The Transformation to a Digital Company is Nearing its Goal

On November 14th, the first RS Components Italy press conference was held. It was a great opportunity to sum up the digital transformation the company has gone through over recent years, with partner and client case studies coming straight from those who have enjoyed and continue to enjoy the benefits this evolution has brought.

by Marta Bonaria

In the ultra-high tech, brand new office in Sesto San Giovanni (near Milan), on 14th November, the RS components Italy CEO Diego Comella, was proud to present the company’s new image to the press. Now a global multi channel distributor for electronic, automation and maintenance solutions using the most advance technology to transform product sales into the supply of a service with great added value potential.
This shows the horizons RS Italy strategy is looking toward. A digital company which already shifts 70% of sales through e-commerce, but, without ever having forsaken the importance of the human touch and the personalization of the client supplier relationship.
Digital transformation is redefining business
process, opening up extraordinary opportunities in market segments like that related to electronic product, automation and maintenance distribution where innovation has not always had room to breathe.
RS Components Italy invests over €100 ml every year in technological innovation from collection and analysis of big data for business optimization to tracking tools for best possible digital platform performance all the way to advanced warehouse infrastructure management to guarantee delivery times in 24/48 hours, a truly complete customer service. “This is all made possible thanks to the tight collaboration we have with partners with whom we share strategy and values” said Diego Comella.

Close ties between strategic partners and clients
A round table discussion followed, chaired by Gianluca Gioncada, Head of Product Management at RS Components Italy, in which Andrea Nespoli, Sales Manager Channel & Panel at Omron, Roberto Ciceri, President and CEO at Beta tools and Alessandro Rossi, Procurement Department Warehouse Coordination at Edison took part. Each expert had plenty to say about their collaboration with RS Italy, in roles of strategic partner and final client. Andrea Nespoli, Sales Manager Channel & Panel at Omron, said “The partnership with RS Components was born through shared strategically fundamental values. Firstly, technical training is continuative, this is a central pillar upon which our relationship is based; for Omron, complete knowledge of our products and solutions is essential for genuinely valuable professional assistance from all of our market partners”.
Another key service aspect to add to this is the ability of RS to guarantee end clients not only products but added value, both in terms of expert skills provided and full post-sales support.
Roberto Ciceri, President and CEO at Beta tools also detailed his experience with RS Components in terms of their ability to work with a distributor which shares goals and objectives. RS is a great believer in the “Made in Italy” concept and the benefits that follow this for Beta tools, a 100% Italian firm, are a clear advantage. Roberto Ciceri, also spoke about the international DNA of RS Components and its capacity to offer great global visibility in line company expansion plans. On top of this, collaborating with a fully digital company like RS means all the latest technological solutions can be accessed without losing the nonetheless essential human touch, the personalization of service that makes the difference.
The collaboration between Edison and RS Components Italy now goes back 10 years, and has evolved over time from the stipulation of single supply deals at a local level to the creation of an advanced technological solution, set up ad hoc by RS to respond to the fastest possible order management requirements. This solution means Edison has been able to centralize management and electronically deliver goods in 24, maximum, 48 hours, with full scale traceability.
“RS Components supplied us with all the IT support required for all systems to communicate with each other and become independent as quickly as possible in the implementation of the solution, which, was the first to be adopted by Edison” Alessandro Rossi, Procurement Department Warehouse Coordination at Edison confirmed.

All eyes on the new generation: the value of training
Supplying added value services, focus on technical and continuative training through close collaboration with strategic partners, supporting the excellence in Italian industry through digital platforms: these were some of the central points to come up during the round table discussion with RS Italy. All this without forgetting two key aspects at the heart of the RS mission, as Diego Comella underlined in his introduction: inspiring future generations of engineers and working closely with the academic world to support innovative projects, a great example being that of the La Sapienza university in Rome, with promotion of digital culture inside SMEs which are aided in this transformation by specialist Competence Centers.