Heineken is rapidly building its digital future with the Power Platform

After 150 years, beer brewer Heineken certainly needs no introduction. With more than 300 beer brands in 190 countries, the company holds a leading position. But to maintain this position, the multinational must operate more efficiently through digital innovation. With the help of the Power Platform and Microsoft partner Macaw, employees are doing this themselves—quickly and in a controlled manner. “After just a couple of years, 4,000 employees have already built 8,000 Power Apps. That’s absolutely incredible, of course.”

The Challenge: Increasing Productivity

Behind Heineken’s world-famous beers, ciders, and soft drinks lies a world of processes. More than 80,000 employees in offices and breweries ensure that everything runs as safely and efficiently as possible. But Heineken is determined to improve even further by digitizing its processes. Since 2019, the company has been using the low-code/no-code Power Platform for this purpose, which allows employees without programming knowledge to create simple, time-saving apps. “We’re getting the same amount of work done with fewer employees. The Power Platform helps us become more productive,” says Mark Slijper, manager of Global Portfolio Digital Toolkits.

The approach: all employees can develop apps

It’s not just the management team that wants to become more productive—employees do too, because repetitive tasks and time-consuming processes aren’t very productive. Let’s take parking expense reimbursement as an example. At Heineken, there’s now a Power App for this purpose, developed by an employee. Instead of dealing with paperwork, Excel spreadsheets, and emails, there’s now a handy app that saves Heineken employees a lot of time. This app was developed in a very short time and at a fraction of the cost of a traditional IT solution.

“We want to be an innovative and digitally intelligent company. We currently have 4,000 app developers—by 2025, that number should reach 10,000.” ”
Giada Binelli, Product Owner, Low-Code/No-Code Platforms

The result: greater ease of use and productivity

“The power of the Power Platform lies in its accessibility,” says Giada Binelli, Product Owner for the Low-Code/No-Code platforms. “If something comes up while you’re working, you just build an app—purely for your own convenience and productivity. The ideas and initiatives come from all directions—it’s amazing.” That’s why, at Heineken, more and more processes are being transformed into smart, integrated apps.

More Efficient Audits

Heineken now also uses Power Apps to conduct safety audits: safety is of paramount importance at the brewery. During the audits, inspectors check, among other things, whether employees are in the safety zones, whether cabinets are properly locked, and whether they are adhering to other protocols. In the past, managers would draw sketches on paper for this purpose, which they would then scan and send. Now, all they need to do is take photos with their smartphones, which are already the primary tool for the entire reporting process.

A Smarter Return to the Office

The need to be well-prepared digitally was already a must, but it became even clearer in the course of the pandemic. “We made optimal use of the Power Platform during this period. Italy was the first European country to be hit by COVID-19, but our colleagues there were also the first to return to the office—albeit under strict conditions,” says Giada.

The requirement: an app that would allow employees to reserve a workspace—in compliance with regulations—and to do so within three weeks. No problem: together with Macaw and Microsoft, a Power App was developed that enabled employees to return to the office seamlessly. The advantage of these so-called cloud apps is that they can be easily rolled out and adapted internationally. The app is now used in more than twenty countries, making it a true success.

Cost Savings Made Easy

Apps make work safer, simpler, and more fun—by adding a playful element to something as mundane as cost savings. Cutting costs within the company makes sense, but what if employees could benefit from it too? With this in mind, Heineken developed an app that makes it easy to achieve savings and measure success. Employees can redeem the points they earn through this program for products in Heineken stores.

10,000 app developers by 2025

The number of apps and developers continues to grow. “It’s incredible that we’ve already created 8,000 apps after just two years, but this is only the beginning,” says Giada. “We want even more. We want to be an innovative, digitally intelligent company. Currently, we have 4,000 app developers, and by 2025, that number should reach 10,000. We’ll achieve that goal by talking to people who aren’t yet familiar with the platform.” In principle, anyone can get started with the Power Platform. Not only because it’s so simple, but also because, along with other well-known Microsoft solutions like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, it’s available to everyone.

Complete freedom within limits

“The Power Platform has been available to Heineken employees since 2019 and has evolved seamlessly ever since. We’re seeing enthusiasm grow as employees discover all the possibilities it offers. In the beginning, only the IT experts used the platform, but the rest of the company quickly followed suit,” says Mark Slijper. Heineken placed great importance on preventing uncontrolled developments and data breaches. That’s why a stricter governance approach was developed, in which performance and scalability also play an important role. This shows that the development of these types of apps proceeds differently than when everything comes from the IT department.

ASolid Foundation forManagement

“It’s impossible to manage thousands of apps with a small team,” says Mark Slijper. Heineken therefore enlisted the help of Macaw, a Microsoft partner with extensive experience in guiding employees in the use of the Power Platform. “Their expertise helped us assemble a team and set up coaching and training programs. In addition, they laid a solid technical foundation for monitoring apps, so we can also identify which apps are no longer in use. We include those in our cleanup process every few months.”

The so-called “citizen developers”—Heineken employees who develop apps—work within established guidelines. In addition, 400 connectors have been blocked to prevent apps from sending data to Twitter, for example. “We have a standard environment where everyone at Heineken logs in and can customize it as they see fit. If you want more features, need to use different licenses, or simply require a bit more IT knowledge, the IT department is ready to help.” Incidentally, this department consists of both Heineken employees and specialists from Macaw. The department also creates reusable components that allow other locations to build their own apps—from content to design.

App Reuse

International scalability is of great importance to multinational companies. That’s why Heineken is now building an app store where employees worldwide can select apps by theme, department, or activity. This way, colleagues don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and digitization becomes even easier. “The power of the Power Platform is that it’s so accessible you can get started right away,” says Mark Slijper. And that applies not only to improving internal processes.

Digitization also improves the end product

Power Apps also help optimize the quality of the end product. That’s why a colleague developed a Power App that turns every employee into a potential quality controller. For example, if a Heineken beer is accidentally poured into an Amstel glass, the employee uses this app to take a photo. The photo is then automatically sent to the responsible customer advisor, who brings it along to the next training session or consultation. In this way, Heineken remains synonymous with quality.