Our cases

Heineken Mexico, part of the world’s most international brewer with over 80,000 employees and more than 35 billion in global revenues, was looking to harness the potential of Generative AI (Gen AI) to drive efficiencies and improve customer satisfaction. They wanted to explore AI use cases across their operations and kickstart AI initiatives in key areas like sales and customer service.

This leading chocolate manufacturer sought to accelerate their speed-to-market, enhance customer-centric innovation, and streamline their vast product portfolio. They recognized the potential of Generative AI to transform their sales processes and partnered with SparkOptimus to realize this vision.

A leading Belgian private equity firm approached SparkOptimus to conduct a technology due diligence on an AI-driven media company poised to disrupt its industry. As part of their investment evaluation, they needed a deep dive into the company's use of Generative AI (Gen AI) and the future impact of emerging technologies like OpenAI’s Sora. With this in mind, they sought our expertise to assess the company's technical and data landscape, ensuring they could make an informed investment decision.

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Zijerveld (a subsidiary of FrieslandCampina) is one of the largest cheese wholesalers in Europe. Recognizing the vast potential AI can bring to their business, they approached SparkOptimus for a one-week data scan. The scan consisted of identifying and prioritizing potential AI use cases across Zijerveld’s business and creating a first view of business value for selected use cases.

Budget Thuis is a leading energy and telecom services provider in the Netherlands, committed to providing reliable services at affordable prices. Serving more than a million customers, Budget Thuis holds a prominent position in the industry. Recognizing the substantial potential of Generative AI to enhance internal processes and the customer experience, Budget Thuis faced challenges in realizing its value independently. Therefore, they asked SparkOptimus’ support in identifying and prioritizing company-specific use cases, rapidly testing and proving the value by collaboratively building, testing, and improving MVPs, and designing an organizational setup for long-term, sustainable (Gen) AI innovation.

In recent years, the energy sector has faced significant disruptions due to the energy crisis and the ongoing transition towards sustainability. Eneco, a leading producer and supplier of natural gas, electricity and heat in the Netherlands, recognized the need to not only adapt to these changing market dynamics but to take the initiative in fostering a shift towards more sustainable consumption behaviours. Their vision was not just to introduce a new product but to catalyze a profound behaviour change that benefits both consumers' wallets and the environment. Driven by a vision to empower consumers with greener, more cost-effective energy choices through dynamic pricing and a broad range of services and products, Eneco partnered with SparkOptimus to kickstart the transformation, set-up and delivery of these innovations.

Biocodex, a global family-owned pharmaceutical company, expanded into the consumer health sector by acquiring IPRAD, a large women's health business, in 2020. Recognizing the growing shift towards online shopping, Biocodex sought to strengthen its ecommerce capabilities. They initiated 3 major projects: e-retail, direct-to-consumer (D2C), marketplace selling, led by a global ecommerce & digital team. These early initiatives highlighted opportunities for further alignment among stakeholders regarding the urgency, current state, and future direction of Biocodex's ecommerce efforts.

VNAB is the trade association of the Dutch co-insurance market, which represents the interests of 96 insurers & brokers. They facilitate large commercial high-risk insurances in the Netherlands through different types of services: supply relevant IT technology products, guarantee knowledge transfer between members, and function as a physical meeting center. SparkOptimus & VNAB jointly defined a vision to work towards the optimal, predictable, and digitally enhanced co-insurance chain for an excellent customer experience. This vision was iterated with members in round table discussions, where they subscribed to the ambition, while expressing the need for a business case before committing to the joint effort.

PVH – globally known for its iconic brands Calvin Klein & Tommy Hilfiger – is one of the world’s largest and most admired fashion companies, operating in over 40 countries worldwide.

PVH Europe’s ambition is to transform from a transaction-led fashion wholesaler into a consumer-led, multichannel fashion player with a tripled ecommerce business by 2025. To turn this vision into reality, PVH wants to connect with its consumers “in the moment”, which implies serving consumers in real-time based on their needs. For example, providing real-time transparency on delivery and payment status, offering personalized recommendations, or promptly providing adequate customer support in case of an incident.

PVH asked SparkOptimus to help shape the path to achieve this ambition, and kickstart execution to gain early momentum.

Henkel Consumer Brands (HCB) offers a wide range of consumer goods, represented by leading and well-known brands such as Persil, Schwarzkopf, and Dial. Committed to sustainability, HCB is transforming its product portfolio by integrating more sustainable solutions. The aim is to empower consumers to make sustainable choices not only in their purchase decisions but also in the usage of the products. To accelerate this journey, HCB collaborated with SparkOptimus to develop a comprehensive approach on shifting consumer behaviors and establishing sustainable choices as the new norm.

Schiphol is a leading global airport, serving around52 million passengers annually. It has already established itself as a frontrunner in digital services, winning the Skytrax Award for World’s Best Airport Website & Digital Services in both 2022 and 2023. To strengthen its position and align with the broader vision of creating the world’s most sustainable and high-quality airport, Schiphol engaged SparkOptimus to develop the three-year vision for Schiphol’s digital passenger experience.

Sandvik Mining & Rock Solutions (SMR) is a leading global supplier of capital equipment, tools, services, and technical solutions for the mining & construction industries. Recognizing the vast strategic potential presented by the growing aftermarket sales, the company engaged SparkOptimus to support the development of their venture concept. This evolved into velroq.com, the first online retailer of drilling machine parts, ranging from hydraulic pumps to maintenance kits.

PGGM Investment Management with €230B assets under management is the pension investor for the healthcare sector. Based on the new investment beliefs of their client they formulated together with this client the strategy to fundamentally shift from 2D investment management (optimizing risk & return) to 3D investment management (risk, return, and impact). PGGM IM realizes that the existing operating model does not support this ambition, especially in a rapidly changing landscape with high volatility and ever-evolving industry standards. Therefore, PGGM IM engaged SparkOptimus to design and ignite a transformation of its operating model, aiming to become a highly adaptable organization with ESG fully ingrained in its investment processes and portfolio.

Schneider Electric (SE) is a leading global specialist in energy management and automation, with €34bn in revenue. To better serve its customers, SE launched a B2B online portal, aimed to offer a digital E2E self-service environment where customers of all types can easily search, configure & order products and have direct access to training & customer support. To ensure SE would set the right strategic priorities going forward, they engaged SparkOptimus to independently benchmark their B2B portal against industry competitors and best-practices.

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Henkel Adhesive Technologies is the global leading solution provider for adhesives, sealants, and functional coatings worldwide, with annual revenues of €10 billion. Recognizing that digital developments could enable them to better serve their customers along the entire customer journey, Henkel asked SparkOptimus to accelerate the digital transformation of their global sales and marketing functions.

Wella is a global Germany-based hair care company and the market leader in the DACH markets. To capture opportunities of the digitizing consumer and hairdresser, Wella asked SparkOptimus to help develop the digital strategy to double down on digital sales and futureproof its B2B and B2C routes-to-market.

Vital Food Group is the owner of Bart’s Retail (Bakker Bart) – a bakery chain with franchises in the high streets across the Netherlands. As more and more consumers prefer to order their food at Bakker Bart for delivery or pick-up, the company asked SparkOptimus to help create a new digital growth strategy to strengthen its omnichannel proposition. The goal of the strategy was to optimize the current digital proposition and to test & scale new digital initiatives, while making sure that each franchise partner contributes to and benefits from the changes.

Reckitt (formerly known as RB and Reckitt Benckiser) Hygiene Home kickstarted a digital transformation to continue winning in a changing market. Reckitt initiated a phased approach to help key markets make a step up in data-driven marketing and sales activities. The objective: to unlock business value through scoped experiments and enable the market to continue the digital transformation autonomously.

Wella is a Germany-based hair care company and market leader in DACH markets, generating over $200M revenues. After jointly shaping the Digital Ecosystem vision, strategy, and 3-year plan (as described in our other case), Wella asked us to assist in kickstarting the implementation of its digital transformation.

In the fall of 2016, AH to go launched a brand-new loyalty app for consumers together with strategic partners (i.e. suppliers) and continuous support of SparkOptimus. Nearing the end of development of the 1st version of the app, AH to go wanted to create a future outlook and roadmap for the AH to go loyalty app, including functionality and the role of mobile in AH to go’s broader proposition.