The Anthony Martin Group creates hybrid workspaces.

Hybrid work and meeting spaces

Waterloo is of course the name of one of the beers brewed by the Anthony Martin Group, but it is also the location of Ferme de Mont-Saint-Jean: a microbrewery, microdistillery and museum – plus some new hybrid workspaces for employees and new hybrid meeting spaces for customers. "We’ve decided to centralize our operations at this magnificent historic site, to be as close as possible to our admin departments. That requires a major digital transformation, because in addition to Waterloo, we also have employees throughout Belgium and Europe," Edward points out.

Facilitating collaboration

From Bruges to Antwerp via Brussels and southwards to Rouen, Bergamo, and Valencia, technology has proved a fairly natural choice to meet the challenges faced by the company. "We no longer have to make do with a phone lying in the middle of the table to communicate with our various sites, customers, and suppliers. Instead, we now have rooms equipped with a Microsoft Teams Rooms solution and with a Bring-your-Own-Meeting (BYOM) solution, and even a multimedia relaxation area to encourage socializing and interaction," says Edward.

We’ve decided to centralize our operations. That requires a major digital transformation.

Edward Martin, brand manager at the Anthony Martin Group.

Workplace well-being

As a result, the Group’s admin departments are spoilt for choice. "In addition to the technological side of the changes, we’ve provided soundproof bubbles, furniture that encourages dynamism, and meeting spaces for 4 to 12 people. Each room is decorated with a Belgian comic strip theme. That closely reflects our own image: made in Belgium, creative and passionate," Edward explains.

Conference and customer event center

The name Ferme de Mont-Saint-Jean is also synonymous with organization of customer events. A conference space of more than 400 m² has been created in the farm’s historic barn that can hold up to 550 people. "An event is unthinkable these days without a good dose of technology. It's a must for our guests. Proximus helped us in our digital transformation with the installation of the solutions we needed to achieve our ambitions. The process has gone without a hitch so far," Edward confirms.

Edward Martin, brand manager at the Anthony Martin Group.

Dynamic display and digital audio

Nothing has been left to chance in Waterloo: a dynamic display solution allows the spaces to be personalized according to customer requirements and branding. A nice extra touch is that it can also be used to display the restaurant menu and upcoming events. "We also wanted a digital audio distribution system to cover all the public spaces here. We manage the solution from an ordinary tablet. In short, we’ve created attractive facilities for businesses that want to rent our premises. And the feedback has been very positive."

Round-the-clock support and long-term service

Ensuring the day and night operability of the infrastructure was an additional challenge included in the specifications provided by Edward and his teams. Proximus responded with the Reactive Care model. "We inevitably have the occasional IT challenge or technical question, and our time is precious, as is our customers’ time. We’ve therefore opted for 24/7 support. What’s more, we have a service-level agreement (SLA) concerning on-site response times, so our brewers and event planning teams can focus on their core business."