“Operation e-commerce”: a big change introduced in Berco
As a child, Francesca Carnevale always dreamt of becoming a surgeon but, instead, her path led her to the heavy machinery industry where, since 2019, the 34-year-old has been responsible for Sales and Distribution projects at thyssenkrupp’s subsidiary Berco, in Italy.
For more than 100 years, Berco has been a world leading manufacturer of undercarriage systems and running gear components for the biggest names of the heavy machinery industry. It is therefore all the more surprising that Francesca Carnevale’s career led her to the traditional company in Italy as she had very different plans as a child. “To be honest, I even wanted to become a surgeon!” she says.
Yet her destiny had other plans: Francesca did a bachelor’s degree in marketing and communication after which she started a career in the IT industry. After a few years as an SAP consultant, it was time for a change and, in 2019, she joined Berco as business process manager in sales.
Here she supported the advancing digitalisation amongst the construction machinery professionals. “A lot is changing at Berco at the moment,” explains the former IT specialist. “We are currently improving on every level of the company.” Berco has, for example, automated the majority of its production during the past few years. A further step into the future is its new e-commerce platform for the aftermarket with which Berco dealers can quickly order parts and components from Berco.
A project full of challenges
In association with the IT and the Aftermarket Team, Francesca worked in the development of a new e-commerce platform. “Our new e-commerce platform is a totally new instrument on both sides, for us and our customer.” This represents a big challenge for Berco as well as its customers. Francesca and her team therefore involved the customers and suppliers already early on, even including them in the test phase. As a result, the focus was on a good user experience.
Strongly focussed, the entire project team worked on completing the development of the online shop. When the development project ended and there was a vacancy for the position of online shop manager, Francesca was chosen. A logical decision, it seems: “I was, after all, involved in the project from the beginning and familiar with all the integration steps with our ERP,” explains Francesca.
Francesca is confident that the new e-commerce platform can improve the customer journey about placing new orders. A highlight of the new Berco shop is the quick order function whereby Berco customers can place a big order by uploading only one file with a simple structure. This is then incorporated in the system and the shopping basket is automatically filled without having to manually put individual items in it.
Digitalisation a continuous “work in progress”
However, despite everyone in Copparo being more than happy with their shop, it doesn’t mean that this is now an excuse for taking things easy. Quite the opposite! “At the moment it is particularly important that we monitor all shop processes, analyse problems and offer prompt support to our customers,” says Francesca. “As soon as everything is stable, we will take the next step and will understand what type of improvements we can make. Particularly also based on our customer’s feedback.”
The e-commerce platform for the aftermarket will not be the final innovation at Berco. “New technologies and digitalisation are very important concepts in our company,” says Francesca. This also involves a change in mentality. “Not only within the company but also externally. In digitalisation, it is not enough to only implement new technologies. It is a long and important process which is promoted by the people and it is a continuous work in progress.