1.1M
customers unified
33%
anticipated fraud reduction
60%+
revenue from digital
With a surge in digital sales and global acquisitions, RS Group needed to build a single view of its industrial customer base. Informatica’s cloud-native MDM unifies information from legacy data systems, enabling personalized experiences across channels and building AI-ready data for responsible AI initiatives.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I believe that data drives decisions and quality data ensures that we make the right decisions for the benefits of our customers, our colleagues and our company, the RS Group, are a global product and service solutions provided for industrial customers, enabling them to operate efficiently and sustainably. And we operate in over 30 countries worldwide. We've 1.1 million customers and about 61% of our revenues come through our digital channels. So we're a truly omnichannel driven organization. I think the challenge with all organizations making sure your data's as high quality as possible. For us it's about understanding the customers and really understanding who they were across the footprint of RS Group. Going into RFP, we had quite an extensive list of use cases and also scoring mechanisms. So we went out trying to look for the top MDMs. We were looking for a partner, somebody who would come on the journey with us to enable us to build and master our data.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So in the end, Informatica won because of its breadth and depth of its products, but also professional services support so that we knew as we went through this multi-stage, multi-year rollout that we had a true partner with us working alongside us. Our ecosystem is made up of AWS Azure, Oracle sat, and Informatica works across that and our other CM CDPs and EDP systems to enable us to understand that core customer and who they are across our group. For us, the value that Informatica and that the work that we're doing with MDM is about us truly mastering our customer data. As an organization that's been around for quite a while, there's acquired different subsidiaries. We have a lot of legacy systems, a lot of different places where our customer data's held. Being able to master it and understand what that customer looks like and who they are, ensure that we've got quality data to enable us to make those decisions, is where Informatica is adding value for us as a business. And I think where Informatica supports this is actually bringing AI in at the very start of that process, helping us improve the data quality, helping us with match merging in terms of our customers, and therefore enabling us to make sure the data that can drive those decisions is robust at the start.
“We have consolidated over 1 million records for our customers and contacts across disparate systems and are predicting that our work will support up to 33% reduction in fraud.”
Omnichannel shopping for industrial operators
Few companies in the fast-changing world of industrial operations can celebrate nearly a century of winning customer service. Founded in 1937, RS Group is a leading London-based global provider of product and service solutions for designers, builders, and maintainers of industrial equipment and operations. With a broad portfolio of over 800,000 stocked products across electronics, IT, automation, engineering, and more, the company enables 1.1 million customers in more than 30 countries to operate efficiently and sustainably.
In recent decades, RS Group has grown steadily through acquisitions of new product categories and organic expansion into new channels. 60% of its revenues now flow through digital commerce. Much like consumers, today’s industrial customers seek flexibility and efficient, personalized service across touchpoints. “Delivering the best omnichannel experience starts with really understanding who our customers are and what their footprint is, so we can put the right information at the right place,” says Amanda Fitzsimmons, Sr. Director of the Customer Data and Insights Group.
The company’s enduring success also brought some mounting data management challenges. Disparate systems made it difficult to unify data across acquired companies and products into a single view of customers. A sprawling data footprint also threatened to hamper efforts around AI and analytics. “With that legacy of having acquired different organizations, we needed to be able to look at the overall footprint of our customers," says Fitzsimmons.
These challenges were particularly acute given the diversity of RS Group's distribution. With customers engaging through digital platforms, authorized resellers, and direct sales representatives, the need for consistent, high-quality customer data across channels is critical.
"Data-driven decision-making is foundational to everything we do, but you need trusted data to make those decisions," says Fitzsimmons. "Quality data ensures that we make the right decisions for the benefit of our customers, our colleagues, and our company."
"From AWS and Azure to Salesforce and Snowflake, Informatica helps us easily connect to any ecosystem partner and truly master our data for every customer."
A cloud-native MDM with breadth and depth
To support its MDM transformation, RS Group evaluated vendors by an extensive list of use cases and scoring mechanisms. The selection process went beyond simply comparing technical capabilities – RS Group was looking for a long-term partner on the journey to build and master a complex industrial data estate. Ultimately, Informatica emerged as the best strategic partner, and the Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) an ideal technology foundation.
"We went out trying to look for the top MDMs, and Gartner provided us with a good shopping list to start with," explains Fitzsimmons. "In the end, Informatica won because of its breadth and depth of products, but also professional services support so that we knew as we went through this multi-stage, multi-year rollout, we had a true partner working alongside us."
Informatica’s cloud-native MDM solution, hosted on the IDMC, includes all-in-one capabilities around data and application integration, data quality, and data governance, empowering teams to rapidly enhance their data assets. Low- and no-code data connectors streamline connections across RS Group’s complex technology ecosystem: AWS and Azure cloud environments, Oracle and SAP databases, and various Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM), Treasure Data customer data platform (CDP), and Snowflake enterprise data platform (EDP) instances.
“From AWS and Azure to Salesforce and Snowflake, Informatica helps us easily connect to any ecosystem partner and truly master our data for every customer,” says Fitzsimmons. “We can understand who they are, and know we have quality data to make the best decisions.”
Unlocking the full value of customer data
As part of the implementation, RS Group worked closely with Informatica's Professional Services team to ensure the solution could scale effectively across their global operations. This included upfront preparation of data assets and metadata mapping against every attribute in the build. “You can move much faster and speed up deployment if you spend a little bit more time upfront to get those assets in place,” advises Fitzsimmons.
Informatica’s new solution represents a fundamental shift in how RS Group manages and leverages customer data. IDMC offers a unified view across all systems and touchpoints, making it easier for teams to map data journeys with customer journeys. Empowered by this modern infrastructure, marketers can craft more effective offers and recommendations for each channel, and risk management teams can better mitigate any potential fraud.
“We have consolidated over 1 million records for our customers and contacts across disparate systems and are predicting that our work will support up to 33% reduction in fraud. Our marketing powered by data provided by the CDP is expected to deliver significant benefits based on reduction of retargeting spend through our paid performance marketing,” said Fitzsimmons.
Additionally, IDMC includes an AI-powered engine, CLAIRE®, which helps improve data quality throughout the data lifecycle, with relevant metadata and recommended next actions that replace manual data wrangling and remediation.
"AI initiatives really start with the data going in," notes Fitzsimmons. "Informatica brings AI in at the very start of the process, helping us improve data quality and match-merge our customers, and ensuring the data behind those decisions is robust."
While RS Group is still exploring AI use cases, early areas of interest include preparing AI-ready data for customer propensity models as well as AI-powered sustainability monitoring, as part of the company’s 2030 ESG action plan.
A new foundation for customer growth
With its new MDM foundation in place, growth has no limits for the world’s leading industrial components provider. RS Group can more readily integrate customers from new acquisitions or geographic markets, while increasing the value of existing accounts with omnichannel service and tailored product recommendations.
The next phase of its data journey will expand the MDM solution into a group-wide master data mart, further enhancing RS Group's ability to leverage customer data across the enterprise. "Our customers are the lifeblood of our organization, and Informatica helps bring them to life with a trusted global footprint and understanding of who and where they are," says Fitzsimmons.
Looking ahead, RS Group is using Informatica to fuel AI-ready data for advanced customer AI initiatives and ever-more personalized experiences. The partnership with Informatica continues to evolve as the company works toward its vision of becoming the first choice for every industrial operator.
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