MELVILLE, N.Y., Oct. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- MSC INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY CO. (NYSE: MSM), a leading distributor of Metalworking and Maintenance, Repair and Operations ("MRO") supplies to industrial customers throughout North America, revealed how to go from digital laggard to leader and win the digital battle in B2B e-commerce at the Gartner Symposium / ITxpo 2014. Charles Bonomo, Chief Information Officer of MSC Industrial Supply Co. detailed the company's journey to transform its formerly minimal online presence into a platform that is now responsible for driving one-third of its revenues and about half of its business digitally.

MSC's website, mscdirect.com, which is ranked #40 on the Internet Retailer's 2014 Top 500 Guide®, does more than $1 billion in business each year with virtually no downtime, and new features that used to take years to implement now take days to weeks. Bonomo attributes the success to creating a focused strategy and a commitment to adopting a best-in-class-platform that allows the company to be nimble, and fight above its weight. This has created an exceptional user-experience for customers on the front-end, and a simple back-end which makes maintenance seamless.

"MSC is committed to being an indispensable solutions provider to our customers, and we use technology to make that a reality, said Bonomo. He continued: "One thing that consistently sets MSC apart is our ability to effectively collaborate with our vendors and our customers to deliver the greatest value, and we have expanded that online," Bonomo said. "We know our strengths and we understand when to tap the expertise of outside partners to help us develop win-win situations, which is the approach we've taken to develop our e-commerce capabilities."

The Symposium, "Driving Digital Business", runs from October 5( th) to the 9(th) and features insights from CIOs and senior IT executives on how to realize, build and optimize digital opportunities, move digital business from theory to practice, and evolve their own IT leadership to become indispensable in the new digital business world. The event features notable keynote speakers including Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corp., and Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple, Inc., and Chief Scientist, Fusion-IO.

About MSC Industrial Supply Co.
MSC Industrial Supply Co. is one of the largest distributors of Metalworking and Maintenance, Repair and Operations ("MRO") supplies to industrial customers throughout the United States. MSC employs one of the industry's largest sales forces and distributes approximately 600,000 industrial products from approximately 3,000 suppliers. In-stock availability is approximately 99%, with next day standard delivery to the contiguous United States on qualifying orders up until 8 p.m. Eastern Time. For more information, visit MSC's website at http://www.mscdirect.com.

SOURCE MSC Industrial Supply Co.