry experience at our side who could provide us with optimum solution concepts and ideas for the special challenges in the textile trade that we are regularly confronted with.

One particularly positive point that I would like to mention is that the BE-terna project team supported us with outstanding expert knowledge."

Steve Fischer, project manager at BE-terna GmbH, also draws a positive conclusion:

At JAKO, it's all about the team. It is not without reason that the company’s guiding principle is WE ARE TEAM. This thought was also evident at all times during the joint work with the JAKO project team.

I am proud of what we have achieved together and I am already looking forward to new challenges. Because further optimisation and digitalisation in the ERP is already in the pipeline."

About JAKO

From the garage to the leading team sports outfitter. The JAKO success story began in 1989 and is still being written. Today, JAKO is one of the market leaders in the German team sports business. Worldwide, more than 100,000 teams in more than fifty countries wear the kit from the brand from Mulfingen-Hollenbach in Baden-Württemberg.

Since its foundation, the company's declared aim has been to be the ideal partner for all teams. Football is the key segment In addition, JAKO kits out teams in almost all team sports, as well as a growing number of companies. The items are particularly functional, durable and long-lasting. The long availability of the individual product lines over several years is an integral part of the company's sustainability strategy.