In 1971, William Neri, already working in the market for work gloves and rubber items, realising the potential of the emerging sector of PPE and the advantages of sourcing from China, which in those years was opening up to trade with the West, founded a company to market personal protective equipment: thus Neri SpA was born.

Under the leadership of the Neri family, the company has grown to become a benchmark for the Italian market. In 2017, Neri SpA joined the Bunzl Group, a leading multinational distributor of non-food consumables for companies, listed on the FTSE100 index of the London Stock Exchange.

During this phase, Neri SpA was faced with two major challenges: the transition from a family business to membership in a multinational group, and the deep changes and internationalisation of the market.
This new context highlighted the need for a thorough overhaul of the company’s IT systems, for which Neri SpA chose to contract with Var Prime, Var Group's competence centre for Microsoft Business Applications, to accompany it along the path of digital transformation:

“We chose Var Prime as a partner in this journey of change to create a strategic partnership. Var Prime has become a trusted ally, helping us to develop a long-term vision for the digital transformation of Neri SpA. This collaboration will enable us to overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities of digital transformation in a more effective and timely manner.”
Says Andrea Altinier, CFO of Neri SpA.

Var Group provided the know-how and specialisation of its competence centres to satisfy the needs of Neri SpA.

The first issue addressed by the project was data valorisation: Var Prime implemented a business intelligence system with Microsoft Power BI to extract value from the company's data, help management identify areas for action, and improve decision-making processes.

The second area was the optimisation and automation of operational processes: Var Prime helped Neri SpA choose a new ERP to modernise and harmonise the management of the company's core processes. The ERP they had been using was highly customised, which made it difficult to use and update. Wanting to equip itself with an ERP that could already manage internal processes as standard, and having experience with Microsoft solutions, Neri SpA chose to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, integrating it with Microsoft 365 and Power BI. With the new ERP and the support of Var Group's dedicated Microsoft business solution competence centre, manual and repetitive processes have been reduced, limiting the possibility of error and freeing up resources from low-value processes to dedicate them to more important business activities. Furthermore, by exploiting the potential of Business Central, it was possible to streamline process controls and simplify approval procedures.
The third area action was warehouse management: Neri SpA was able to benefit from the consultancy offered by the Var Group competence centre in the development of software solutions for warehouse logistics management. By exploiting the potential of INTELLIMAG, Var Group's Warehouse Management Systems, Neri SpA has simplified the organisation of its processes and optimised its logistics flows, thus improving the accuracy of its warehouse operations as a whole. Daily operations have benefited from a drastic reduction in the use of paper (paperless). Reception procedures have been fully automated, and all operators now use radio frequency terminals. The client’s open, collaborative stance made it possible to re-evaluate their established “habits”, which were often not particularly effective; one example was the transition from the use of dynamic locations instead of static locations, which optimises the use of warehouse space.

These first steps in the digital transformation journey have seen a fruitful collaboration between Var Prime and Neri SpA, demonstrating the importance of embracing technological innovation to continuing to grow and bring value to customers.