The rollout of the digital workplace for Cedergroep
During the summer of 2021, Cedergroep switched from their old IT environment to Workspace 365, their new digital workplace. We spoke with Jorrit Groenevelt, Team Leader IT & Finance, about their experience with choosing a digital workspace for education and the rollout of this digital workplace.
Across five locations, Cedergroep provides education to almost six thousand pupils and is supported by approximately 850 employees. Creating connection and uniformity between these different schools is therefore a common thread running through the search for a digital workplace for over 6,800 users.
The starting point of the search: uniformity among different schools
Last year, Cedergroep started the search for a digital workplace to create uniformity among the different locations as the main objective. Because the foundation consists of different schools, it is important that they are able to work in the same simple way. But which system or product works best for different schools?
After comparing different providers and products, they opted for a trial of Workspace 365. Workspace 365 attracted attention as a product because of its ease of management and the possibility of various integrations. Single Sign-On also played a major role in this.
For Cedergroep it is important that staff and students can work as easily as possible. They should be able to see everything in a central location and only have to log in once.
“We would prefer that you enter a portal and don’t have to log in several times”, says Jorrit Groenevelt.
Managing the digital workplace yourself
The final decisive factor was that the digital workplace was dynamic and well-organised enough for Cedergroep. Other providers delivered a SharePoint environment, using plug-ins and delivering everything ready-to-use. This was not the dynamic solution that Cedergroep was looking for.
With Workspace 365, they are also able to take control and make adjustments themselves. This possibility makes the digital workplace even more attractive for organisations that have the technical know-how in-house.
In addition, thanks to great ease of use, users with little or no technical knowledge can easily personalise their own digital workplace.
Digital experience of students and staff
Not only ease of management, but also ease of use is very important to Cedergroep. In a school community you have to deal with different user groups that do not all have the same digital skills.
When Cedergroep started talking about SharePoint and OneDrive, employees didn’t know where to find it. And once they found it, how do you pick up where you left off? Thanks to Workspace 365’s document management system, all documents are brought together from OneDrive, SharePoint and the file server, for instance. This makes it easy for the user to find the documents, no matter where they are saved.
The Document Management System also makes it easy for users to share and collaborate on documents internally.
The rollout at different locations
Cedergroep first started the rollout among a small group. A demo environment was set up where the digital workplace was tested, to see how it was received. A working group was then formed to rollout the digital workplace at each school. The reactions at the schools were very positive.
“The last locations in particular just said: we should have had this a year ago.” – Jorrit Groenevelt.
Easy to adapt
By using a test group, it soon became clear that some processes were not suitable. Jorrit remarks: “It’s handy that you can easily adjust things. If something does not work as you initially intended, then you just change it”. This is how Cedergroep further rolled out the system from the small test group outwards.
In addition, you have to deal with different schools. After the successful rollout of the digital workplace, the decision was made to extend the same approach to the other schools. It was clearly communicated that each location had the opportunity to adjust things.
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