PARIS, Nov. 20, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Lectra (PSE:LECS) launched LectraOnline, its B2B e-business solution in the Asia-Pacific region in Hong Kong, on October 18, 2001. Further to the successful launches in Paris and New York, Lectra thus completed the third of its major worldwide launch in front of more than 60 attendees including key executives from Hong Kong's apparel industry, trade officials, universities and journalists.
Capitalizing on the reach of the Internet, LectraOnline offers its users online access to Lectra's immense technological knowledge in a unique e-business offer. LectraOnline will round out Lectra's e-business offer, marrying three essential technologies -- CAD/CAM, virtual reality and the Internet -- with Lectra's worldwide experience in the markets it serves. The company counts more than 10,000 clients today in the textile, apparel, retail distribution, furniture and furnishings, footwear, luggage and leather goods, automotive, aeronautics, nautical and technical textiles industries.
LectraOnline is accessible at www.lectra.com.
LectraOnline hands Lectra clients the keys to the world of e-business. The three initial components, that will be progressively expanded and enriched, are:
-- LectraOnline Exchange: a secure exchange platform
-- LectraOnline Applications: applications available online
-- LectraOnline Expertise: intervention of Lectra's top experts
worldwide
Now Lectra's 10,000 clients -- designers, manufacturers, retailers, brand merchandisers and wholesalers -- can communicate and collaborate in real time. Benefits include contact with new business associates, the outsourcing of important but non-strategic tasks, and improved time-management, delivery times and quality control thanks to a permanent link with Lectra.
LectraOnline Exchange: totally secure global communication with business partners, in real time
At LectraOnline, companies can exchange product data with all their supply-chain partners in the secure environment of LectraOnline Exchange. Designs, patterns, specs, fabric and trimming details, and style catalogues can all be swapped quickly and efficiently with all the partners.
And there are less worries about compatibility problems, the size of files or follow-up on data exchanges: LectraOnline Exchange and Lectra experts take care of it all.
Lectra customers can choose from two LectraOnline Exchange options:
-- Lectra OpenExchange: access to the worldwide Lectra community
-- Lectra EnterpriseExchange: a private extranet where companies and
their business partners can use secured personalized online
applications and services.
Lectra is moving forward to open the communication to all its clients worldwide: LectraOnline Exchange is now available both in traditional and simplified Chinese, and will be available in Japanese by early 2002.
LectraOnline Exchange already exists in French, English and German.
LectraOnline Applications: applications online, with immediate service
LectraOnline offers today the automatic marker-making application online that lets clients obtain the best possible fabric usage with their markers, and aim at providing immediate access anytime to the most up-to-date Lectra software. Other benefits are the improvement of the supply-chain performance by giving to partners the latest technology or expertise.
LectraOnline Expertise: Lectra's top experts available online in real time
LectraOnline gives new meaning to the idea of customer care with the launch of its unique offer of online services available worldwide, thanks to Lectra's three international call centers in Bordeaux (France), Atlanta (USA) and Hong Kong (China), open five days a week and eight hours a day. "Follow the sun" (24/7) operations are scheduled for 2002-2003.
Monitoring or optimization of the cutting room, remote help on-screen in real time at the client's workstation, expert problem diagnosis with LectraOnline, no matter where equipment and personnel are located, Lectra's top experts are ready to help you online.
Listening to clients' needs and responding quickly and effectively to their demands helps nurture genuine long-term relationships built on trust.
LectraOnline underlines Lectra's global technological leadership
Lectra has capitalized on its technological knowledge to launch online a range of products and services that brings a unique e-business offering to the market, and answers the need for new business models for the new economy. First unveiled in February, 2000, the five key components of this strategy -- e-design, e-manufacturing, e-sales, Gallery (Lectra's most advanced collection-management software) and LectraOnline -- are now a reality.
This e-business offer is the fruit of five years and EUR 70 million of investment in the development of CAD/CAM, virtual reality and Internet technologies by Lectra: more than EUR 10 million have been allocated to information technology and the development of LectraOnline in 1999, 2001 alone.
Lectra plans to maintain its annual investments in R&D, already currently around EUR 17 million to make its solution offering Web-enabled, and cater to the steadily increasing real-time communication needs of its customers' communities.
Traded on the Second Marche of the Euronext Paris exchange, Lectra is the world's leading technology provider of software and equipment dedicated to industries using textiles, leather and other soft goods: textiles, apparel, retail distribution, footwear, luggage and leather goods, furniture and furnishings, and the automotive, aeronautics and nautical industries with a global technology offering combining CAD/CAM, virtual reality and the Internet. With a staff of 1,500 worldwide, Lectra generates more than 88 percent of its revenues outside France each year, thanks to an extensive international network of 38 subsidiaries and 78 offices in more than 100 countries, serving more than 10,000 clients.
Lectra's shares are part of the Next 150 index of Euronext, of the SBF 250, Midcac and Second Marche indexes of the Euronext Paris exchange, as well as being part of the European technology stocks of the FTSE eTX All-Shares, eTX Innovation and eTX Software indexes.
Learn more about Lectra at: www.lectra.com