Tailoring the Future: How Cambridge Clothing’s CFO Transformed Finance Operations with Intelligent Automation

On the very first day Graham Bass got his feet under the desk as CFO of leading Trans-Tasman menswear specialist Cambridge Clothing, he set the ball rolling on automating the paper-intensive processes of his finance team.   

“I could see straight away there were some nice easy low hanging targets to put in robotic process automations that would take away a lot of the box ticking I would have been doing,” says the Auckland-based finance professional who joined the iconic 157-year-old clothing company in 2020.

Fast forward four years, since starting work with digital workforce partner Virtual Blue to streamline the process of checking off stock received into the company’s warehouse, the remit of the team’s digital worker by SS&C Blue Prism – affectionately named ‘Bunny Robot’ – continues to expand.

“It’s been a game changer for us,” Bass says. “It covers at least five regular daily routines, and we’ve got a list of others where we’ll be looking to improve data accuracy and speed to improve our people’s working lives. We also want to bring in some other generative AI tools across the operations and dial up our predictive stock analytics.”     

Part of the fabric

Founded in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1867, Cambridge Clothing has a stable of menswear brands sold predominantly in Australia and New Zealand through major retailers such as Myer and David Jones, specialist outlets such as Peter Shearers, and a newly launched online marketplace. In addition to its own brands, including Cambridge, Gibson, Uberstone and Joe Black, it has acquired other quality menswear specialists including Australia’s Ganton shirtmakers and City Club Menswear. Until 2013, Cambridge made its stock in New Zealand, before partnering with a set of manufacturers across Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand and Laos.

Bass says the company has never been shy of experimenting with operational improvements throughout the decades, rethinking everything from where clothes are manufactured to how they’re transported – even simple innovations such as using space-saving vacuum packing or adding strings into shipping containers to hang more clothing.

The idea of introducing robotics and AI into the mix, then, was welcomed by the group’s management team, although Bass concedes some others across the company needed more convincing.

“The first projects were very much finance team based – relatively low value-add but important for me – and we saw about a six-month payback on that,” he says. “Those projects were then effectively covering the robot’s ‘annual salary’ (or software subscription), helping to lay the ground for what we could do next. It also got our robot familiar with working with our ERP system, Apparel21, so it became more efficient to add projects.”  

SS&C Blue Prism’s vice president, Australia & New Zealand, Greg Eyre, says Cambridge Clothing’s adoption of intelligent automation is a testament to the transformative power of technology in the retail sector. “By leveraging SS&C Blue Prism’s capabilities, they’ve streamlined operations, enhanced customer experiences, and set a new benchmark for efficiency in the industry,” Eyre says. “We’re proud to partner with them and Virtual Blue in this journey towards innovation and process excellence.”

Tailored solutions

Among the robot’s expanding list of tasks, Bass says it does a daily sales reconciliation and identifies and deals with any anomalies that may arise. It also swings into action when, for example, the incorrect volume of stock makes its way into the warehouse. “If we get excess units or too few, the digital worker emails the right supplier or employee to ask them to check what happened, to fix the purchase order or follow up with them if things are running late. It keeps things a lot cleaner for stock handling.”  

He says it has also transformed the company’s factory finished alterations service, where a customer can ask for a jacket pocket to be removed, for example, or an extra button sewed on, or the sleeves to be longer. Previously the in-store team handwrote alterations and drew instructions on a piece of paper, scanned and emailed it through to the customer service team in Auckland who would print it out, type up the notes, create a sales order and take it to the warehouse where the changes would be made. Now, the in-store teams fill in a web form which is picked up by the robot, who creates the sales order and emails it directly to the alterations team, so the customised piece can easily arrive at the customer by the next morning.

“It certainly made our customer services team happier – it’s saved them at least a day’s work per week,” Bass say. “But the real value, that we weren’t expecting, has been the customer visibility to the workflow process. Being able to tell the customer how it’s progressing, and when it’s dispatched – that just wasn’t there before and gives us an extra customer service opportunity.”  

Bass says the efficiencies gained by the digital worker prompted him to restructure his finance team, enabling an uplift in its ability to add value. “The level of manual work that was involved before the digital worker really precluded any innovation, so we can now focus much more of our time in that space.”

Sharyn Catt, managing director and founder of digital workforce partner Virtual Blue Limited adds, “It is great working with a progressive team like Cambridge Clothing who embrace technology to not only help grow the business, but support their people.”

Zipping ahead

While the focus to date has been predominantly on robotic automation, Bass says he’s turning his attention towards the application of generative AI and other forms of predictive analysis to generate further pockets of improvement.

One key area on the roadmap is to improve the accuracy of forward order planning, given the raft of variables that make predictions for the company “a bit lumpy”. As well as stocking a wide range across several brands, with a mix of regular items (or “stock service”) and seasonal pieces, each style can offer up to 14 different sizes. “So, if a few wedding parties, for example, walk in and buy seven suits each, we can have wholesale customers who will be ordering right across the size grid at once. Suddenly we can see a burst in sales of one particular item and that adds complexity when you’re looking at the raw numbers,” he says.  

“You need to be pretty accurate on what you’ve got already, what you’re ordering, what you’ve pre-sold, what you expect to sell in the next three months, and if you run out, how long it takes to make and ship it, taking into account supply chain issues. Having some extra help gives us a better view of what might happen, what to order, so we don’t run out and don’t miss out on sales, as well as how much cash you’ve got tied up in stock that you haven’t sold yet – they are all key metrics for us.”

While that ‘Mecca’ remains a future goal, in the meantime, Bass is enjoying the fruits of automation and recommends other CFOs get on the journey if they haven’t already.

“Intelligent automation is well and truly here, it’s accessible, and there’d be very few businesses that wouldn’t benefit from it,” he says.

Graham Bass’ advice for CFOs with Intelligent Automation and AI aspirations

• Don’t try to do everything at once: It’s easy to get carried away by the possibilities but try not to scope out a project that is going to take 200 hours of development. There’s got to be a reasonable use case up front and a certain volume of transactions to make it worthwhile. Once you see the value come through, keep whittling away on improvements.

• Be prepared for upfront costs: It’s a reasonable upfront commitment, but it’s likely to have a 6- to 12-month payback. Accept that no RPA project is ever perfect straight off the bat, and handling what might go wrong can add unexpected costs. But rest assured, you’re likely to see benefits you weren’t expecting and hadn’t factored in.

• Recognise how wide ranging it can be: Our first task was simply to remove something very manual and tedious for me, but a little add on had unexpected benefits that are helping the accuracy of our stock handling and supplier management, giving us significant long-term value.

• Learn from others: It’s important to understand what the potential is to understand the full value you might get from it. Join information sharing networks to learn from others. Our vendor, SS&C Blue Prism, runs social sessions across New Zealand and Australia where customers come together to talk about their experiences which I’ve certainly found insightful.

• Choose the right partner: Go with a digital workforce specialised partner that’s prepared to understand your business and know the impact if things go wrong. Building and maintaining a good relationship with your supplier, including regular catch-ups, is vital.