Innovative Digital Transformation for Kyocera Senco

Founded in 1951, Kyocera SENCO is the pioneer in fastening solutions. Well-known in the fastening world for creating tools with the end-user in mind, SENCO has come up with some of the biggest innovations in the industry. Their commitment to quality, forward-thinking ideas, and social consciousness continue to define the company as it expands throughout Europe.

Operating in twenty countries throughout Europe, SENCO makes its mark by making customers’ work more accessible, better, and more efficient. The company is proud to have created innovations such as Fusion Technology and DuraSpin that are now considered standards in the industry. 

Kyocera’s commitment to making its customers’ lives better and leading the way in industry innovation caused leadership to consider their digital presence. Most in the fastener industry do not have a robust digital presence. SENCO decided it was time to lead the way with digital innovation to make it easier for their customers to find SENCO and what they need.

Kyocera sought to innovate digitalization in their industry to reach more customers and promote future growth. SQLI partnered with Kyocera, helped them clarify their overall targets, and introduced the Bloomreach solution based on their goals. SQLI and Kyocera worked closely together as one team with SQLI providing direction and guidance where necessary. Thanks to their close partnership, Kyocera is rolling out new websites for each country they operate in with a single cloud solution.

SENCO has long been a leader in their industry, so they knew that leading the way in their digital presence was the next step in their evolution. The company had a platform they were currently using, but it was outdated and had difficulties fulfilling current digital market requirements. The system was almost ten years old and had become increasingly obsolete.

Kyoceras’ market still operates under a traditional model and is not always data-forward. They wanted to lead the innovation in the industry because they could see data-driven customer service as the future of their market. 

The company wanted to move more towards digitalization to help them become more mobile- and SEO-friendly. Leadership sought to improve their brand visibility and provide their customers with accessible online product information. They also wanted to give the end-users valuable content to build trust and encourage customer loyalty. 

SENCO’s overall goal was to build a solid, future-proof foundation for future innovations based on marketing automation, new online tools, and customer efficiency. As a technical company, customers may find it challenging to determine the right product. By helping users find the right one in the assortment, they can guide end-users on their customer journey.

SENCO started its search for a partner to help them realize their goals for digitalization. The leadership discovered SQLI (then known as Osudio) through the Emerce100 list and considered them along with others. Although they were not looking for a geographically close company and were not particularly concerned about having a local partner, SQLI still had the processes, organizational structure, and experience to beat the international competition. 

In particular, SQLI offered SENCO a long-term partnership that many others did not. Leadership found that SQLI was not a project-based organization that would come in, do the project, then leave when it was time to run the platform. They wanted a company that would be able to give help and utilize their expertise throughout the digital journey to improve the user experience continuously. SQLI offered the long-term partnership and transparency that was vital to SENCO.

The project was led on the SENCO side by the Digital Project Manager EMEA Casper Veltman, who was responsible for all of the final decisions. He led a digital team that was engaged and took responsibility for the execution of the project. The group consisted of the digital project manager, content specialist, and marketing assistant. 

SQLI first had the leadership and digital team take a step back to identify where the real value of digitalization would be. The two teams had planning sessions where they went over SENCO goals in detail to determine what they would like to achieve both now and in the future. SQLI used these goals to select the approach and solution for SENCO.

Through these extensive sessions, SQLI introduced three different solutions based on their requirements and goals. SENCO was able to get demos of the potential solution with joint SQLI and Bloomreach meetings. Out of the three products, Kyocera decided to use the Bloomreach Cloud solution as the selected product.

Under the guidance and help of SQLI, SENCO was able to execute many of the tasks needed to roll out the new solution. Although SENCO had some expertise, they were not entirely familiar with all of the functions the team needed to accomplish.

From the beginning, SQLI and Kyocera worked as one team throughout the project, calling themselves “The SENCO team” and behaving as though they were one company. Because they worked so closely together, SQLI could easily pick up on stuff that Kyocera could not do. Although SENCO could do most of the work themselves, the team did not need to worry about any aspect they were not well-versed in, and SQLI could pick it up seamlessly.

With a motivated team and guidance from SQLI, SENCO started deploying the new solution very quickly. With Bloomreach’s cloud solution, the team could roll out their new website to different local markets themselves. They were able to create and manage global content next to the local initiatives and specific requirements.

SENCO is now rolling out new websites swiftly. They are currently putting out a new local website each week and plan to be finished by January.

The company is not done with its digital transformation even after having all the new websites up and running. Next, SENCO plans to extend its current functionalities with additional features to help its customers create greater online efficiencies. 

Now that the company has a website and cloud solution that works for its goals, they can watch any opportunities that present themselves along the way. SENCO can now continue being the leading innovator in its industry and are prepared for its future growth.