Siemens subsidiary Mendix has introduced SaaS product lifecycle management (PLM) software targeting the fashion and retail industries.

Developed in partnership with Clevr, a low-code consulting and application development company, the Mendix PLM for Fashion and Retail provides an easy-to-use visual interface. Its true 3D integration capabilities accelerate collaboration on product design and creation of accurate bill of materials by unlocking the metadata within 3D authoring applications for use with the PLM software.

“Currently, ecommerce is exploding in the fashion and retail industries,” said Rohit Tangri, vice president at Massachusetts-based Mendix. “Large and emerging brands are adjusting to the paradigm shifts affecting the industry. Trends such as personalisation, sustainability, metaverse and the effects of digital 3D design have challenged brands and companies to adapt and fit into the new paradigms. Mendix PLM for Fashion and Retail was designed to address these challenges. Assets from the design integrations are directly usable for stakeholders collaboration including supply chains, ecommerce, meta-commerce, AR and multi-verse applications. This accelerates the speed of innovation delivering value to our customers.”

Multi-experience capabilities enable collaboration across the value chain and embedded mass photo-realistic image generation shortens time to market, allowing users to go direct to ecommerce or metaverse catalogues with designs.

“The Mendix PLM for Fashion and Retail is an addition to our strategy of providing high-value low-code built on the cloud-native Mendix platform,” said Ron Wellman, head of industry clouds at Mendix. “Leveraging the Mendix platform enables industry-leading capabilities in multi-experience, integration and time to value. We intend to continually enhance our industry ecosystem by identifying and bringing to market solutions that provide immediate results for our customers. The Mendix industry vertical strategy is to work internally and with key industry partners to build and market a specific set of assets including data source connectors, support for APIs and workflows, accelerator templates and adaptions.”

Getting this developed required the speed of a low-code platform and close collaboration between Mendix and Clevr.

“Partnering with the undisputed market leader in low-code, Mendix, will enable revolutionary digital transformation in the fashion and retail sector,” said Angelique Schouten, CEO at Clevr. “Together we will drive sustainability across the design-sales process in a fast-changing world where augmented fashion is gaining ground and will become the new normal. Brands and retailers must weave the digital thread into their DNA and rejuvenate their production processes, and that is why we have developed this.”

Mendix provides the advantages of a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product with the benefits of a low-code platform.

Clevr supports more than 400 customers in 18 countries including Continental, Ing, Siemens, Rituals, Marlies Dekkers, Etos, Cargolux, Nutricia, Eneco, Mondi Group and T-Systems.