Modern digital workspace for Faber Halbertsma Group

Faber Halbertsma Group is an internationally oriented organisation for the provision of sustainable pooling services and products. With more than five hundred employees, they focus on circularity, providing complete peace of mind to customers and reusing resources. In this article, we’ll share how they came to their choice of Workspace 365 and the steps they took to launch their modern digital workspace.

Start of the search: Modern Workspace Concept

Faber Halbertsma Group consists of several subsidiary companies and therefore had partnerships with six different IT service providers.

In order to make their IT environment future-proof, they wanted to have a central IT infrastructure and were looking for a service provider who could support them in implementing a uniform way of working. It was important to create a modern workspace concept in which multiple divisions could operate under their own brand. After a tender process, they ended up choosing Open Line and Workspace 365.

Tendering: from traditional IT environment to future-proof Workspace

In the final round of the tender process, the three remaining service providers were invited to give a presentation. But the team was impressed by the way Open Line offered a combination of the traditional IT environment, a new infrastructure and a future-proof workspace. In addition, the environment is able to support Faber Halbertsma Group’s expansion strategy.

“We also referred to this phase as the beauty contest, as a joke. Of course, the offer had to match our requirements technically, but we also considered the appearance of the digital workspace as important. The digital workspace, Workspace 365, made Open Line stand out even more and made our choice clear.”  Tom Peeters, Group IT Director at Faber Halbertsma Group.

Step 1: Merging the intranet and the digital workspace

The first step before launching Workspace 365 was to merge the intranet and the digital workspace. In the past, Faber Halbertsma Group had an intranet, however, it was hardly used. For this reason, they wanted to renew it and bring it all together into the digital workspace.

“Workspace 365 is the start of their day for our employees. They see their emails, calendar, videos, the latest news and can open all their applications from there. The great thing is that we can link it to other platforms so we can choose which technologies to use in the background.”
Joeri van Etten, Marketing & Communication Advisor at Faber Halbertsma Group.

Within the workspace, the first thing to be made accessible was the news from SharePoint. This gives all employees insight into the news from the headquarter. The next step is to offer news from various divisions to those for whom it is relevant.

“Since the launch of the new workspace, employees can easily find information and we receive hardly any questions about where they can find certain documents or policies. In addition, we see that the news is well received.” Says Joeri van Etten.

Step 2: Centralising IT and renewing the digital workspace

The next step towards the modern workspace was taken by Open Line by bringing all infrastructure and the modern workspace together. Using the same partners and technology for all brands has many advantages, including maintaining flexibility and corporate identity. For example, each separate label within the Faber Halbertsma Group can be given a personalised workspace, including access to relevant applications and news.

“By working with Open Line, we are able to get rid of ‘segmented automation’ all together and go to one standard as much as possible. We see that in the long run we can save enormous costs with this because everything becomes less complicated and we use the same standards within our group.” Says Tom Peeters.

Step 3: Offer any type of application, on any device

Within the workspace, people easily open all their applications. In the workspace, they only see the applications that are relevant to their role. These can be locally installed applications, virtual applications (based on Citrix) and web applications. By implementing single sign-on, people can open all applications with just one click, without having to log in again each time.

Simplifying Microsoft solutions

Within the workspace, Microsoft solutions are easily accessible and easier to use. For example, employees see news from SharePoint, can easily search for teams in Teams and create documents from within the workspace. This allows employees to get used to the new solution faster and to easily open, edit and securely share documents from any device.

Planning for the future

The digital workspace continues to evolve. One of the projects Faber Halbertsma Group is now working on, is to bring even more divisions under Open Line and to help all local brands provide their own intranet within the workspace.

“We are very happy with the workspace and the collaboration with Open Line. What we really like is the personal contact. You can lay down everything in contracts, but there is always something that is not laid down there. They are flexible in this respect and switch quickly” Says Tom Peeters.

Discover more about the digital workspaces and Workspace 365