Major appliance manufacturer and distributor, RKW Limited, announces significant investment in Digital Transformation

RKW Ltd, Europe’s leading distributor and manufacturer of small domestic appliances and housewares, has seen rapid growth since its founding in 1989 and is home to over 40 leading brands including Tower, Black & Decker, Breville, Hoover, Morphy Richards, Swan and Smeg. As part of its long-term growth plans, the company has committed to substantial investment into its software and hardware infrastructure.

In order to achieve these goals, the family business identified the need to embark on a Digital Transformation project and approached Microsoft Gold Partner HSO to facilitate this venture spanning across both of its business systems and processes.

Before the full business transformation project, RKW were already utilising apps from the Microsoft suite including Power Platform and Microsoft Teams, but they wanted to grow a solid business foundation that would allow them to use the rest of the Microsoft Platform to their advantage. RKW selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 to help them reduce development times from weeks and months to just hours, so they can take advantage of these time efficiencies to further bolster their fast-paced product development roadmap.

Tony Westwater, Group IT Director said, “It’s important that the core ERP business system stays that way, and is as close to the standard product as possible. However, we still want the flexibility around the edge, and the Microsoft Dynamics 365 application gives us just that, with Power Apps, Power Automate and Power BI, giving us the capability to build new applications in super quick time.” He continued, “Having real-time, accurate data is a top priority for us and needs to be at the heart of the business so that we can make decisions fast and thrive.”

“RKW selected HSO because they displayed an in-depth understanding and engaged with the business well. We were extremely impressed with the people we have worked with from the start” said Tony.

“We undertook an Enterprise Architecture exercise in the first instance with HSO, which was considerably eye-opening. It highlighted the processes currently in operation, and uncovered new ways of working, where we should consider making changes, and highlighted improvements plus the results that could be obtained. A fantastic way to start.”

“HSO really understood and challenged the “norm” for our business. By pushing ourselves, and with help from HSO experts, we can now see a roadmap to build the business for the next 10-20+ years using Microsoft Dynamics 365”.

“The workforce at RKW is now exceptionally excited about the new way of working,” said Tony. He continued, “Change can be very intimidating, and we know the importance of involving every single member of staff in the project. Every member of our workforce will play a vital part in the business development and transformation. This is not an I.T. project, it’s a business project.”

RKW has a large number of long-serving employees and RKW is committed to ensuring every member of the workforce is on board with the changes to come. The workforce is excited about the project and the bright future of the company.