R&M: It is now much easier to adapt the company, either in terms of delivery or in terms of capacity.
Radoslav Radev, Managing Director for Bulgaria, is pleased to share that the Salesforce products help them become more reactive to the dynamics of the market and stay focused on the business.
REICHLE AND DE-MASSARI BULGARIA PRODUCTION is part of the Swiss group REICHLE AND DE-MASSARI (R&M), which is an independent Swiss family business with 57 years of experience in the information and communications technology market. Founded in 1964, R&M is today one of the leading suppliers of connectivity solutions. With its copper andfiber optic systems, the company contributes significantly to operational reliability in data and communication networks of all sizes all over the world. As a system provider, R&M strives to develop optimal functionality and to satisfy the highest qualitycriteria. In addition, the company delivers maximum convenience in installation and maintenance.
The group has many factories around the world, but the biggest manufacturing site is located in Bulgaria, with almost 500 employees. The manufacturing is quite specific and unique for Bulgaria.
REICHLE AND DE-MASSARI BULGARIA PRODUCTION started the so-called digital transformation a long time ago before this topic became so famous and trendy. R&M is an international company that has employees, clients, and partners all around the world. This distance and remote work require the use of multiple digital solutions and tools, to be able to execute its projects, as well as discuss scope and specifications.
CHALLENGES
The need for digitalization of the internal and external processes forces the implementation of cloud-based solutions, creating internal digital workspaces for sharing information between teams and departments, and easily coordinating the project management and tasks.
R&M has a project-oriented business model which makes forecasting and planning significantly complicated. In addition, the shortage of transportation, raw materials and supplies, and the lengthened supply chain make their job even more complex.
SOLUTION
The company faces challenges in defining the probability for project realization and which infrastructure project will happen soon. This reflects directly on sales and production planning, and forecasting becomes almost impossible. Here comes the decision to implement Salesforce.
The management team, together with the operational departments, decide to optimize the customer-facing business processes and automate them in a way that allows them to define project specifications on the fly and better forecast the pipeline and actual deals.
“Salesforce helps us on the fly to discuss with our clients the probability of the projects happening. Based on this probability we decide to transfer it to our ERP system with materials specification, product solutions, etc. Working this way, we can make informed decisions in advance and adapt the company, either in terms of delivery or in terms of capacity.”,
says Radoslav Radev, Managing Director of REICHLE AND DE-MASSARI BULGARIA PRODUCTION.
Radoslav Radev also mentions that the Salesforce products help them become more reactive to the dynamics of the market and stay focused on the business. He appreciates the improvement of the sales and presales productivity and the efficiency increase on an operational level.
FUTURE
R&M also plans to improve the offering process by implementing a specialized Salesforce solution, the so-called Configure Price Quote (CPQ). This means that the sales reps will be able to specify the characteristics of a project on-site together with the client without any delays. Based on these specifications of a data center or some other telecommunication network, the company automatically generates a bill of materials in SAP and immediately sends them to the production department.
“Our aim is for this specification to reach the production level very quickly and to avoid the communication with the front office, the operations planning department, etc.”, adds Mr. Radev.
The Salesforce solution is integrated with the existing ERP system – SAP. This allows faster communication within the departments and an appropriate transfer of the information about current and potential projects, quotes, bill of materials (BOM), routing, etc.
This two-way integration between the main systems gives R&M flexibility on the market and a production level, and the possibility to reduce the time for reaction and execution. As Radoslav Radev shares, “these are just a few examples of the Salesforce usage and benefits.”
