Back in 2014, one of the world’s largest brewing companies implemented Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud-based productivity suite. At the time, Carlsberg had 20,000 employees, but now over a year later, the company is over 40,000 employees strong, and still depending on the power of Office 365.
As Carlsberg expanded over the two years, they acquired at least 15 local IT infrastructures which could not communicate with each other. They quickly found that this meant that colleagues from around the world who joined the company could not share knowledge and join in on the company’s infrastructure. Building a new infrastructure for the expanding company would be too expensive, and so the company moved over to Office 365.
The Carlsberg and Office 365 experience quickly proved to be the solution for the company. With Office 365, employees could use the same cloud productivity services to erase the geographical barriers and make for effective teamwork across the company. In once instance, they were able to use video conferences to promote teamwork, and in another sales reps were able to be more productive by accessing and sharing files from Ipads from SharePoint Online.
Overall, the experience brings 3 lessons for the brewing company. Firstly, Office 365’s local service desks meant that people get a seamless experience. Secondly, Office 365 builds a strong global team to support local IT and drive governance across markets. Lastly, Office 365 established firm protocols around change management, incident management, and service ownership.
Carlsberg is the flagship beer brand in Carlsberg Group’s portfolio of more than 500 brands. Ther global tagline is, “probably the best beer in the world.” The beer itself is 5% abv pilsner beer with a global distribution to 140 markets. You can find out more about Office 365, and the story behind Carlsberg by visiting this web page. While you’re at it, you can also comment below to let us know about your Office 365 stories!
