Carlsberg Breweries

The Carlsberg brand is known around the world for great beer, but the company sensed trouble was brewing when they needed to move their 10-year-old, premises-based Mitel MiVoice MX-ONE system as part of their UK office relocation. 

Fearing a lift-and-shift would be too big a risk, Carlsberg decided the time was right to move their Mitel solution into the cloud.

This is the story of how Carlsberg reduced risk and reduced costs with the help of Mitel and MiVoice MX-ONE.

Carlsberg aimed to deploy a reliable and scalable cloud-based communications system in just a few months, leveraging Azure as its primary cloud platform to streamline integration with existing backend systems. The project required close collaboration between Mitel, Microsoft, and a third-party services partner to manage the cloud environment and address technical challenges. This partnership enabled Carlsberg to prioritize system reliability and low latency, ensuring smooth integration with the company’s CRM solution and broader IT ecosystem.

The successful migration of MiVoice MX-ONE and MiContact Center Enterprise into the Azure cloud was completed on schedule, with minimal production issues. This move not only converted capital expenditures into operating expenses but also positioned Carlsberg for future digital transformation initiatives, including adopting AI, automation, and Platform as a Service (PaaS) technologies. Inspired by the success in Leeds, Carlsberg now plans to replicate this approach across its global headquarters and Western European operations, covering thousands of employees and contact center agents. "Mitel has been a committed partner from the start," Gaertner affirms, underscoring the company’s confidence in scaling its cloud-based communication systems.

Carlsberg’s UK headquarters relocation presented an opportunity to modernize its aging on-premises voice and contact center systems. Instead of a simple "lift and shift," Carlsberg aligned the move with its ongoing cloud-first IT strategy, which had already seen successful migrations of regional data centers to the cloud. With limited time to build a business case, secure funding, and execute the migration, Carlsberg's Director of Global Network and Hosting, Laurent Gaertner, turned to Mitel for their trusted MiVoice MX-ONE and MiContact Center Enterprise solutions. The decision to move these systems into Microsoft Azure was driven by cost savings, enhanced flexibility, and the need to mitigate security risks associated with legacy hardware.