{"id":393766,"date":"2020-11-17T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/?p=393766"},"modified":"2020-12-03T14:29:28","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T13:29:28","slug":"fa2-zuiver-supporting-both-business-and-culture-through-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/work-productivity-en\/retail-en\/fa2-zuiver-supporting-both-business-and-culture-through-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuiver: Supporting both business and culture through technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSince moving to the cloud, there are no limitations anymore. And I\u2019m certain without this technology, we would not have seen the growth we have today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jaap Landsaat,\u00a0CFO\u00a0and\u00a0Head of IT\u00a0at Dutch furniture designer\u00a0Zuiver, is talking about the\u00a0profound\u00a0impact technology has had on the\u00a0business\u00a0he co-founded more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBack then,\u00a0we had 100 orders a week and just a handful of people to fill them,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cNow that\u2019s grown to around\u00a08,500, and technology has helped us scale up without needing hundreds of\u00a0people\u00a0to manage each order by hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zuiver\u00a0migrated to the cloud back in\u00a02018\u00a0to help\u00a0its\u00a0growing number of\u00a0employees and suppliers worldwide\u00a0communicate\u00a0and collaborate\u00a0efficiently.\u00a0A\u00a0move that\u00a0also helped the company smoothly transition to remote working during the COVID-19 crisis\u00a0\u2013 ensuring both business and social interactions could continue like normal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe nicest thing is that after 20 years we\u00a0still have the same culture.\u00a0We\u2019ve gone from four founders to around 100 people, but everyone\u00a0can still work and collaborate in an informal way\u00a0both in and out of the office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that\u2019s because of the Microsoft products we are using today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"microsoft-one-player-video\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/videoplayer\/embed\/RE4HSVD\" playsinline=true controls=true webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>From childhood start-up to global designer<\/h2>\n<p>Zuiver\u2019s\u00a0story starts back in 1998, with four friends\u00a0founding two different\u00a0furniture\u00a0companies in the Netherlands \u2013 one selling directly to stores as wholesale and another outlet model\u00a0that\u00a0sold to customers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had sales agreements with certain Italian and German producers to sell their items exclusively\u00a0in\u00a0the Netherlands,\u201d says\u00a0Landsaat. \u201cBut after a couple of years we wanted to be bigger and better, so tried to\u00a0find the factories\u00a0behind the products we sold to\u00a0see if we could make them\u00a0ourselves.\u00a0We were pretty successful, and\u00a0once we had a logistics partner,\u00a0we\u00a0quickly grew\u00a030% year-on-year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn\u00a02011,\u00a0we decided to\u00a0trade under one name\u00a0for our organization and our interior collection \u2013\u00a0Zuiver.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Dutch designer\u00a0continued to grow\u00a0rapidly,\u00a0soon selling\u00a0their\u00a0contemporary\u00a0furniture\u00a0in more\u00a0than 80 countries\u00a0worldwide.\u00a0But with\u00a0the added complexity that comes with having\u00a0staff\u00a0and suppliers based\u00a0across the world,\u00a0Zuiver\u00a0saw an opportunity to\u00a0use technology\u00a0to\u00a0make their\u00a0business processes\u00a0more efficient\u00a0\u2013\u00a0moving their\u00a0entire operation into the cloud through a Microsoft 365 solution.<\/p>\n<h2>Supporting a company culture through the cloud<\/h2>\n<p>With the help of\u00a0Microsoft partner, Advisor ICT Solutions,\u00a0Zuiver\u00a0began migrating to the Microsoft cloud as part of their\u00a0head office\u00a0relocation\u00a0in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemoving our physical servers opened up new possibilities to use Microsoft programs,\u201d explains\u00a0Landsaat. \u201cOneNote and SharePoint were adopted pretty quickly, and we promoted\u00a0Microsoft\u00a0Teams as an easy way to work in small project groups or as a department when you\u00a0all\u00a0needed\u00a0access to the same document.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With big changes across\u00a0Zuiver, including\u00a0implementing\u00a0Microsoft Teams as a cloud-based phone system,\u00a0Advisor\u00a0ICT Solutions\u00a0offered\u00a0training\u00a0courses to help employees\u00a0quickly adopt these new tools and learn how\u00a0they\u00a0can\u00a0be used\u00a0to streamline both supplier and customer-facing\u00a0processes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a big shift for everybody,\u201d\u00a0Landsaat\u00a0adds. \u201cSo\u00a0on top of\u00a0the training offered by Advisor, we also\u00a0developed our own intranet and\u00a0created support groups\u00a0on\u00a0Yammer\u00a0to keep having these conversations\u00a0and letting people learn off each other and ask questions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYammer\u2019s\u00a0become\u00a0a really handy\u00a0platform\u00a0to share company information securely, and people\u00a0now\u00a0use Teams chat for meet-ups outside the office too, which\u00a0is\u00a0a great fit for our company.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Embracing a remote-working model<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI think it was March 15th\u00a0when our Prime Minister asked everyone to stay home,\u201d says\u00a0Landsaat, as he\u00a0recalls\u00a0the company\u2019s rapid transition to remote working to meet COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a difficult period with the markets closing down, but it was also a chance for Teams to be\u00a0really embraced across\u00a0Zuiver.\u00a0Everyone realized\u00a0how easy it was to host meetings and\u00a0work across the same\u00a0documents, and it allowed us to form project groups\u00a0that could effectively\u00a0work together\u00a0\u2013\u00a0even\u00a0from\u00a0different sides of the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With other Microsoft 365 tools already implemented,\u00a0Zuiver\u00a0had all the measures in place to keep both supply chain and shipping processes in\u00a0check, and\u00a0ensure\u00a0their\u00a0entire workforce could continue to operate effectively outside of the office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe technology is actually empowering me to do what I do best,\u201d\u00a0says Caroline van\u00a0Velze, Creative Director and co-founder of\u00a0Zuiver.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery month\u00a0I would travel\u00a0all over the world to check samples and have contact with our production areas, but now this\u00a0design process\u00a0can all be achieved through\u00a0video calling\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and I can still be creative because I draw by hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve always had a very informal way of working together \u2013 our\u00a0Zuiver\u00a0DNA,\u201d she adds. \u201cBe proud of what you\u2019re doing and have fun while you\u2019re doing it, and Teams has really helped that continue outside the office with social activities like yoga lessons\u00a0and\u00a0Friday afternoon drinks still taking place from home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom\u00a0a mental health point too,\u201d says\u00a0Landsaat.\u00a0\u201cIt can be hard to not see colleagues face-to-face anymore. But with a tool like Teams, you can just turn your camera on and feel part of the office again.\u00a0It&#8217;s a great way to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>A modern working environment for every employee<\/h2>\n<p>As\u00a0Zuiver\u00a0now reflects back on the last two years, the benefits of technology have left a lasting impression not just on the company but also the way people work day-to-day. An outcome\u00a0Landsaat\u00a0is sure\u00a0will\u00a0continue to impact their culture both now and in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis period has shown how effectively we can all work together\u00a0from\u00a0a distance,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cWe\u00a0can stay in contact and maintain the same output and\u00a0efficiency\u00a0whether people are in the office or at home, which is\u00a0all\u00a0possible\u00a0because\u00a0of\u00a0these\u00a0Microsoft programs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur\u00a0future\u00a0is\u00a0smaller offices\u00a0and\u00a0people working as a\u00a0one\u00a0team\u00a0without being\u00a0in the same building \u2013 and we have a\u00a0very\u00a0positive feeling about that as an organization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSince moving to the cloud, there are no limitations anymore. And I\u2019m certain without this technology, we would not have seen the growth we have today.\u201d Jaap Landsaat,\u00a0CFO\u00a0and\u00a0Head of IT\u00a0at Dutch furniture designer\u00a0Zuiver, is talking about the\u00a0profound\u00a0impact technology has had on the\u00a0business\u00a0he co-founded more than 20 years ago. \u201cBack then,\u00a0we had 100 orders a week [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":393769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1911],"class_list":["post-393766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-transformation-en","specials-work-productivity-en","verticalIndustries-retail-en","stories-how-can-i-work-anywhere-and-everywhere","stories-working-from-everywhere-en","businessPriorities-digital-transformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393766"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409901,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393766\/revisions\/409901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}