Carlsberg Group chooses Office 365 to improve collaboration

By Rebecca Gibson on 16 September 2014

Carlsberg Group chooses Office 365 to improve collaboration

Denmark-based brewery The Carlsberg Group has implemented Microsoft Office 365 to centralise the management of its facilities around the world.

Founded more than 160 years ago by JC Jacobsen, the Danish brewery has rapidly expanded from a local production base of just six markets in 2000 to become the world’s fourth-largest brewer of beer with a roster of 500 different brands.

To ensure that it was able to unify the operations of its globally dispersed businesses, improve productivity and enhance collaboration between employees, Carlsberg deployed Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 was deployed as part of Carlsberg’s GloCal strategy, which aims to ensure the company achieves efficiency across the globe, while providing a localised service.

“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.”

The solution’s integrated productivity and collaboration services have also been used to launch the Carlsberg Supply Chain (CSC), which aims to streamline the company’s global supply chain. CSC uses the web conferencing, instant messaging and collaborative team sites within Office 365 services to centrally manage Carlsberg’s procurement, production, logistics and planning functions 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 and optimise our operations and save money.”

In addition, Carlsberg has implemented Exchange Online to enable employees to send e-mails and manage their calendars, Lync Online to allow them to hold web conferences and send instant messages, and the Yammer Enterprise social networking platform to improve collaboration. In addition, the company’s virtual teams use SharePoint Online when working on projects.

By connecting its global workforce and enabling them to communicate via virtually any device from anywhere, the company can now satisfy customers at reduced costs. Sales representatives working with pubs and restaurants in 140 markets can also use mobile devices to share customer insights with their colleagues, regardless of their location. This enables Carlsberg to continue delivering a wide range of regional and global beers to its customers.

“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’ organisation.”