Timbuk2 has Business Insights in the Bag with PivotLink

Streamlines Supply Chain Decisions Using On-Demand Retail Analytics

San Francisco, Calif. – May 12, 2010 – Customers of Timbuk2, the successful designer of stylish urban messenger bags and accessories, aren’t the only ones enjoying cool “build your own” capabilities over the web. Using the same principles that allow customers to blend styles, sizes and fabrics using the “Build Your Own Bag™” feature at www.Timbuk2.com, employees and supply chain partners are now creating self-service analytical dashboards and reports to make instant business decisions and accelerate growth. Timbuk2’s on-demand analytics environment is powered by PivotLink, the leading provider of business intelligence solutions delivered via Software as a Service (SaaS).

In a recent webinar on improving performance using retail analytics, the company known for popularizing the messenger bag as an urban fashion accessory described how this new generation of business intelligence in the Cloud allows Timbuk2’s managers to optimize inventory and anticipate customer preferences in a lightning-fast made-to-order environment.

Timbuk2 is popular with road warriors and adventure-seekers who create bags that are as individual as they are to tote everything from iPads to laptops and other daily essentials. Customers select from durable and stylish fabrics such as “Ballistic Nylon and X-Pac” and “hack” their own bags in colors like “Sourgrapes, Jellyfish, Limeaide and Potrero.”

Serving consumers and corporations around the globe requires an innovative, easy-to-use analytics environment. With products available through its website, retail store and specialty retailers like REI, Timbuk2 needed a solution to integrate and access large volumes of data from its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with its 3rd-party warehouse and other business data without draining IT resources to build and maintain a data warehouse.

During the webinar, Timbuk2 highlighted the benefits of standardizing on PivotLink as its enterprise-wide business intelligence platform:

• Reduced its dependence on spreadsheets and eliminated the IT backlog, recovering 16 hours per week that were previously spent developing reports

• Enables all employees to perform their own analysis of current business information using PivotLink dashboards and reports

• Secure way to share data and collaborate with key stakeholders

• Easier to predict and fulfill customer demand

• Real-time inventory accuracy increases customer satisfaction, repeat orders and revenue

“Our ERP system had a wealth of data, but there was really no way to access, analyze or collaborate on that data in a timely fashion,” said Chuck Schweiger, business analyst, Timbuk2. “When I realized that I could get granular, future inventory-availability data and push it out to the business, my expectations for PivotLink were exceeded. Before, we published that information in Microsoft Excel twice a week. Now, it’s near real-time. PivotLink offers outstanding flexibility and value that is helping us streamline decision making across our entire supply chain.”

Schweiger added, “Timbuk2 also uses PivotLink to track sales of special edition and off calendar product launches such as the Dolores Chiller messenger bag for 4th of July and the special edition product (RED)™ messengers which launched for holiday.”

“PivotLink is driving greater efficiency across the retail value chain by delivering self-service reports and dashboards that streamline order management, optimize campaign effectiveness and boost online revenues,” said Lorna Bender, vice president of channels & alliances, PivotLink. “We take great pride in knowing that customers like Timbuk2 and REI and partners like OrderMotion are thriving with e-Retail ecosystems powered by PivotLink.”

More Resources

Read the Timbuk2 case study. A replay of the webinar will be also available on-demand at www.pivotlink.com.

PivotLink’s market-leading SaaS BI platform and ReadiMetrix suite of analytical applications for Marketing, Sales and HR power quick BI wins by enabling business user self-service and providing analytics on demand, in the Cloud. Customers can also tap into a wide range of solutions and services available from PivotLink partners. View demos, case studies and partner resources at www.pivotlink.com.

Join the discussion about next generation BI solutions in the Cloud at http://blog.pivotlink.com. Follow PivotLink on Twitter @pivotlink.

About Timbuk2

Timbuk2 is a San Francisco-based company that pioneered the messenger bag. Born in 1989 in a San Francisco garage by a bike messenger with an old sewing machine, Timbuk2 has been building bags and accessories for urban adventurers with a simple philosophy – create good-looking, durable bags and accessories you can truly make your own. They’re sold at specialty retailers and online at www.Timbuk2.com.

About PivotLink Corporation

PivotLink is the leader in on-demand business intelligence, serving customers such as: REI; Novell; Party City; Phoenix Technologies; DHL; CamelBak Products; Car Toys; Guardian Home Care Holdings, Inc; Rossignol; Shaklee; Taleo and Zones. The platform powers roughly 2,000,000 ad hoc reports and dashboards for more than 15,000 PivotLink users each month. Delivered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, PivotLink’s award-winning solutions put affordable, secure and easy-to-use analytic tools into the hands of line of business users, freeing IT to focus on strategic business initiatives. PivotLink is a privately held company backed by Trident Capital, Emergence Capital Partners and StarVest Partners. Visit www.pivotlink.com.

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