21 today as e-business comes of age

Farnell now boasts 21 international websites operational across the world, five of which are fully translated.

Farnell now boasts 21 international websites operational across the world, five of which are fully translated.

The milestone reinforces Farnell's significant expansion in the online arena, with electronic sales growing from between 1-2% two years ago, to 8% at present.

The roll-out of the websites (which will be managed centrally by Premier Farnell's Europe and Asia e-commerce team from the UK) is part of a major investment by Premier Farnell to establish common IT platforms and systems, so that information and products can be made available to customers worldwide.

Sitting at the centre of this is a highly sophisticated global database of over 400,000 products, in which Farnell has invested an incredible 140,000 man-hours to compile and clean over the past two years.

As part of its investment into e-business, Premier Farnell Group has adopted a 'one platform' approach for all of its companies' websites, which are now based on the ATG Dynamo e-business platform.

This means that, at any one time, the e-business team has just one platform to support and develop, which has enabled them to achieve much faster roll-outs of new sites, functionality and products - supporting the company's commitment to providing high quality service to its customer base.

Importantly, Farnell recognises the need for local website customisation in each of the 21 regions in which it operates, and the 'one platform' model enables the team to provide company and country-specific data for each of them quickly.

Rob Knight, eCommerce Manager, Farnell, is already seeing significant value being delivered to customers and to the business: "We've really been listening to feedback from customers and the international offices, which is reflected in the new websites.

Our first fully translated website was rolled out in France this year, which is a significant step forward and customer response has been excellent.

'One platform' has also made a huge impact on getting new sites up and running: we had the Italian site up within three months with its own country-specific content, for example".

"Customers worldwide, such as design engineers, are now downloading up to 70,000 PDF format technical datasheets and over 3,000 semiconductor application directories each week from our websites in a matter of seconds, whereas previously they would have had to request them by telephone and wait for them to be posted.

These are just a few examples of how we can now provide significant added-value to an international community of clients, through the expansion of our online services".

The new architecture is providing significant competitive advantage in other areas too.

The Farnell e-business team was recently able to ensure that Farnell was one of the first distributors to market, online, with the global launch of Tektronix TDS1000/2000 oscilloscopes.

On the day of the launch - 29th April 2002 - the oscilloscopes were available, live, on Farnell's UK website at 9.00am, so that Farnell customers had the products they needed as soon as they became available.

The products were then rolled out to 13 of the 21 international websites within one week.

Neil Huddlestone, Tektronix Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, notes: "The launch of the TDS1000 and TDS2000 families was extremely important for us, as they incorporate proven innovations from across our broad portfolio of oscilloscopes, delivering superior performance and unmatched ease-of-use in their class.

A strategic partner of ours for several years, Farnell once again proved its world class marketing capabilities during the launch, both online and offline, and underlined its value to us as a key distributor".

The new websites are a clear example of Farnell's technology strategy supporting the company's overall drive for ever higher standards of customer service and customised solutions, according to Matt Toogood, Strategic Marketing Director, Premier Farnell Europe and Asia Pacific: "We've been working hard to achieve tight alignment of Farnell's business systems and to provide the highest standards of service to all of our customers around the world.

The Farnell customer proposition essentially involves two factors - high service quality and a choice of sales channels - both of which are clearly demonstrated in today's announcement, underlining the leadership of the company in e-business".

Farnell now has websites for the following 21 countries: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

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