Case Maku Brewing: Modernizing IT infrastructure to meet rapid growth
Maku Brewing a Finnish craft brewery recognised for its premium beers crafted from top-tier ingredients, has consistently experienced robust growth over the past decade. As a result of this growth, the volume of beer produced has increased tenfold, and the company has hired many new employees.
Due to business growth the necessity to assess various services and software solutions increased to meet the diverse needs of Maku Brewing’s expanding workforce. Consequently, the company aimed to enhance its IT infrastructure to accommodate its increasing needs. Gapps played a pivotal role in facilitating the development of Maku's IT infrastructure by extensively leveraging the Google Workspace platform, thereby ensuring that data management practices were aligned with the company's continuous growth.
Cooperation in brief
Starting point | Keys to success | Result |
As a result of Maku Brewing's growth, there was a recognized need to modernize IT infrastructure to meet rapid growth and enable better data-driven decision-making. |
Gapps built a secure and modern IT infrastructure on the Google Workspace platform to ensure smooth operation and provided training for employees on new systems. Responsibility for cybersecurity was also transferred to Gapps. |
A secure IT infrastructure and data-driven decision-making enable smooth internal communication and collaboration to support the company's growth. |
Goal: to build a secure and modern IT environment, where work would be smooth and easy for everyone.
The carefully crafted IT infrastructure setup supporting Maku Brewing's growth
For Maku Brewing, the most important goal was to have a unified location for files and data, streamline file management, improve cybersecurity, and build a modern infrastructure where work would be smooth and easy for all employees. Several cloud services that were in use no longer met the needs of the growing company, so Maku chose Gapps as its partner in their IT infrastructure development. The comprehensive package offered by Gapps strengthened the choice, as it was also important for Maku to train the entire staff on new systems.
After listening closely to Maku's needs, Gapps quickly devised a plan for IT infrastructure development. Google Workspace was widely adopted, and files scattered across different services were transferred to a shared Google Drive.
Google Workspace enables us to work more efficiently. We no longer have to be in the same physical location to be able to collaborate on materials; instead, we can seamlessly work on and share documents in real-time," remarks Juho Virtanen, Community Manager at Maku Brewing.
A plan for file management was developed, outlining the necessary folder types and structures and establishing protocols for their utilization. Cybersecurity was entirely outsourced to Gapps, and employees were introduced to two-factor authentication to prevent unauthorised access to user accounts. Comprehensive training sessions conducted by Gapps ensured that all staff members, with consideration for their preferences and skill levels, were proficient in the new systems.
Internal communication at Maku Brewing has improved, resulting in clearer exchanges and positively impacting customer interactions as well. "We can effortlessly distribute materials to our customers now. Whether it's marketing collateral or beer labels, we can swiftly deliver them electronically. This has simplified our customer operations," elaborates Juho Virtanen.
Following the project's completion, Maku’s employees have continued to benefit from ongoing support provided by certified Google experts from Gapps, ensuring assistance is available when needed.
After the change, we still make top-notch beer, and have a good vibe. Things are rolling better, which is a sign of a successful project," Virtanen concludes.
Introducing Maku Brewing
Maku Brewing is a Finnish craft brewery that has been producing beer since 2014. Maku's expertise lies in high-quality ingredients used in various beer styles and the products' easy drinkability. Therefore, the brewery doesn't indulge in unnecessary tricks but focuses on producing stylistically pure beer styles. Maku aims to create different types of beers for people who normally only go for pale lagers all but are willing and brave enough to try the thousands of different beer flavours the world has to offer.