RR fashion Bundle

I am in the same situation and would like anyone with real world experience with this add-on to share their thoughts. Thanks.

I have not used RRs Fashion Bundle but there is a similar one called Matrix plus available from

Maybe it is worth checking out ..

"timmer315" wrote:

We use RR's Fashion Bundle, and it works very well. When you want to add another size/color/etc to an existing matrix, you just go into the Item Creation utility, click the dropdown to choose your existing matrix, and once it loads click the Matrix button. You can then add any new sizes, colors, etc to the existing matrix. You do have to re-enter all of the pricing and supplier information again (it does not pull that information automatically) - which is a little annoying - but it's a 100 times better than what you have to do in RMS.

If you contact RR, you can get a demo of the software that will let you do everything but actually post the created items into RMS... (but it will let you get a very good feel for the program.)

Jared

This is in regards to Retail Realm Fashion Bundle, using Item Creation module ver. 2.2.6.

If the version is higher then they may have fixed it but if you do a lot of volume be aware.

We used it and its ok, but not built for reporting on size & colors-it isnt a substitute for something that uses style info.

Since it creates these Matrix fields it seems as if you can run reports in RMS on your colors and sizes of Matrix items-however, you cannot. RMS doesnt know sizes and colors exist-you make the 3 Matrix dimensions anything you want - in RMS they are really text Sub descriptions. You could run filters on these descriptions but other than that, this style info isnt easy to get at. And the reports in RMS do not include Sub Desc1, 2, 3, 4, so then what? I have done extractions and unless doing a SQL query for this info-the extraction shows Sub Desc 1,2,3 & 4 as empty. It just says "Color, Size, Material". Those are the Matrix Dimensions we use. It should pull the data since it pulls the headers but so far, no you cant repot on that info.

Also if adding colors or size to a Matrix it will do it, but will at the same time re-add all previous items in that Matrix, as options to get in the new color or sizes you are adding. You need to manually unselect the old items that it brings in with your new color or size, if you dont want them. This sucks and there is no way around it unless they made a new version. Ask about this because you will be upset if you order bulk or many items.

Also, this module is really a comon batch window. Everyone using Item Creation & has it open in a buying office for example; each person adds newly created items. Well, everyone can see those other folk's items, and the batch items list grows until you batch it to RMS. If you delete the batch that is in progress, you delete everyone's work. If you close it, its ok-the other ones are open. If none are open and you close it, bye bye work. If you batch before other folks are ready, it batches all items pending and people are not even aware ntil they see the blank window. Also you can save work as its being done.

The only way to pull this creation data for PO creation in RMS is to add a description to the item batch that is uniquely yours. In RMS you do a new PO, and tell the PO Wizard to pull items with the description "mystuff05/01/05" and it will bring your Matrix group into a PO all at once. This works well, by the way-its accurate.

It can be very confusing overall, since the full screen of RetailRealm is only as big as half a Windows screen. It does not expand o fill your entire Windows interface. Also Windows key combinations dont always work.

This application is made of several components, ensure your reseller is knowledgable about how to install these components EXACTLY in order. Its all desktop based, but is really tied into the RMS database from each workstation. Since the install can be changed by each user in that it affects all installs, users need to know whats up from the start. ie: sometimes changing preferences in it do not affect all installations until everyone restarts the app. So on-the-fly config changes are not a good idea.

***If you are going to create many Matrix items-you can only use a Matrix code one time-this is a major problem in clothing - your skus will increase in length every 99 item groups or Matrices. If they fixed this, well, BUYAAAA! but I dont know. I want all my pants iunder 1 Matrix-pants-and I can create the different styles inside that-but now every seperate Category of item in RMS has a unique Matrix code. Item Lookup Codes in 1 year have increased to from 9 to 15 digits because of this. See how this affects barcodes or price ticket printing.

The best thing is to test this on a dummy PC and DB set up.

Its ok for ordering clothes but the version we have is so manual that its become a pain, and a word to the wise: you should have VERY stable workstations that are fully up to date/patched, bug and trojan free, before applying RMS and this Fashion Bundle to them, otherwise you will have many, many issues.

Better than creat> We use RR's Fashion Bundle, and it works very well. When you want to

Luke (& others),

Thanks for all the info that you posted, I really appreciate it! I just received a "demo" version which is supposed to be a full working copy for 30 days or so. I definitely want to check up on the issues you brought up (to see if they fixed them).

P.S. The annual support/maintenance fee is 20% (you also have to pay for the first year).

Alex