FOUR HANDS FURNISHES STYLE + SUCCESS WITH PLM

HOME FURNISHINGS COMPANY PARTNERS WITH
CENTRIC SOFTWARE® TO REMODEL WORKFLOWS©2021 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

“There was no single source of truth for product information.
It was scattered in multiple spreadsheets and local computers
housing product attributes. You never knew which information
was accurate, which was the latest version.”
Douglas Estremadoyro, VP of Business Innovation at Four Hands
recalls their product development process from a few shortyears ago.
Today, all product information is housed in one accessible place,product development visibility and efficiencies are significantly
improved, data accuracy is up and work duplication is reduced.
What drove this transformation?

Texas and beyond			Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Four
Hands has offices in China, Vietnam, India and Indonesia. The
company designs and manufactures home furnishings for livingroom, bedroom, dining room, office and outdoor. They havebeen growing rapidly, especially over the past few years. Today,
they have more than 500 employees, 10,000+ active dealers,
100+ active suppliers and 5,000+ active SKUs. Their wares are
sold through multiple channels, from major furnishings retailers
to small boutiques and, of course, e-comm.

“We are very customer-centric and nurture those relationships.
We try to be flexible and to go that extra step. For example, somewant customized labels and we even work with change orders,”
says Estremadoyro. “But having grown so much, we need to havethat operational excellence and be efficient in everything we doespecially on the distribution side of things.”

PIVOTING TO PLM			

Estremadoyro was hired in 2018 with a mandate to drive
innovation and implement next-gen systems at Four Hands, while
taking a project management approach to tackling complex,
cross-functional projects. He says, “We have a very strong inhouse IT development team and traditionally our systems had
been home grown so we wanted to shift that energy and focus
to next-gen systems.”“We had multiple divisions with work in progress and noconsistency in the process,” Estremadoyro says. He goes on todescribe the challenges of communicating with team members
in Asia and vendors via endless emails and designs on power
point. There was no visibility into product development either.
These factors drove Four Hands to seek out PLM.

Systematic selection			A formal software selection process was carried out in 2016. The
team spent several months gathering requirements from theproduct development side of things, to the sampling process, tosourcing, and more. Says Estremadoyro, “We took into accountneeds from the US and from our international offices alike. Then
there was a formal evaluation of several packages available inthe market at the time, with Centric being one of them. The end
result was the selection of Centric PLM.”			

©2021 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

“THE BEAUTY IS THAT WE
NOW HAVE THIS SINGLE

SOURCE OF THE TRUTH FOR
PRODUCT INFORMATIONTHAT WE USE ACROSS“Estremadoyro, says, “Four Hands at the core, is a productcompany. We are known for designs that customers like. We
produce furnishings that are refined and classic, yet innovativeand cool.” He continues, “Behind the scenes we are a sourcing
company, we are a warehousing company, a sales company anda distribution company. Across all those items of the value chain
is the management of information from design all the way to thecustomer.”

THE BOARD FOR ALL OUR
SYSTEMS.

CHALLENGES+ Multiple systems, multiple sources ofdata/attributes+ No consistent process+ Designs in PPT+ No visibility to track design workflow+ Slow product development process+ Duplication of work
+ Inefficient collaboration with overseas
teamsIndustrious implementation

RESULTS

Estremadoyro says of implementation: “Like every major change in ourorganization, it took effort and focus, especially on the change management
side. It was a challenge going from Excel spreadsheets to a very structuredsystem. But we have the right partner and the right methodology. We
tackled one thing at a time, starting with one part of the workflow, thenfinishing it, and on to the next. We iterated like that, and whenever there
was a problem we wanted to revisit, it was easy to go back and make thetweak, and then keep going. It wasn’t your traditional waterfall rollout.” Healso emphasizes the importance of data and building the libraries.

+ Single source of truth for productinformation

WINNING FACTORS		+ Improved data accuracy+ Workflow built into the software+ Drastically improved visibility andreporting+ Increased process efficiencies(no duplication of work, use oflibraries, etc.)

Estremadoyro explains that one of the essential factors that led to success+ Seamless communicationin implementing Centric PLM was not positioning it as an IT project. “Wethroughout
were very intentional with naming sponsors from the functional areas like
product development, sourcing, international. It was a business project
and framed as such. That was the perspective that we had going in, andit proved to be the right one. The key resources were the subject matter experts (SME) from the different functions
who devoted a very significant amount of their time for several months to this project. We empowered them to make decisions about
the design, configure the system with the help of Centric technical folks, carry out testing, create training documents, and actually do thetraining. Ultimately, I think they’re the heroes of this implementation.”

Reaping the benefits

Four Hands went live in August of 2019. Estremadoyro recalls, “One user told me a few months ago, that before Centric PLM, every
morning he had to review dozens of emails, hundreds of notifications plus a collaboration tool that we had, just to know what to do thatday! But now, he logs into the system and knows the status of each project and exactly what he needs to do, so it’s been a tremendous
improvement from that standpoint.”
Currently, there are 115 active users in the US, China and Vietnam. The data in the system is impressive: 45,000+ colorways, 100,000+
calendaring activities¬—steps in the development process that they are tracking, and more than 20,000 supplier quotes processed.
Estremadoyro says, “The beauty is that we now have this single source of the truth for product information that we use across the board
for all our systems. We have a consistent process for product development; it is built right into the platform. There are specific steps toexecute, specific checkpoints and milestones. Efficiency is up, the reduction in emails is just amazing and data accuracy has absolutelyimproved. Now we know where to go to get the height of an arm rest, for example. We are confident that the information in Centric isaccurate and the most up-to-date.”

PANDEMIC EFFECTAs with every company, the pandemic caused a shake-upof business-as-usual. Initially, Four Hands went into cash
flow protection mode—canceled travel, froze hiring, curbed
expenses. A mandatory stay-at-home order shut down
the city of Austin in March. Fortunately, Four Hands had
already implemented Centric PLM and was able to go 100%
remote. In the end, 2020 ended in double-digit growth forthe company, breaking all previous records in terms ofshipments, orders, transactions, and cartons handled in
the warehouse. Four hands also saw significant growth inall distribution channels. The lesson learned was that they
could still achieve great results with remote working andalternate ways to introduce product beyond conventional
furniture shows.

Future enhancements“We did a survey after the go-live, and then repeated it
several months after that. We saw improvement in termsof what our people think about the user interface andflexibility for reporting. After a year or two into it, the users
feel comfortable with the system and are actually getting
the most out of it,” Estremadoyro says. “We’re following
Centric’s traditional path of go-live, stabilize, optimize... andnow we can look to enhance.”©2021 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

FOUR HANDS (www.fourhands.com)
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Four Hands has offices in China, Vietnam, India and Indonesia. We design and manufacture
home furnishings for living room, bedroom, dining room, office and outdoor. We have enjoyed rapid growth, especially over the past few years
with over 500 employees, 10,000+ active customers, 100+ active suppliers and 5,000+ active SKUs. Our furniture is sold through multiple channels,
from major furnishings retailers to small boutiques and e-commerce.
We believe there is no end to what furniture can do for a space. Our profound curiosity and love for creative experimentation takes us to diverse
corners of the world. We are compelled to do more than design and discover furniture. At Four Hands, we furnish style. No design opportunity ismissed as we merge the cultures, experiences and materials of our travels into the wide range of styles for which we are known.
Whether consumer, designer or retailer, we value relationships above all else. Nothing we do is ours alone. Each of our pieces is a story, and at
the end of that story, is someone like you.

ABOUT CENTRIC SOFTWARE (www.centricsoftware.com)
From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a Digital Transformation Platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail,footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods including cosmetics, beauty, food and beverage. Centric’s flagship Product Lifecycle Management(PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and collection management
functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB provides innovative PLM technology and key industry learnings foremerging brands. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) offers a new fully visual and digital experience for collaboration and decision-making
and includes the Centric Buying Board to transform internal buying sessions and maximize retail value and the Centric Concept Board for driving
creativity and evolving product concepts. All Centric innovations shorten time to market, boost product innovation and reduce costs.
Centric Software is majority-owned by Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital
Mock Up and PLM solutions.
Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, including being named by Red Herring to its Top 100 Global list in 2013,2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2021.

www.centricsoftware.com©2021 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved. Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software Inc.
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