In the past, Omron Europe, a global leader in the field of industrial automation, functioned as a multilocal firm, but with globalization customers are more likely to  do business across country borders. So first the company needed to remove geographic obstacles to become a Pan-European organization. Second, Omron Europe was split into two divisions, with separate sales  and marketing teams serving many of the same customers. Better communications and collaboration across divisions would help ensure that customers recognized the company as “one Omron.” And a social business network could enable salespeople to share leads and information about common customers, leading to better opportunities for all.

“We are much more than the sum of our parts,” says Michel Min, strategic communication and e-marketing manager, Omron Europe. “That was  the driving force behind creating a portal and social business network to better share knowledge and experience and to strengthen the flow of  information across all departments and geographies. Our ultimate goal was not just knowledge transfer from one employee to another but to transfer organizational knowledge and expertise to the customer as quickly as possible.”

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