Case Study: MARS (global confectionery & petcare company) achieves an evergreen, secure digital workplace to boost productivity and support growth with Microsoft Azure

Connecting beverage machines to the cloud to power productivity

MARS, the global maker of iconic brands including M&M’s and Pedigree, needed a modern, secure, and mobile-ready digital workplace to support aggressive growth (doubling in 10 years), 80,000 Associates across 78 countries, and a strategy to attract and retain digital-native talent. The company wanted to avoid costly, infrequent “big‑bang” OS upgrades, improve collaboration and mobility, strengthen data protection, and free IT to focus on innovation rather than repetitive migrations.

MARS adopted Windows 10 Enterprise, Office 365, Surface Pro devices, and Microsoft Azure with a “Windows as a service” model, working with Microsoft Services and partners for rollout (5,000 seats by Sept 2016; 12,500 by early 2017). The move created an evergreen estate, consolidated security with Windows Defender and BitLocker, improved collaboration (Yammer, Skype for Business), migrated 100+ workloads to Azure with up to 500 planned, and reduced costs (about $250k/year in third‑party licensing savings), enabling IT to redirect savings toward strategic initiatives and better support business growth.

MARS

Jamie Head

Chief Information Officer