Rémy Cointreau is one of our oldest clients. We know how their business works and are therefore able to come up with new ideas to help them move their business; one that’s rich in tradition and history, into a world of new technologies.
- How properly selected and well implemented technologies can increase work efficiency
- When introducing change, find “champions” in the company to help you launch the change
- Innovation through artificial intelligence
As a long-term partner we have the opportunity every now and then to show what we are really capable of. The latest challenge came when the client decided to deal with the negative phenomena of shadow IT (the use of unauthorised IT engineering). If you underestimate security, you are not only a worry for your IT administrators, but you can endanger the business itself.
Fortunately, the managers at Rémy Cointreau were aware of the threats and decided to make improvements in three main areas:
1.
Increase data control and security
because the company was unable to control the flow of data. Employees were able to send data via various services such as Wetransfer or Google drive.
2.
Increase agility
Rémy Cointreau is a creative company and the managers wanted their IT to match that. Employees should be able to access information anytime, from anywhere and on any device - the so-called ATAWAD or 3A concept.
3.
Have more transparent processes
The company needed to know if, for example, someone steals a laptop, what to do about it and how to quickly solve the situation.
BOX please!
We have proven several times within Rémy Cointreau's headquarters that the Czech Republic is an ideal place to test new ideas. Perhaps because as a nation we have become used to disruption and have become used to finding shortcuts to our goals faster than others would. Shortly prior to this, we had successfully completed an Office 365 proof of concept project and thanks to that we were confident going into this new project.
From Barbados to Hong Kong
The management team wanted to migrate all their file servers and the several terabytes of data on them from Barbados, Hong Kong and then to the cloud, more specifically to the BOX.com platform. Such a change was going to translate into a lot of steps and processes, so we had to look at the whole picture right at the beginning and prepare a methodology that would help us safely through all the potential pitfalls.
Only then could we, together with Rémy Cointreau’s project manager Laurent BOYADJIAN, set off down the right path.
Issues we had to solve
- How to understand the whole change from a technological perspective
- How to migrate and structure data
- Setting a naming convention
- Erasing old and invalid data
- Ensuring that the collaboration processes offered by BOX would work
A ten-year-old can handle data migration. But ...
Every job can be done quickly and off the cuff. The problem is that some errors are too difficult to correct. We knew that in order for everything to work, we must first of all get people on our side. If the project turned out badly, everyone would be left with the thought that the cloud is pure evil and that would have hindered any further development within the company for a long time to come. So besides the hard work with the data itself, we devoted a great amount of time to the users themselves.
Seeking champions
Our account manager David Malancuk was successful in finding “champions” in the company - employees interested in technology who wanted to do their jobs more effectively. They helped him at the beginning to understand what their jobs were all about. We also divided the whole company into several categories according to their needs and adapted processes to suit them.
David MALANCUK
Project Manager
We've been servicing Remy Cointreau for a really long time. Therefore we sometimes get the most challenging jobs - such as migrating all the fileservers from Barbados and Hong-Kong into the cloud. And all during the standard day-to-day running of the company, of course.
Birthing pains
All projects have their challenges. You may well have experienced some of the following issues when migrating data yourself.
- Some of the links in some Excel documents stopped working. To resolve this, we had to change some processes.
- Internet banking. In the beginning, the BOX could not work with data that was stored elsewhere.
- At the start, we noticed some problems with synchronization with clients. Network and VPN reconfiguration helped. Some application settings also had to be changed and user rights settings fine-tuned on the back of that.
- There was a lack of user training. Probably the most difficult problem to solve in any environment. When work styles and habits change, endless training, coaching and consultation often aren’t enough. The only solution is endless patience.
And the result?
A big change usually brings disappointment. Expectations are great and some benefits may not be immediately visible. But as users gradually get used to the new way of working, the positives prevail. In Rémy Cointreau, it took exactly a year for everyone to get used to it and fall in love with the new way of working. Nobody wants to turn the clock back.
Following the example in the Czech Republic, we successfully completed migrations in Luxembourg, Belgium and Greece. We gave the client a detailed guide and trained their employees so that they could do the project under their own steam in their countries.
Artificial Intelligence - adding the fizz
Imagine you now have several terabytes of data in the cloud. Couldn't they be better used to help further your business? That was one of the first questions we asked after we’d successfully completed the migration.
“I’ll never be satisfied with the status quo; I always want to help our clients progress. Our work does not end with the supply of IT; we promote technologies that free people up to be creative” ”says David Malancuk talking about the project we started with RM.
This gave rise to the idea of linking all of that data with artificial intelligence and giving brand managers a tool to help them better control goods, keep track of prices and stay ahead of the competition.
Laurent BOYADJIAN
Cloud domain manager in Rémy Cointreau
I can say that being a pilot for such a business changing technology, and even more; bringing new ways of working and collaboration was a true challenge. But we managed that and BOX was successfully deployed across the group. But that was not the end of it. In the meantime, David and his Dworkin colleagues have lead many other projects based on AI and other advanced technologies. They have always provided us with experts and excellent advice, on any kind of technology and I look forward to what the future brings us.
Do you know how much a few extra clicks costs you?
Putting order in a directory structure is always worth it. Don't wait until someone makes you do it. Interestingly, we have calculated how much money it can cost you to open up x-level nested directories before your employees reach the file they are looking for.
Take a company with around 100 employees for example, similar to Rémy Cointreau, and take into account the average wage in the Czech Republic, you are looking at a loss of about €27,000 a year - the equivalent of a well-appointed mid range car.
To avoid such a large loss, we recommend setting up to three levels of directory nesting.
And if you want to know how we reached that number or how we can help you save money, contact David Malancuk.
If you have 3 minutes, read the article about the client's situation in detail
If you speak French, read more about the French server Le monde informatique.
