To continue the interviews to our management, useful to fully catch strategies and business objectives, this time we give the floor to Gianni Fabbretti, PLM Technical Director & CIO:
Q: Gianni, you are Manager for the PLM Division, Chief Information Officer, as well shareholder of Mechinno: all roles of great responsibility. How did this journey begin and what prompted you to embark on this adventure?
A: After graduating in Electronic Engineering, I immediately had the opportunity to gain experience in some important multinationals operating in the field of CAD and PLM, such as, for example, Siemens Telecommunications, PTC, then again Siemens – this time – in the Automation area. Later, after having gained a certain knowledge of the Italian industry and the market leading technologies, I felt the need to build something “mine”, to put to good use everything acquired in recent years and, in some way, to put myself at stake. So, in 2008 I joined the company with Fabio Di Martino, founder and CEO of Mechinno, and former colleague in previous companies, and I created the PLM division, within the services framework offered and developed by Mechinno itself.
Q: What convinced you to start this “entrepreneurial” path right with Mechinno?
A: The entrepreneurial idea of founding something of our own was already born in me and in Fabio during the previous working experience together and since then we have always remained in contact, even when we worked in different paths and companies. For this reason, although I was not present at the time of Mechinno’s birth, it was easy – I would say natural – to decide to join two years later. The company was young, dynamic and innovative, so there were all the right conditions to face the challenge.
Q: At Mechinno, in addition to leading the PLM division, you are also head of Information Systems in the role of CIO: we often hear about “Digital Transformation”, what is the level of digitalization of Mechinno currently?
A: For some years now, we have been taking a path of digitalization of the different business processes both within us and in the interaction with our customers, since keeping a direct line with them is an important part of Mechinno’s services. So, obviously, we have implemented a CRM for customer relation management, an ERP for the management of various departments such as Finance, HR, Delivery etc. But especially in the last 2 years we have focused, even with important investments, on corporate security, data protection and the safeguarding of the intellectual property of the company and, in particular, on the maximum security and data protection of our customers with whom, for obvious reasons related to industrial secrecy, we have very strict confidentiality agreements.
Q: How much have Mechinno’s habits changed during the Covid era? Will Smart Working survive?
A: We know that the pandemic has completely changed and upset everyone’s lives, both personally and at work. Two years ago, the whole world has faced a completely unpredictable event and we, like everyone else, have adapted. Within a short time we made sure that everyone could be able to work remotely, and it is obvious that in this sense the IT infrastructure played a crucial role. Now, perhaps, we are leaving this period behind and we have practically returned to a sort of normality, with an almost daily presence in the office. In fact, after all this we have understood two things: on the one hand certainly a more flexible and “remote” mode of work does not affect productivity, on the other hand it has emerged that man needs sociality, to see each other, to shake hands and then to work “physically” elbow to elbow. As often it happens, therefore, the optimal solution is not one or the other but the right balance between the two.
