IJsvogel Retail

How IJsvogel Retail went from Windows XP to 200 stores on Chromebooks

Pets Place and Boerenbond moved off on-premise Microsoft and onto Google Workspace, Chromebooks and, lately, Looker — 1,200 people across 200 stores.

All customer stories Book a call

200 stores working on Chromebooks

IJsvogel Retail

The challenge

Windows XP in the stores, and file versions everywhere

Before Google Workspace, IJsvogel Retail relied heavily on on-premise Microsoft solutions. Multiple versions of the same file roamed the servers, and colleagues were constantly hunting for the most recent Word or Excel document.

In the stores the hardware was well past its prime — Windows XP, in places.

The approach

Drive first, then the hardware

Together with NextNovate, Google Workspace was implemented at IJsvogel Retail. Google Drive became an instant favourite, mostly because of how well it searches.

Working together inside one document, rather than mailing versions around, followed from there.

The impact

Less device management, more data

With Chromebooks, colleagues in the stores can work on whichever device is free. Google Workspace and Chromebooks together cut the workload for IT sharply, so that team has time for work that was waiting anyway.

And the data is all available now: first through the BigQuery data connector in Google Sheets, and more recently with Looker.

For me, it's very important that all our data is available in the Google Cloud. My colleagues can reach it instantly and search it easily. As a next step we started with the BigQuery Data Connector in Google Sheets, and recently we have also started with Looker. Data democratisation within the Google ecosystem means a lot for our business.

Herman Holterman CTO @ IJsvogel Retail

More stories

Other customer stories