Carlsberg has deployed Office 365 for 20,000 users to boost staff collaboration and centrally manage its supply chain.

The brewery was present in just six markets in 2000, but since has grown to become the fourth-largest beer brewer in the world with 500 different brands.

This meant it faced challenges in centrally managing and simplifying its global supply chain, with different operations all running their business processes in siloed environments.

As a result, it has launched its ‘GloCal’ business vision to improve its overall efficiency, which includes using 365’s productivity and collaboration services to support an initiative to streamline its supply chain.

The Carlsberg Supply Chain (CSC) project takes advantage of 365’s web conferencing, instant messaging, and collaboration tools to centrally manage procurement, production, logistics and planning functions that used to occur in isolation across its international business units.

Etienne Dock, vice president of IT architecture and sourcing at Carlsberg, said: "Beer is heavy, so we don’t want to transport it very long distances. 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 optimise our operations and save money."

Another part of the company’s GloCal vision was to improve employee collaboration between those based in different offices and countries.

"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," said Dock.

Carlsberg staff now use Microsoft Exchange Online for their email and calendars and rely on Lync to connect with each other via web conferencing and instant messaging.

Meanwhile, people in different locations work together on projects using SharePoint, and staff use Yammer Enterprise, Microsoft’s social network platform, to message each other and collaborate further.

One example Dock gave was sales reps using mobile devices to share customer insights with each other across 140 markets.

He said: "We gain the efficiencies of business done on a global scale, while staying close to our local markets."

No mention was made of Office Delve, however, another 365 social network platform for staff that displays information relevant to current projects they are working on and business connections, launched at the start of September but being rolled out in phases.

Picture courtesy of Carlsberg