As the global economy continues to hang delicately by a thread, businesses face pressure to reduce costs, optimise operations and deliver on the digital imperative.

For the uninitiated, the digital imperative is a term that Microsoft uses to discuss the need to transition away from simply talking about digital transformation, to actually delivering it.

Organisations championing this sentiment and infusing technology into their business processes and functions will thrive by “doing more with less”.

To help illustrate this, here’s a quote we’ve borrowed from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella:

“The next 10 years are not going to be like the last 10. Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy. It’s the only way to navigate the headwinds we’re confronting today. Doing more with less doesn’t mean working harder or longer. That’s not going to scale. But it does mean applying technology to amplify what you’re able to do across an organisation so you can differentiate and build resilience.”

So, where does the fashion industry begin with its digital imperative?

For one, businesses must look at how best to achieve cost efficiency.

With cost savings top of mind for most companies, solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 provide best-value suites and best-in-class products to achieve more, particularly on the cloud.

Through vendor consolidation, decreased travel, increased security, paired with improved productivity and collaboration, all in one premium product, companies can massively rebalance their overheads.

Microsoft’s tech stack facilitates hybrid working, allowing employees to more efficiently conduct their duties from their homes and save on business travel costs. In the same vein, transitioning to a cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service solution allows companies to trim costs tied to software licenses per employee and the need for on-premise hardware.

Businesses can also seamlessly tap into other Microsoft solutions, like Office 365, Teams and Power Platform, to foster better collaboration and efficiency amongst teams. The importance of connected solutions here cannot be understated.

Today, companies require meetings, voice chats, phone calls, scheduling tools, project management solutions, cloud storage, analytics, and automated processes to conduct their business efficiently. Microsoft 365 unifies these solutions into one integrated experience that drastically simplifies work life for employees while offering considerable cost savings, with estimates suggesting that customers can save more than 60% when using Microsoft 365 compared to a patchwork of competitive solutions.

Furthermore, Microsoft estimates that by 2025, 70% of new applications deployed for the enterprise will use low-code or no-code tools – which is where Power Platform plays a pivotal role as the leading business process automation and productivity suite for domain experts. It is widely used in every industry, with 20 million active users.

Microsoft’s unique approach combines robotic process automation, low-code/no-code tools, virtual agents, website building, and business intelligence into a common platform for building end-to-end business solutions, helping to reduce complexity and costs.

And that’s without mentioning the global partner network supporting Dynamics 365. Microsoft’s purpose-built, intelligent business applications connect data, processes, and teams to usher in an era of hyper-connected business – helping to save customers up to 50% compared to major competitors.

The global partner network, of which K3 is a proud member, lends its industry-specific expertise and embeds its solutions into D365’s technical foundations to create bespoke industry solutions.

As a top Global Independent Software Vendor and the “go-to” partner for fashion and apparel, K3’s solutions extend Microsoft’s platforms with standardised functionality aligned to fashion and apparel.

With seamless integration into the D365 environments, K3’s products remove the need for manual coverage, technical maintenance and external inputs.

Crucially, this empowers fashion organisations to utilise the best-in-breed processes to tackle their biggest challenges while benefiting from Microsoft’s solutions to handle the rest of their operations.

To provide some context on what can be achieved through our joint offering, here’s a small sample of K3’s fashion-specific functionality:

• Inventory and Warehouse Management
• Season Management
• Item Management
• Product Lifecycle Management
• Product Data Management
• Order Management
• Manufacturing
• Price and Cost Management
• Sustainability

With all this in mind, it’s clear that while we live in inflationary times, businesses shouldn’t be dissuaded from investing in new technologies. The combined offering of K3 and Microsoft, for example, can serve as a deflationary force that reduces costs and allows companies to scale and focus strictly on what they do best.

If you’d like to learn more about how K3 and Microsoft can support your business, please drop us a line today.