RS Group: Engineering more differentiation and value with smooth e-procurement experiences for customers
RS Group strengthens its trusted supplier standing
RS Group plc, a leading global supplier of product and service solutions for engineers, sought to make its customers’ maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) procurement processes faster and more efficient. By joining SAP Business Network, RS Group is enabling its customers to more easily procure what they need, while it’s also promoting its products to millions of potential new buyers.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Wholesale distribution | North America | ~9,000 employees |
products to be promoted through SAP Business Network.
of trading relationship requests to be automated.
Director of Supply Solutions, RS Americas
Differentiating through digitalizing customers’ procurement workflows
RS Group plc is a global product and service solutions provider for industrial customers, enabling them to operate efficiently and sustainably. With operations in 36 markets, RS Group stocks over 800,000 industrial and specialist products and lists an additional five million relevant for its industrial customers, sourced from over 2,500 suppliers. This extensive range supports its customers across the industrial lifecycle of designing, building, and maintaining equipment and operations. RS Group combines a technically led and digitally enabled approach with an exceptional team of experts.
RS Group’s leadership in the fields of environmental responsibility, ethics, sustainable procurement, and labor and human rights has earned it a platinum sustainability rating by EcoVadis. This places it among the top 1% of companies that are evaluated by EcoVadis globally. And with its focus on being the first choice for industrial MRO needs, RS Group also offers an extensive product range, innovative service solutions, and excellence in customer experience that set it apart.
RS Group recognized that as a supplier operating in a highly fragmented market, digitalization held the key to its continued differentiation and competitive advantage. Aligned with its vision to be the first choice for customers and staying true to its strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, RS Group wanted to help customers more efficiently procure what they need. This called for finding and connecting with digital-first businesses, enabling modern spend controls, and streamlining vendor-managed inventory.
Infusing intelligence into customers’ procurement interactions
To realize its goals for digitalized procurement experiences for customers, RS Group registered on SAP Business Network. The network provides a modern way to collaborate and transact with business-to-business trading partners. RS Group can also showcase its sustainability credentials on SAP Business Network, helping it attract like-minded customers.
By completing its profile and establishing a presence on SAP Business Network, RS Group is able to build trust among the thousands of buyers transacting on the network and ultimately generate new leads. Businesses transacting on SAP Business Network can send RS Group trading relationship requests and add the company as a supplier, allowing for the electronic transfer of documents such as purchase orders and invoices between the companies.
As a supplier, RS Group also gets a centralized view of customer transactions on SAP Business Network, with insights into scheduled payments, pending invoices, and remittances.
Guided by its account team from SAP, RS Group can further integrate with customers, providing the opportunity for the company to embed its product and service offerings directly within its customers’ procurement workflows. This further simplifies its selling processes and enhances the customer experience.
Director of Supply Solutions, RS Americas
Making headway as a valued supplier through smooth e-procurement
Aligning with its goal to be the first choice for customers, RS Group believes using SAP Business Network is a source of competitive advantage. It enables a simplified way for customers to connect and transact with it, driving efficiency in doing business.
As a supplier on SAP Business Network, RS Group is visible in an ecosystem of millions of businesses that want to transact electronically. Onboarding new customers is fast and efficient, and integrating with them through SAP Business Network allows RS Group to expose its extensive range of products and services inside a customer’s procurement solution. Alex Davies, director of supply solutions for RS Group Americas, comments, “With SAP Business Network, customers rarely want to deviate from the formulated set of standards, making integration with them superefficient. When you compare this to 10 years ago when about 60% of customer procurement integrations were to stand-alone ERP systems with bespoke customization needs, doing business through SAP Business Network is a whole new world. We can surface our entire range of products inside a customer’s procurement solution, making it easier and more intuitive for them to explore our catalog and buy from us.”
Doing business on SAP Business Network also allows RS Group to shine a light on its ESG commitments and activities and get noticed by potential customers who are looking to purchase from suppliers with strong sustainability credentials.
Director of Supply Solutions, RS Americas
Connecting to more digitally enabled businesses
As RS Group builds on its trusted partner status by providing solutions that demonstrate it genuinely understands the challenges customers face every day, the company is looking to extract more value from SAP Business Network. The plan is to participate in more sourcing events and collaborate on contracts. It also wants to take advantage of the SAP Business Network Discovery solution. This business-matching solution connects interested buyers with credible suppliers on SAP Business Network and will help the company promote its extensive product range and green credentials to more potential customers.