|
IBM Signs Services Agreement With Fashion Research Institute
(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NEW YORK, NY, October 9 / MARKET WIRE/ --
IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has signed
a multi-million IBM Global Business Services agreement with the Fashion
Research Institute (FRI) to implement a first-of-a-kind Virtual World
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Enterprise System.
Fashion Research Institute, headquartered in New York, NY, conducts
research into technology-based initiatives and develops emerging
technologies to overhaul traditional fashion practices and methodologies.
FRI's mission is to reduce the carbon footprint and change the
environmental impact of the industry in ways that are sustainable,
replicable, respectful of the practitioners, and meaningful for all
stakeholders. FRI maintains Shengri-La, a five-island complex in Second
Life, and an OpenSim complex.
"We're proud to pioneer the first big business solution that leverages the
OpenSim virtual world platform to address economies of scale," said Shenlei
Winkler, FRI. "The Fashion Research Institute understands how to design
real world consumer goods using a virtual world environment, and IBM
understands the scaling challenges of global enterprise. Taking on both
simultaneously is a winning move."
This virtual world enterprise solution, expressly created as a product
design environment, will offer a fundamentally new work flow addressing
critical issues facing the design industry, such as ensuring
manufacturability of designs and decreasing substantial sample costs by
two-thirds. Users of this solution will ultimately be able to enter a
virtual world, receive training on the systems, and take a design from
concept to prototype -- with every step short of actual manufacturing being
done virtually.
This first-of-a-kind system will allow fashion and consumer packaging
designers to access and use 3-D tools with the Second Life client
interface. In addition it will also connect to the OpenSim virtual world
platform to create packaging and fashion products, provide efficient
workflow queues, and allow groups with an interest in the product to
collaborate and modify designs. The program will also generate virtual
product samples and accurate factory specifications that enable high
quality product mass-manufacturing in the real world.
FRI will offer an IBM-backed and co-developed enterprise solution providing
a simpler and more intuitive user interface than currently existing
design-industry-oriented software including scalability for businesses of
all sizes. Users of the IBM-built technology could see product sample
creation costs and time to market decrease dramatically.
The initial proof-of-concept solution expected to go live in 2H09 will be
piloted with up to 20 international design houses. Ultimately this
solution will be offered as a design service or enterprise installation, to
creative industry design houses of all sizes globally.
"As the Fashion Research Institute continues to enhance the IT capabilities
of the fashion and consumer packaged goods industries, IBM's deep knowledge
in product design, enterprise systems, and virtual worlds will help FRI
bring new market opportunities to the fashion world," said Jeffrey Russell,
IBM Global Business Services. "A design house implementing this solution
could reduce dozens of weeks of design time, minimize the number of
physical samples manufactured, and increase product manufacturing quality
enough to put into development and production many additional collections."
The initial agreement was signed in March 2008 but was expanded in August
2008 to include consumer package design.
About the Fashion Research Institute
Fashion Research Institute conducts research into technology-based
initiatives and develops emerging technologies to sweepingly overhaul
traditional fashion industry practices and methodologies. FRI's mission is
to reduce the carbon footprint and change the environmental impact of the
industry in ways that are sustainable, replicable, respectful of the
practitioners, and meaningful for all stakeholders. FRI maintains
Shengri-La, a five-island complex in Second Life, and an OpenSim complex.
FRI is an IBM business partner, and has been working closely with top IBM
architects and researchers over the last year to develop its
virtual-worlds-based product design solution.
About IBM
For more information, visit www.ibm.com.
Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to Newsvine
Media Contacts:
IBM Contact
Pasha Ray Dahncke
IBM Communications
914-766-2176
646-342-4013 (mobile)bipasha@us.ibm.com
Fashion Research Institute
Karen Ann Kurlander
917-604-0500
Copyright ? 2008 Marketwire
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
INDUSTRIES
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
