COE NEWSLETTER SECOND EDITION

CUSTOMER SERVICE COE NEWSLETTER #02 MEET THE TEAM COE CONNECT AUDITS & PROCESS UPDATE WHOLESALE TRAINING REPORTING CHANGE – VAS, SAP, PROJECT UPDATES COMMUNICATIONS MARCH 2021

MEET THE TEAM COE VANESSA SAMPONG Since the launc VAS & CUSTOMER back in Septem DATA COORDINATOR whopping 1358 ticke Customer Service be My name is Vanessa and I’m the VAS and tickets have been co Customer Data Coordinator, working within Please keep raising reques the Change team in the COE. is allowing us to provide yo can, whilst keeping track o In October I will be celebrating 5 years of streams within the COE. working at VF – I started in 2016 on a temporary contract as an eCommerce CSR TICKETS RAISED BY during the peak period, after having MONTH, BY COE AREA relocated to the UK from Milan, Italy. SINCE DECEMBER After a while in eComm, I moved over to AVERAGE DAYS Wholesale and joined the Italian Jeanswear TO RESOLVE team – back when there was a Jeanswear department! – and after that the Vans Italy T and Iberia team. Moving around like this O meant I gained some valuable experience of some very different departments. I am enjoying my current role very much, as there is always a new challenge to resolve, which allows me to learn something new every, single day. It also enables me to connect with many different people across various locations and roles, which I find enriching. Since the lockdown began I have developed a passion for indoor plants and I’ve gone from owning four in February 2020, to now having more than 30. My husband keeps telling me that the house looks like a jungle, but I know that even though he'll never admit it, they do bring him joy. I love taking care of my plants while listening to some music. It's my ‘me time’ and I find it very relaxing to tend to them. I am now looking into propagating some of them to gift, as they've grown so much and it’s also made me start thinking about what plants to get for my garden. I hope that you'll enjoy this newsletter and that it gives you some insight into the COE world.

E CONNECT PORTAL JUNE JENSEN ch of the COE Connect portal SYSTEMS mber, we have received a INTERFACE ets from various departments, SPECIALIST eing the main one. 1176 of the ompleted so far! sts via COE Connect, as this ou with the best support we of the requests across all our TICKETS RAISED OVERALL, BY DEPARTMENT 6 TICKETS COMPLETED OVERALL, BY COE AREA

WHS TRAINING You may not have seen as many training sessions from us recently, but we are most certainly not slowing down! Your training team have been very busy conducting an LNA, but what is an LNA…? LEARNING NEEDS ANALYSIS KASIA S WHS TRA Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) is a process that we go through periodically, to LEAD make sure that we are still working in the best way to support all our colleagues in Wholesale Customer Service. We take information from different sources, including surveys sent out from CS Training, and then analyse the data to identify what we can do to support you over the next few months. Thanks to everyone who has shared their feedback through the most recent surveys and to those who took part in our focus groups – your feedback is invaluable to us! SOFT SKILLS TIP DEAN PORTER CS WHS TRAINER We have some great new things on the horizon. All designed to Mikkel support your training and help you give our customers the best Hansen possible service, so watch this space! If you have If you do want to reach out to us with any feedback or ideas about training, please drop us an email at [email protected].

JUNE JENSEN SYSTEMS INTERFACE SPECIALIST SULEK EDI UPDATE AINING WHAT IS EDI? EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is used to exchange data between VF and our customers, providing efficient processes without any manual interference. This data can be purchase orders, delivery documents and invoices to name a few, and by using a standardised “computer language”, our systems are able to communicate directly with our customers’ systems. This eliminates the need for a person to manually handle documents such as post and emails, which can be labour intensive and error-prone. EDI ONBOARDING In order for us to communicate with our customers via EDI, we first need to onboard them onto our exclusive EDI boat. To do this, we need to agree on the method of connection (fenders are recommended), which type of data we want to exchange with each other, and in which computer language – no pirate language is allowed, arrr! Once this has been decided, we start the testing phase, where we make sure the data can be processed correctly in both parties’ systems. The testing usually involves several departments such as the technical EDI team, CS COE, CS, Credit and DC. After completing a successful end-to-end test, we can retrieve the anchor and set sail, switching on the live EDI connection with the customer. DID YOU KNOW…? …in CS Wholesale, each brand has their very own EDI Key User? These amazing people are here as your first point of contact to help you with any EDI questions or issues you might face. Melanie Annie Clara Rochella Erika STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS Gonzalez Tornroos Carollo Van Beusekom Garlet Simone Goglia any questions or are interested in learning more about EDI, don’t hesitate to contact either your EDI Key User or June. ������

INTERNAL SIMON DIME AUDITS PROCESS & GOVERNANC COORDINAT WHAT ARE INTERNAL AUDITS? We have a global team that investigate various aspects of our supply chain operations. During their reviews, they follow process flows and try to identify areas with risk, if there are any. The review process is usually scheduled over a three month period, after which they publish their findings and recommendations for improving. We are usually allotted a period of up to six months to implement improvements or new controls, based on their recommendation. Some actions may have only three months dependent on how critical they are. CS may be involved in the review process of audits for other departments, but not every audit will require our direct action. WHICH AUDITS HAVE BEEN IN PROGRESS RECENTLY? The latest audit – ‘Gross to Net II’ – was completed in December and investigated the processes regarding off-invoice discounts and markdown orders. The fantastic news is that no tasks were assigned directly to CS in the publication of the audit’s findings and recommendations on further actions. That’s not to say that we may not be involved somehow with other departments’ actions though. This is a real win for us. Customer Service was involved with the investigation and the fact we had no recommended tasks afterwards shows that we are definitely doing something right in our area of responsibility. Prior to this, there was the original ‘Gross to Net’ audit which focused on the creation of sundry documents within Wholesale, including whether brand approval flows were being followed correctly, as well as the referencing of original documents. System enhancements have been implemented for VAT overrides, in cases where the original documents have different settings to current parameters. Continues top right…

ENT RECENT AUDITS CONTINUED… & DATA The ‘Gross to Net’ audit also looked at use of order types in Wholesale, and found a CE high volume of transactions were being raised with missing or incorrect order types. TOR To correct this, we: • Collaborated with Finance on creating a sundry document matrix with clear guidance on the use of codes and F-Styles • Created a weekly sundry document report that highlights any incorrect order types, such as codes that are not approved for CS use or missing codes • Held various training sessions to support the new guidance WHAT’S NEXT IN THE WORLD OF AUDITS? Next up, our brand policy documents are being updated with approval flows in line with SAP – this should hopefully make it easier for us to comply with brand requirements and audit the resulting transactions. A new monthly report on the use of F-Styles is being developed to ensure we are complying with Finance guidelines. There are also a few internal audits in the schedule that may impact us, such as the PWC external audits and SOX, but nothing confirmed yet on our involvement. PROCESS UPDATE CARRIE ABBOTT PROCESS & POLICY REVIEW PROCESS & DATA GOVERNANCE In January we kicked off a review of all our existing process documents. COORDINATOR There are approximately 40 documents that are being reviewed and where necessary updated, to bring them in line with current practice and make them relevant to SAP. Initially the Claims and Charity processes are under review with Deallocation and Disputes to follow shortly. Once complete, these new versions will be stored on SharePoint for all of CS to access.

WHS GUILLAUME EPRINCHARD CHANGE CS CHANGE PARTNER PROJECT ALBION Albion is the opening of our newest DC, located in Bardon, UK. From 2021, Bardon DC will specifically handle The North Face, Timberland and Vans goods. Since our last COE newsletter, Project Albion has really kicked off for our CS Change Champions who are participating in the project and working alongside the COE to support UAT and training. Our CS Change Champions are Carla Vettori (TNF), Hazel Zaffarese (Vans), Onome Abare (TBL) and Chris Thompson (Strat). The month of January saw the Change Champions undertake training delivered by the project team on the new functionalities being implemented in SAP. Over a total of 10 hours of training, we looked at the changes and the new system behaviours on topics such as Customer Master, Order Management, VAS and Returns. Following the successful completion of training, our Change Champions are now taking part in the next phase of the project: User Acceptance Testing (UAT). UAT started on the 1st February and lasts for five weeks. It consists of 2380 tests and involves several different streams from across our business. Our team will continue to be directly involved in 290 of these tests… • making sure that the new functionalities are behaving as expected • approving tests producing correct results • flagging any issues COMING UP… Keep an eye out for further updates in the lead up to the Bardon DC go live date on the 6th of April. A webinar is being organised for the 11th March, where we will be sharing more information on Project Albion, and the plans for going live with UK returns at Bardon DC. Training will be provided on the topics that impact CSRs in mid-March. Stay tuned with us, as we grow closer to the opening of the Bardon DC…

MICHELA VACCA DICKIES CS CHANGE PARTNER WORKWEAR GO-LIVE At the end of last year, it was announced that Dickies Workwear will be added to the portfolio of brands managed by the Customer Service team in Nottingham. Since then, the COE, Wholesale and the eCommerce team have been working closely to ensure a smooth transition of this new brand into our Nottingham team. Dickies Workwear will be combined with the existing Dickies Life brand and going forward will be known as Dickies. From a Wholesale perspective, the Dickies Workwear project is different to the kind of change that we have experienced in the past with other brand integrations, such as icebreaker, Dickies Life and Altra. We will not be migrating existing customers’ accounts and orders from the previous company, instead choosing to start afresh, with brand new customer e-tafs. We are now in the discovery phase, which means we are engaging with the project team to gather more information about Dickies Workwear customers. In the following weeks, we will be defining the customers’ set-ups and processes. From April, we will be expanding the Dickies portfolio and managing brand new customers. We are very excited for the weeks ahead and looking forward to welcoming Dickies Workwear into our big CS family!

WHS S CHANGE CHANGE REQUESTS MAHAD ABDULLAHI CHANGE & PROCESS DEMAND MANAGEMENT PROCESS OPTIMISATION MANAGER In our last COE newsletter, we mentioned VF’s *SAP SPOCs introduction of a new, centralised approach to the Change Request process, named the ‘Demand TNF/SW Management Process’. The Change team is now in a Arianna Soldan position to put forward your ideas through this new Laura Doimo process, so please keep sending us your Change Andrea Acosta Requests and improvement ideas through the COE Chiara Bau Connect platform. Melissa Lion Federica Marinello UPCOMING GO-LIVES… NAPA • Coming in May, a new tool will be introduced on SAP Clara Carollo to allow CS to autonomously amend the requested Barbara Pellizzari delivery date (RDD) at document item line level TBL/ALTRA • In June, another tool will see CS be able to convert Abigail Baamonde order to contract and vice versa on the same sold-to Alistair Gibbs Hakim Achalhi A few enhancements are also going live in June: EP/KP • Sold-to move enhancement to allow CS to move Elisa Di Cosimo orders to a sold-to with a different currency Annie Tornroos • Cockpit enhancement to allow massive update of DL/IB payment terms on orders Orla Ratcliffe Bartlomiej Kmiec • Cockpit enhancement to allow massive update of Per Daniel Traff partner function on orders VANS And remember, if you have the next great idea for Jon Broster improving our service to our customers or if you just find something in the system that’s not working quite right – STRAT you know where to find us! Luisa Souto Fernandez Tania Igualador Villar GUILLAUME EPRINCHARD CS CHANGE PARTNER

SPOC NETWORK BREXIT Our SPOCs* continue to be our There’s been a lot of activity on the Brexit project over the past few months and it has SAP stars. The colleagues that been interesting for all of us in the COE and help you get your job done when UK CS teams to say the least! SAP doesn’t feel like playing nice or you need that little extra help You may remember from our last newsletter, that we were preparing for the transition that to do a big task with the support would take place on 1st January 2021. A cut of AMS. They investigate, over plan was put in place and ramp down coordinate, and escalate until ahead of the freeze period started while we your issue has been resolved. eagerly awaited the results of the discussions between the EU and the UK. MILESTONES The SPOCs have been working Our project activities went well and on Christmas Eve 2020, a deal was agreed closely with AMS, and the SAP upon. This did bring more clarity overall, Support Manager is attending however, there were also some surprises – calls with the SPOCS to discuss such as Northern Ireland’s dual status – how the two teams can work which meant that our original strategy had to be reviewed. better together, as well as how to successfully address the Since the transition, we have worked closely challenges of working on with our colleagues in Customer Service, the technical issues with teams DCs and Logistics to address the impact of located on different continents. the changes. Covid-19 added further pressure to the logistics network and the ability to provide the service our customers are used to. I cannot thank our TLs & CSRs enough for their involvement and for continuing to proactively flag risks. NEXT STEPS The next steps are to continue Although there are still challenges for us to building the relationships with resolve, things are moving in the right our colleagues in AMS and direction. The process between the DCs, Accenture, while supporting carriers and customs clearance is working our CS colleagues. We would again. Additional carriers have been also like to provide some more brought in to support and the focus is now insight into the work our SPOCs on clearing the backlog and continuing to do, so watch this space! make the necessary improvements until we achieve the right flow for our supply chain and the UK market.

REPORTING We’re back with another update from data-land, that wonderful place BEN HUN where numbers can roam and the lookup is free to be a V, an H or even ANALYSI an outrageous X*. MANAGE *if you get that joke you’ve passed the first interview… WHERE ARE WE? So, where are we at the moment? Well, it’s been non-stop. Seriously non- stop. But we’re all in the same boat when it comes to being busy – that’s how we get all the amazing things done! So. Complaining. Over. Since the last time we spoke, we’ve been working a lot with Cognos and Salesforce and (of course) Excel. We’ve set up many new schedules (you know who you are!) and made a few charts here and there. More specifically, we are working to set up our data structure to be more VANESSA SAMPO solid for the introduction of the new Wholesale team structure, including VAS & CUSTOM working with the new Customer Resolution Team on several new reports. DATA COORDINAT COGNOS Cognos should be running a lot better these days, there is a lot of background report cleansing happening and a lot of reports are moving to overnight/early schedules. We are working closely with the central BI team in order to optimize our reporting output. We certainly don’t see as many reporting lags or delays at the start of the week, so hopefully those of you that use Cognos have been seeing improved report performance as well. If you have any feedback, please feel free to get in contact with us! Or if you find yourself running the same reports day after day, please feel free to raise a COE Connect ticket for help with scheduling. UPCOMING… Finally, we are also spending a lot of time preparing for the upcoming FY22, working with brands to get the long-term volume forecasts for the financial year. This will enable us to better plan our business and meet our customers’ expectations going forward.

NTER QUESTIONS? IS ER If you have any questions, or you just want to chat or you want to discuss VBA, power queries or what exactly an XLOOKUP is, please do drop any of us a line. Big Love. The Reporting Team FELIX HUGHES JOHNATHAN BIRD PATRICK MURPHY WHS REPORTING REPORTING eCOMM SPECIALIST SPECIALIST REPORTING SPECIALIST VAS UPDATE ONG MER TOR CRD ONBOARDING In December last year, our Almelo brands – Timberland, Altra and Icebreaker - onboarded the CRD and our training team held several training sessions for all users involved, also making a recording of the session available in the training library, for CS to access at any time. NEW AUTHORISATION FORM For the remaining brands, a new authorization form was launched together with a CRD enhancement that allows booking in contacts to be edited by the users in CRD. UPCOMING… We are working to further improve CS knowledge of VAS & order delivery management, by ensuring that the training library is complete and up to date. Following the feedback provided by CS during some of the latest training sessions, we are also making additional material available to CS, to allow everyone to perform their jobs more efficiently.

COMMUNICATIONS MENTORING TRIAL WHAT IS IT? Some members of the COE have been taking part in a trial run of a VF mentoring scheme, aimed at developing professional and leadership skills. Participants will be partnered with leaders from around the business with the goal of enhancing knowledge of VF, themselves and possible future career paths. HOW IS IT GOING? We are still in the beginning stages of the mentoring trial and I’m sure I don’t just speak for myself when I say I’m excited to find out who my mentor will be. We started by filling in a questionnaire about ourselves, our strengths and development areas – it was harder than I thought! – with the idea being that we’ll be paired up with a mentor according to this information. WHAT’S NEXT? During the intro session, HR introduced us to some resources for self development from the Loop and I learnt that once you start delving into the literature, infographics and videos that we have available to us, both on the Loop and on Microsoft Streams, you can find a whole bunch of interesting stuff that I didn’t even know existed! This is a good starting point for trying to identify the areas that we would like to develop within ourselves through the mentoring relationship and find out more about the different career paths of colleagues. For now, we’re all getting ready to start our mentoring journey…

S ANNA JOHANNSEN COMMUNICATIONS THE PURPOSE TEAMCOORDINATOR HAVE YOU SEEN OUR CS PURPOSE TEAM’S UPDATES? For the last 6 months, the Purpose team have been firing on all cylinders and I have been loving all the brilliant work that has come from all three streams of the team. There are way too many things to list here, but a call out for some of my favourite initiatives have got to be… • the photography competition from last year, we always get such amazing photos submitted, I really love to see the creativity of everyone • The remote volunteering opportunities and ideas for how we can give back to our communities through charity, donations, letter writing etc. • The personal stories – Laura’s El Camino, Natalie’s Bardon DC experience and green recommendations, Jack’s Vegan Diary – I can’t get enough of these features! • The OM team sharing their New Year’s Resolutions, inspiring stuff! • The Zoom Cookalong – such an excellent idea! • All the content shared for LGBTQ+ History Month – I loved seeing everyone’s recommendations for films to watch and books to read, it was enlightening delving deeper into people’s stories of life and love Last but not least, we are getting closer to our 250th issue of the Daily Digest and the Purpose team are a huge part of the DD, with their individual stream issues each week – Worthy Work on a Monday, Outside Matters on a Tuesday and Free to Be with their Wellbeing Wednesday edition. The effort the teams put in is so appreciated and I get excited about the content they’ve got for me every week. As we celebrate our next big milestone, I want to say thank you to all the Purpose team for their dedication and passion and thank you to anyone who has ever contributed to the Daily Digest. There’s nothing better to me than seeing or hearing from YOU – everyone in our Customer Service team, so please keep it coming! HAVE YOU GOT FEEDBACK? LET US KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS! GET IN TOUCH… [email protected]