REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 16, 2014 — JC Jacobsen founded his brewery, Carlsberg, more than 160 years ago to serve the Danish market. Recently the company has experienced tremendous growth, particularly within the past 14 years, expanding from a local production base of just six markets in 2000 to now the fourth-largest brewer of beer in the world with a roster of 500 different brands. This development has brought about the challenge of incorporating globally dispersed businesses into one company while ensuring each beer lives up to Carlsberg’s high standard of excellence. Cutting-edge technology from Microsoft has made it possible to centrally manage Carlsberg’s operations around the world.
The Carlsberg Group introduced a vision for business it calls “GloCal,” which aims for global efficiency while staying true to its local roots. When deciding how technology could be used to play a role in enabling this vision, the company chose Microsoft Office 365 to implement a complete productivity and collaboration solution that employees can use to connect with each other.
“One way we are helping our employees work better together is by deploying Office 365,” said Etienne Dock, vice president of IT architecture and sourcing at Carlsberg. “No matter what device or distance, the cloud is breaking down traditional barriers so we’re better able to focus on brewing the best beer in the world.”
Employees use Microsoft Exchange Online for email and calendaring; they take advantage of Microsoft Lync Online to connect via webconferencing and instant messaging; virtual teams are collaborating on projects using Microsoft SharePoint Online; and employees are adopting the Yammer Enterprise social networking platform for messaging and collaboration.
The Carlsberg Group is also taking advantage of Office 365’s integrated productivity and collaboration services to launch the Carlsberg Supply Chain (CSC) — its most important GloCal initiative — to help streamline its global supply chain. CSC uses the webconferencing, instant messaging and collaborative team sites within Office 365 services to centrally manage the procurement, production, logistics and planning functions that previously occurred in isolation across the world.
“Beer is heavy, so we don’t want to transport it very long distances,” Dock said. “And breweries are capital intensive, so we don’t want to build too many. CSC gets huge business value from using Office 365 as a global collaboration tool to interact with our global markets and exchange the information we need to fine-tune the balance between these variables to optimize our operations and save money.”
With user-friendly tools and a social networking platform that opens up the lines of communication using virtually any device from anywhere, the company is reinventing itself as a true “family of brands in a world of diversity.” Because its global workforce is more connected, the company can satisfy customers at less cost. Today, sales representatives working with pubs and restaurants in 140 markets use mobile devices to share customer insights with colleagues around the world, so the company can continue to deliver the flavors its beer-loving customers enjoy.
“That’s because we gain the efficiencies of business done on a global scale, while staying close to our local markets,” Dock said. “Thanks to Office 365, we’re becoming a true GloCal organization.”
More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.
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