Marelli and his partners: today in Voghera here is FARAM

Magneti Marelli's 'journey' among its dealers throughout Italy starts at Faram in Vogheradiscovering how innovations and digitalisation, also in the motoring field, have changed the workshop world.

A historic company, Faram, has been working with Marelli for many years: "The company was founded in 1952I have been here for 23 years and we have seen it all, but the role we have always been recognised for is that we have always given a lot of importance to training: we have given birth to many workshops, which have grown up with us, and today they are our best customers,' says Luigi Rossi.

And indeed, today there are 36 affiliated workshops: "Loyalty is crucial," comments Rossi, "and we have always stood by our repairers, trying to give them solutions to improve their business.

A fundamental approach when information technology invaded the motor world: 'We got used to this fast and sudden change, it was always talked about and now it is reality. But it didn't take us by surprise,' explains Rossi, 'we were prepared thanks to our partner Magneti Marelli. We have always believed in training, we have made it our workhorse. We follow the evolution with Marelli, and we have seen that the tech blog has led us to shorten the response time... we have improved the relationship with the customer, we feel more present and closer thanks to technology".

Interaction, as is inevitable in the age of smartphones, is mainly through the app: "I have it installed on my phone," Rossi confirms, "I like to consult it and see the quality and professionalism that this blog expresses. The app allows us to bring our problem to our attention and gives us the opportunity, through the community, to interface to see if that particular difficulty has already been solved by one of the many Marelli workshops in the area. I recommend all workshops to use it, because it is certainly a tool that will solve a lot of problems for us.

But how has the workshop changed over the years? "Our world has always been a bit reluctant to change, because it is very traditionalist - admits Rossi - Clearly there are workshops, faster in making decisions, that are already at a very good level; now we are trying to raise the bar to get everyone to have all the technology they need to repair, and all the information they need to solve the problems that arise daily.

The future, however, is always in motion. And the one imagined by Magneti Marelli involves direct dialogue with technicians: 'This would be a good thing. I think that the tech blog is already complete, but if we could interface directly with the workshop 'on the battlefield' through our Marelli technicians, that would be the icing on the cake that would really give us and our connected workshops a significant competitive advantage. That's the only suggestion I have for the tech blog: implement the ability to enter remotely from the head office with technicians on hand'.

Rossi's advice for those wishing to start in this business can only be one: 'I grew up in a company that makes training a 'core business' "I could tell all our workshops that training is fundamental... we have created a slogan, 'those who don't train will stop'. Just as it is fundamental to have someone to refer to in order to solve all the problems that exist on a daily basis'.