Staying Mobile: How GANT modernised their workflow with Creative Cloud for Enterprise.

Outdated business tools and work processes slowing you down?

This is something every company struggles with; however big or small. In the current climate, if you don’t react quickly, it may result in your downfall. This is especially true for the retail industry; an extremely competitive landscape where new brands emerge as quickly as established names demise. Your business tools should always help, and never hinder you.

This challenge was at the top of the priority list for lifestyle brand GANT . A key area in improving in their head office was overhauling the business tools its employees used. These were hindering processes, which in turn was losing the company precious time and money.

After intensive research, GANT’s Global Digital Workplace Manager, Rickard Söderberg, opted for Adobe Creative Cloud for Enterprise. His top priority was future-proofing the business’s workflow, investing in digital tools which could not only help every corner of the company, but ensure the technology would evolve as time went on; seamlessly combining desktop with mobile working.

We caught up with Rickard, to delve deeper into the thought process behind his adoption of Creative Cloud and how GANT’s employees use the digital tools that they’ve been given.

What is your role at GANT?

I’m the Global Digital Workplace Manager at GANT; it’s my role to ensure that the GANT Head Office employees, specifically those who work in Design and IT, have the correct digital tools to help them do their job to the best of their ability. I’ve been at GANT for four years and have seen the company change and evolve significantly over the years.

What is the objective within your role at GANT?

What I’m trying to achieve is to have the best digital platforms and tools in place for everyone to use. Due to the competitive nature of the industry that we’re in, we must be prepared to move fast and change direction in the blink of an eye. The fantastic tools we have in place, such as Creative Cloud for Enterprise, help us be more efficient and the best that we can be.

Where is GANT currently, digitally and as a business?

GANT is moving incredibly fast right now. Our business objective is to be the world’s leading lifestyle brand in 2020 – a clear yet extremely aggressive goal. We’re currently in the middle of major change; due to the industry pressures we’ve had to move very quickly in the last 12 months. In fact, we’ve made more changes in the past year compared with the previous three years combined. Putting Creative Cloud in place has allowed our teams to work more efficiently, as well as our processes becoming much more streamlined.

Mobile and people are two key aspects of GANT’s current transformation. What’s the approach to this?

My role at GANT doesn’t stop at implementing the tools; I have to ensure people are correctly trained and that they’re consistently using the tool as well. Our ethos as GANT is “never stop learning” which is a daily reminder to challenge and push yourself, not only in the workplace. I aim to get the GANT workplace excited about the Adobe Mobile Apps, which can be used across the business.

How does this compare to previous processes?

There are so many less limitations nowadays, compared to just a year ago. We’re now much more mobile than we were before; opting for tablet over laptop wherever we can. This works for many of our employees, such as designers who are often on the move. Creative Cloud enables us to be more fluid in our working; for example, taking a photo on your phone and seamlessly using that photo between the mobile apps and desktop. A year ago it would have to be emailed around and uploaded to the server before the team could start working with it.

How are the staff at GANT responding? What are the challenges and opportunities?

It’s always a challenge to implement any sort of change; however big or small that may be. The Adobe Creative Cloud programs are so easy to use, which means there hasn’t been any tricky challenges in the set-up. The biggest obstacle we had prior to Adobe Creative Cloud was file storage. Creative Cloud Libraries has completely eradicated this issue, so all teams across the business have gained from that. Everyone in the company has easy access to brand assets, which makes it simple for GANT to foster complete brand consistency. Not only this, but as the team switches between computers and portable devices, they can access the entire Creative Cloud Library wherever they are – even when they’re offline, which is ideal for teams who often travel for business, such as our buying team.

How is GANT using other digital tools in its creative process?

Creative Cloud for Enterprise covers so many touchpoints across the business, from design to ecommerce. However, we do also use CAD tools which render 3D images for design work, store layouts and visual merchandising, which is very specific to our industry. Once the images are proportionally correct, we can use the assets in Adobe InDesign for communication purposes.

Everybody is talking about the importance of workflow in creative processes. What’s your perspective?

It’s one of the most important things in any business. Previous to working with Creative Cloud each department at GANT were using different tools and had their own processes. Now, our workflow has massively improved as everyone is using the same system. It also promotes collaboration, which opens up more possibilities and encourages discussion, resulting in ideas which may not have come to fruition was it not for the improved workflow.

Finally, if you jumped five years into the future, what would you want to see at GANT?

Technology is moving faster and faster every day. With every new update or latest feature released, people must adapt. I don’t expect to be using the digital tools as they are now for the next five years, which means it’s an ongoing process. What I do anticipate is that we will have more cloud based services to help ease the strain on our servers, as well as seeing the majority of work being completed on more mobile platforms rather than desktop or laptop. I also see the GANT staff using the Adobe Mobile Apps more and more; I imagine this will soon overtake desktop in the near future.

Discover Adobe Creative Cloud for Enterprise today.