Better Data and Communication for Plukon Food Group

Related services
Google Workspace

Industry
Retail

Company
Xebia

Plukon Food Group has thirteen branches spread across the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, including nine poultry slaughterhouses and four processing and packaging companies. With a weekly volume of over 6.8 million chickens, Plukon is one of the largest European players in the poultry meat market. The realized turnover amounted to 1.3 billion euros in 2014. Plukon employs approximately 4,100 people.

Why

To create an easy-to-use and flexible IT infrastructure in the cloud

What

By implementing Google Workspace and creating a data exchange portal

How

With a phased rollout of Google Workspace and using Scrum to develop a data portal

Simplify Communication While Remaining Flexible

Plukon used an outdated version of Novell GroupWise. It was time to try something new. Ray Mennink, IT Manager at Plukon: “9 years ago, we started looking to replace our current email system with one that works in the cloud to simplify communication. We were considering solutions like SharePoint/Microsoft, but most of them were expensive and lacked flexibility.”

“This was so successful, that it was an easy choice to transition to Google Workspace.”

Ray Mennink IT Manager at Plukon

A Two-Fold Solution

Google Workspace

Because Microsoft solutions were deemed inflexible and costly, Plukon has decided to go with Google. Plukon implemented Google Workspace (previously G Suite) with the help of the Google Cloud Partner Xebia. The first steps included mail and agenda. Multiple people received an Android smartphone to give Gmail a try. And the pilot was successful. Plukon employees are also very pleased with Gmail’s extra storage capacity, of 30 GB per user.

Ray Mennink: “We also had the desire to deploy mobile phones and asked Xebia to investigate our case. Later, Xebia assisted us with the rollout of the devices and training of our people.”

Plukonnect

Together with Xebia, Plukon developed Plukonnect, a portal for poultry farmers. Lotte Kroeze, Business Development Manager at Plukon: “We use this portal for data exchange with poultry farmers and with other partners in the supply chain. I don't have a technical background at all and I am also not experienced in the IT field, so it was all new to me. Xebia has proposed to run this project using the scrum methodology. They explained us really well how it worked, what the perks were and what they expected from us.”

Plukonnect drastically increased the efficiency, mostly regarding data exchange.

“The biggest advantage of Plukonnekt is the increased efficiency. Data is supplied digitally and making mistakes almost belongs to the past with all the built-in data validation.”

Lotte Kroeze Business Development Manager Agri at Plukon

More About Plukon

Plukon Food Group has thirteen branches spread across the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, including nine poultry slaughterhouses and four processing and packaging companies. With a weekly volume of over 6.8 million chickens, Plukon is one of the largest European players in the poultry meat market. The realised turnover amounted to 1.3 billion euros in 2014. Plukon employs approximately 4,100 people.

The brand Friki has existed since 1964, long before the Plukon Food Group had been established. Plukon delivers products to the retail channel under the brand Friki, in both the Netherlands and Germany.

In 1978, Friki merged with the poultry farm Bekebrede at Barneveld, which formed the PLUimvee KOmbinatie Nederland (Poultry Combination Netherlands), prompting the name Plukon. In 2010, the business unit tasked with sales of high-quality, sought-after products to clients in the food service and -industry became independent, under the name of Plukon convenience. This unit uses the brand Friki.