Document Automation is No Sweat
for Gildan Activewear

Create!form® Product Suite Helps Global Firm Address Multi-Country, Multi-Language Document Challenges

Gildan Activewear is a vertically integrated marketer and manufacturer of premium quality branded basic apparel such as
T-shirts, sport shirts and sweatshirts, serving wholesale imprinted sportswear markets in the U.S., Canada, Europe and other global geographies. Based in Montreal, Canada, the company employs more than 11,000 full-time employees and its shares are listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

To support sales in various markets around the world, Gildan maintains modern textile manufacturing plants in Canada, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, and sewing facilities in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean Basin. The company distributes its products in Canada and the U.S. primarily out of company-owned distribution centers, and uses third-party warehouses in Europe and Australia to service its international customers. Gildan also has an International sales office, located in Barbados, which includes a customer service center.

Like many global manufacturing organizations, Gildan’s operations were tied together by a vast catalog of paper-based forms, many of which were pre-printed. Across its business, Gildan utilized as many as 60 different paper forms (invoices, purchase orders, shipping documents, customs documents, etc.) as well as 27 different AP check formats. While such a large number of forms and checks would create challenges for any company, Gildan’s organizational structure, consisting of primary operating facilities in Canada, the U.S., Central America and the Caribbean, added the extra hurdle of requiring pre-printed documents to be available in French, English and Spanish.

In addition to the costs associated with purchasing, storing and distributing dozens of forms in multiple languages, Gildan’s centralized document management procedures meant that the information needs of one location were often dependent on the actions of another. For example, the company’s customer service organization, which is located in Barbados, lacked access to historical shipping documents. When working with clients, customer service representatives would have to request that applicable documents be faxed to them from the company’s Montreal headquarters. Similar workflow scenarios also existed with regard to printing checks for local suppliers and vendors, significantly lengthening the payments process.

Facilities Expansion Creates Opportunity
Concurrent with the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Central America in 1999, Gildan kicked-off an IT initiative to migrate to a JD Edwards ERP environment. Company executives quickly realized that the migration to JD Edwards World, which would open the door for the company to enhance data management and reporting, also created an ideal opportunity to extend their electronic document output and distribution capabilities with Bottomline Technologies’ Create!form products.

Integrating seamlessly with major ERP systems, including Oracle, JD Edwards and PeopleSoft, the Create!form product suite enables users to extend their ERP investment through advanced output formatting capabilities that replace paper-based documents and forms with more efficient and cost-effective electronic documents. Once created, these electronic documents can be rapidly delivered across multiple channels such as fax, email, print or the Web via automated routing logic.

Electronic Documents Improve Customer Interactions
Leveraging Create!form’s innovative distribution capabilities, Gildan has dramatically streamlined the processes associated with generating and delivering core business documents to customers, suppliers and its other locations, and has allowed the company to transition away from maintaining an inventory of pre-printed forms.

At the same time, Gildan has been able to leverage the suite’s electronic document archive capabilities to provide customers with a unique self-service opportunity. Customers can now retrieve historical documents such as invoices through an online portal accessed via a secure Web browser from anywhere in the world. Customer response to this new tool has been overwhelmingly positive and for Gildan’s customer service representatives, the portal has proven to be a quick and easy mechanism for retrieving documents while they are interacting with customers.

Download a brochure to learn more about Create!form products, or contact a Bottomline representative today at 1.800.472.1321.