3,000 digital workplaces
migrated from Google to Microsoft 365 E5 across Europe
SoftwareOne case study
With its move to Microsoft 365, Plukon no longer has to juggle multiple ecosystems
SoftwareOne helped Plukon Food Group migrate 3,000 European digital workplaces from Google to Microsoft 365 in three months, with every region moving on schedule.
Plukon Food Group is an innovative player in the European food industry, supplying poultry, meals, salads, meal components, and alternative proteins to leading food partners across Europe. It has about 12,000 employees at 44 locations across the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Poland, France, Spain, and Denmark.
As its Google contract approached expiration, Plukon faced a strategic choice: remain in a familiar environment and continue asking employees to move between Google and Microsoft applications or migrate 3,000 European digital workplaces to Microsoft 365. Choosing one ecosystem promised a more consistent user experience and simpler IT management.
Three-month project
with every region migrated at regular intervals and on schedule
One ecosystem
simplifying IT management and enabling online collaboration across locations
- Client
- Plukon Food Group
- Industry
- Consumer goods
- Services
- Digital Workplace: Microsoft 365 Migration, Adoption & Change Management (ACM)
- Country
- Netherlands
The challenge: bringing 3,000 workplaces into one ecosystem
Plukon Food Group had traditionally operated in a Google environment, but the workforce was changing. New employees were increasingly familiar with Microsoft applications, and teams such as finance relied on Excel spreadsheets. Supporting both ecosystems preserved choice, but it also created a fragmented experience and duplicated management costs.
“Plukon places a high priority on user experience (UX), which is why the organization navigated between the two systems or a long time. That resulted in duplicate management costs,” says Marinus van ’t Hul, IT Director at Plukon Food Group. “Google adoption was relatively limited, and Microsoft was already the standard at many of our newly acquired companies. With the Google contract coming to an end, this was the ideal time for Plukon to move to Microsoft 365 with the backing of the board.”
The challenge was to migrate 3,000 digital workplaces across seven European countries before the Google contract expired, without losing sight of the employees who would need to adopt a new way of working.
The solution: technology and adoption, delivered locally
Because user experience was central to the decision, Microsoft 365 quickly emerged as the preferred destination. Plukon also wanted a migration partner with global scale and a physical presence in every country involved.
“It was essential for us that the migration partner was a global organization with offices in the countries concerned,” van ‘t Hul explains. “A reference call with another migration customer confirmed that SoftwareOne was the right partner for us.”
Plukon’s newly acquired Danish operation migrated first. The remaining regions followed at set intervals over three months. With the Google contract approaching expiration, the deadline could not move, so SoftwareOne created an adoption and change management (ACM) plan to coordinate the technical work and prepare employees for the transition.
"A migration like this is a once-in-a-lifetime project for the customer, and it is almost impossible to anticipate everything that will come your way,” says van ‘t Hul. “It helps to have an experienced partner such as SoftwareOne alongside you, and the ACM plan becomes an important tool.”
The plan covered testing and validation, launch activities, classroom and online user training, and clear responsibilities for employees. During each regional cutover, native-speaking SoftwareOne teams were on site to answer initial questions. This local-language support connected the technical migration with the human side of change and helped every region transition smoothly and on schedule.
- A tailored adoption plan
- Testing and validation steps
- Coordinated launch activities
- In-person and online user training
- Clear responsibilities for users
- Native-speaking SoftwareOne teams on site during and immediately after each migration
Think of a migration as moving house. You have to get used to a new building too: the light switches are in different places, and you may still need to fix a few things. This analogy helped us explain the migration clearly. Everyone understood the move and its possible effects on links and formulas.
IT Director, Plukon Food Group
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SoftwareOne treated the program as both a technical migration and a people-focused change initiative. Employees learned what would change, how to use the new tools, and where to get help in their own language. Centralized planning kept the three-month project moving at a steady pace, while local delivery gave each location support at the point of transition.
The outcome: one ecosystem, simpler IT, satisfied employees
Plukon completed the European migration on schedule and brought 3,000 digital workplaces into a single Microsoft 365 E5 ecosystem. Employees can now collaborate across locations through one consistent set of tools instead of moving between Google and Microsoft applications. For a business with 44 locations in seven countries, that common environment simplifies day-to-day collaboration and has contributed to higher employee satisfaction.
The phased schedule, detailed ACM plan, and physical presence of native-speaking SoftwareOne teams at each location helped every regional migration proceed as planned. Employees had support during the cutover and in the days immediately afterward, reducing uncertainty as the new tools became part of everyday work.
The change also simplified IT management. Plukon's IT team no longer has to maintain parallel Google and Microsoft platforms, removing duplicated administration and creating a clearer foundation for future improvements. The result is more than a completed technical migration: it is a unified digital workplace that supports cohesive collaboration across Europe while giving IT one environment to manage.
By designing adoption into the project from the outset, Plukon paired a firm technical schedule with local support, so speed did not come at the expense of user experience.
Adoption succeeds or fails with the quality of the approach. The ACM program provides the foundation by identifying every aspect in advance. In effect, SoftwareOne guides you through the entire process.
IT Director, Plukon Food Group
The migration also gave Plukon a repeatable model for future technology change: validate tools before launch, prepare users through targeted training, and reinforce the transition with local support. With its Microsoft 365 foundation in place, IT can focus maintaining just one platform, instead of two, and using the time saved to improve collaboration.
It was a priority for us to carry out this migration with a global player. SoftwareOne has a presence in every country involved and could therefore guide and support users in their own language.
IT Director, Plukon Food Group
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