HEINEKEN transforms employee experience with a hybrid workplace

With the opportunity to focus on a hybrid workplace model at a new office in Poland, HEINEKEN wanted to provide their employees with the right infrastructure and environments for optimal collaboration, regardless of where employees physically worked from.

A smooth, efficient collaboration platform would support their goal of having employees work from the office at least one day a week, and improve their work–life balance. Another objective of modernizing HEINEKEN’s Poland office was to attract talented, skilled people from across Europe.

“When designing our new office, we thought about our tasks and the needs of current and future employees. We took into account how the world is changing. As a result, we have created a modern and flexible space which you want to work from and where you can collaborate comfortably and creatively,” says Ewa Szalewska, Head of People Function, HEINEKEN.

Another consideration was a relatively small in-house IT team, and a call to move infrastructure management to a managed services model to allow the HEINEKEN IT team to focus on internal services.

With Poland growing into an IT skills and infrastructure hub, HEINEKEN had also decided to move their financial and operations services to the new offices located in Poland while providing an enhanced, modern experience for employees and customers alike.

Working with HEINEKEN, we ran a survey to ensure we understood the wireless connectivity requirements of their employees and developed a single integrated policy for both wired and wireless access onsite. This ensures that Wi-Fi coverage fits each employee’s needs.

HEINEKEN had specified their preference to move their LAN infrastructure to a managed service model, resulting in the implementation of software-defined infrastructure at the new office. This made it possible to implement microsegmentation and ensure full visibility of all endpoint connections on the network. By including Cisco Secure Network Analytics and Cisco Identity Services Engine, we’re able to monitor and identify any unexpected network traffic, enabling swift action if a security threat is uncovered.

The new managed LAN solution provides the foundation for a suite of modern collaboration services which enable employees to improve their work–life balance by creating new hybrid working options. Employees have the option to work from home, and should they need or want to go to the office, they can book a desk and parking space, and even select a desk close to the team they need to collaborate with while in the office.

We further modernized HEINEKEN’s largest conference room onsite, leveraging Logitech interfaces and LG screens to deliver an enhanced HEINEKEN Experience for visitors and employees.

With employees equipped with the tools to perform their work wherever they may be, or book a desk and parking space if they prefer to go into the office, our customizable operations and collaboration solutions enable better work–life balance, leading to a productive, happy workforce.

Leveraging Poland’s growing IT resource hub

Close enough to deliver services without being commercially unsustainable, Poland is set to grow as an IT hub with attractive options for other European countries looking for high-quality services without needing to stay within the eurozone. HEINEKEN’s small in-house IT team is supported by our local and global employees, delivering secure, reliable services across infrastructure, cloud and collaboration environments.