a dirt road in a grassy field

How ProMobility has discovered lasting benefits of collaborative technology

Nathalie Regniers

Nathalie Regniers

Sr Product Marketing Manager

Read Time, 4 min.

Like many businesses across the world, Dutch car auto-leasing company ProMobility has found itself having to adapt in uncertain times: the company’s employees have been working remotely from their homes since the middle of March 2020.

But according to Dick Dekker, co-founder and director of ProMobility’s Zaanstad office, north of Amsterdam, Netherlands, there have been some unexpectedly positive outcomes of the extraordinary circumstances the company has recently found itself in.

“We are working hard to keep our business alive,” Dekker says, speaking from his home in Amsterdam. “But something that I would never have imagined, is how the technology we are now using has brought us closer together as a team.

“It may sound crazy,” he adds, “but I feel we are more connected now than we were before this situation started; to our customers, to our suppliers – and amongst the team here too.”

Keeping team spirits high with technology

Operational since 2006, ProMobility has a portfolio of about 350 clients, leasing some 1160 cars to Dutch businesses that range from construction companies to marketing and communications specialists.

With two offices located in different parts of the Netherlands – the company’s other office is close to the south-western city of Rotterdam – ProMobility’s business model has always required communication across large domestic distances.

But it wasn’t until government-mandated restrictions on the movement of people due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to the company’s employees having to work remotely that ProMobility realised just how beneficial the solutions they had at their disposal could be for the business.

“We used to use Microsoft Teams occasionally,” Dekker says. “But now it has become such an important part of our business.”

The working day now begins with a full team call on Microsoft Teams at 9AM, and closes with another at 4.30PM.

“Microsoft Teams allows us to see each other and talk to each other as a group twice a day, so we keep up the team spirit like that,” explains Dekker. “In some ways, the contact is more meaningful than before, because you really have to listen to each other on Teams. Plus, you see everyone in their homes, feeling relaxed.

“It is more human,” he adds. “I didn’t expect that at all.”

Technology designed for sharing and caring

The company has had Microsoft technology at its core since its establishment 14 years ago. And having recently upgraded to Microsoft 365 across the business, it is now reaping the benefits of the platform’s many tools.

While Microsoft Teams has been a vital way of staying connected and communicating over the past month, the company has also been using Microsoft OneNote to share files and communicate between team members.

“We are using Microsoft Teams and OneNote together, rather than email,” explains Dekker. “And it’s so much easier and more efficient. It gives us more space to do our work, so we are actually performing a little bit better and more efficiently as a team, even if the business is under pressure from the current situation.”

That added efficiency is allowing the company to reach out to its clients, many of whom are fighting to keep themselves afloat too.

“Most of our clients we know personally, we know the history of their companies,” says Dekker. “The tech helps us stay in contact with them, so I can video call them or arrange a virtual meeting and speak to them face-to-face on Teams to see how ProMobility can help them, because we are all going to have to be flexible to come through this period.”

Dekker has found that keeping in touch using Teams has come as a relief for both his company’s long-standing clients and ProMobility’s suppliers.

“It keeps them calm,” he says. “And we’ve embraced technology to help make that happen.”

Setting a standard for the future

The pace of the changes businesses have found themselves having to adapt to in recent weeks is extraordinary.

It’s a reality that the team at ProMobility is learning from. “The possibilities to improve your company by using Microsoft 365 are enormous,” Dekker says. “It has really streamlined the procedures and processes of our company, so I am very glad to have discovered this technology in the last few weeks, and we are definitely going to continue to use these technologies when the current health crisis has passed.”

Dekker is so satisfied with the success of the technology his company is newly using, that he also has a message for other small businesses that find themselves in a similar position: “You have to leverage the learnings from these past few months and embrace collaborative technologies. Because it will help your company to have everything in one place,” he says effusively.

“I would advise all managers and owners of companies to try these technologies,” he adds.

Watch the video

To discover more about ProMobility’s adaptation to remote working, watch the video.

Stay productive with these remote working solutions

Find out how to keep your teams connected, productive and secure

Discover more related articles per industry:

Education

Government

  • How VR Group is using automation to secure Finland’s railways

    How VR Group is using automation to secure Finland’s railways

    “Being at the helm of a critical piece of infrastructure, we have a huge responsibility towards our partners and clients. That’s why safety and security are crucial elements of what we do and how we operate.” Mikke Maronen, CISO at Finnish railway company VR Group, is talking about the importance of protecting his business from […]

  • Ineco

    Ineco improves employee productivity with modern tools and AI

    Struggling with software doesn’t help people get more done. Likewise, if sharing files and collaborating on documents is difficult, productivity takes a hit. Ineco, a Spanish public sector company, understands this, which is why it set out to change the way employees interact with technology and one another. By deploying Microsoft 365 to its over […]

Healthcare

  • a woman standing in front of a screen

    Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta: providing essential patient care from a distance

    “Telehealth was a technology we’d been planning to implement for a couple of years. But then almost overnight everything changed – it became a must-have platform the hospital needed today.” Francesca De Giorgi, CIO of Italian research hospital IRCCS Carlo Besta, reflects on the recent challenges her team faced when social distancing measures imposed by […]

  • A smiling man wearing glasses looking at the camera

    HUS: sharing data securely to make life-saving decisions

    Illnesses and diseases don’t often play fair – an unfortunate truth that was proved by the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, heavily hitting healthcare organizations with challenges the world hadn’t seen in a century. Hospitals needed a rapid response to reduce spreading the virus without affecting patient care. A high-pressure situation for any institution, but […]

Manufacturing

  • a person sitting at a desk with a laptop on a table

    My people leadership compass in times of gloom

    Microsoft’s Max Tchapeyou offers a very personal viewpoint, citing the six ways he’s found to work more effectively – and positively – with his team.

  • a woman smiling for the camera

    Etex Group: Future-proofing employees to work anywhere across the world

    When COVID-19 spread across Europe in early 2020, businesses entered a new digitally-dependent age. Social distancing measures had asked offices of all shapes and sizes to close their doors, sparking organizations to quickly find other virtual ways for colleagues to meet and collaborate remotely. But for Belgium building material specialist Etex, this was a step they were ready for – having already implemented a cloud-based infrastructure and collaboration tools […]

Retail

  • GDPR and Retail: Four GDPR requirements and how Microsoft can help

    GDPR and Retail: Four GDPR requirements and how Microsoft can help

    Learn how we can help you meet GDPR requirements with solutions available today: Assessing your current risk profile “How do I understand where I am already compliant and where I need to focus next?” This is one of the most common questions from retailers in regard to the GDPR. It’s also one of the hardest to […]

  • HeadBrands is ready for the future with Microsoft 365 Business

    HeadBrands is ready for the future with Microsoft 365 Business

    Since its creation in 2010, HeadBrands has continued to grow, rapidly becoming the leading retailer of hairdressing products in Scandinavia. HeadBrands needed a modern IT solution to increase its business productivity and improve collaboration, both within the company and externally. Its response to this challenge was to replace most of its previous services with Microsoft […]

Discover more related articles per dossier:

Customer Stories

  • a group of people standing on top of a snow covered mountain

    Customer satisfaction scales new heights, here’s why

    If you’ve conquered the slopes, you’ll know what a soaring, challenging, unforgettable experience skiing holidays can be. But back at base, none of this is possible without teams of people collaborating around the clock to provide all the required services—from initial holiday booking, ski-hire logistics and cable-car maintenance, to restaurant operations and ski–lesson planning. This is where Swiss-based Weisse Arena Gruppe LAAX, […]

Digital Transformation

  • a man wearing a suit and tie

    Supporting employees across the world with a virtual desktop solution

    “It’s always good to see that you have made the right technology choices, and when you need something to happen – it can happen.” Stefan De Boer, Global IT Head at recruitment specialist Brunel, is talking about his company’s ethos to embracing new technologies and how it helped them quickly adapt to remote working during the COVID-19 crisis. “We were […]

Security & Privacy

Tips

  • a person sitting at a desk in front of a laptop computer

    Top tips for smarter remote working with Microsoft Teams

    With remote working becoming the new normal for many, people are having to find different ways of effectively functioning as a team. Microsoft Teams is designed to keep colleagues productively connected and ensure that everybody can continue to work as collaboratively, efficiently and securely as in the office. So, whether you already use it or […]