From manual to automated: Grupo Bimbo embraces Microsoft Power Platform

With a vision to nourish a better world with its baked goods, Grupo Bimbo created a Center of Excellence, inviting 21,000 employees to use the latest technology to create apps to reduce their busywork and promote higher-level consumer experiences.

Grupo Bimbo equipped its associates with Microsoft Power Platform for its intuitive low-code, graphical AI accelerator and its ability to allow everyone—company-wide—to better understand and transform their data through automation.

To date, employees have created 7,000 power apps; 18,000 processes; and 650 agents, helping them automate low-value tasks and saving the company tens of millions annually in traditional development efforts and operational efficiencies.

The mission of Grupo Bimbo, the largest global baker, is to nourish a better world. This bold brand statement reflects the company’s commitment to its craft and purpose, along with its dedication to providing employees with the tools and resources they need to produce their best work. Forbes and Statista recently awarded Grupo Bimbo as one of the World’s Best Employers 2024, highlighting the company’s priority of helping its associates thrive.

This commitment was recently demonstrated when Grupo Bimbo’s leadership approved the establishment of its first-ever technology Center of Excellence (CoE). The CoE empowers associates to envision and build their own automated apps, reducing the manual online busywork that keeps them from doing what they love and to continue delivering exceptional consumer experiences.

The technology has been incredibly easy to learn, and we’ve seen great engagement from our associates. With Power Platform, even people from non-technical backgrounds, like those in bakeries and accounting, have been able to use it effectively.

Carlos Diaz, Global Director, Intelligent Automation & Digitalization, Grupo Bimbo

How Power Platform became the innovation accelerator

As part of its CoE launch, Grupo Bimbo invited 21,000 of its 152,000 associates globally to use Microsoft Power Platform for its intuitive low-code graphical AI accelerator. It saw the advantages of everyone in the company understanding and managing their data in a way that enabled them to transform its use through automation. The Power Platform solutions used by Grupo Bimbo associates include Microsoft Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Pages, and Microsoft Copilot Studio. The company also migrated to the Azure AI cloud, providing scalability, security, and rapid time to market for apps.

“The technology has been incredibly easy to learn, and we’ve seen great engagement from our associates,” says Carlos Diaz, Intelligent Automation & Digitalization Global Director at Grupo Bimbo. “With Power Platform, even people from non-technical backgrounds, like those in bakeries and accounting, have been able to use it effectively.”

“We were blown away,” says Antonio Parra, Global VP, Business Technology at Grupo Bimbo. “Citizen developers were using these tools without any guidance needed from data scientists or professional developers.”

The scalability of Power Platform has enabled Grupo Bimbo to adapt and innovate to changing consumer and business needs more quickly than we ever imagined. We are replicating many of these apps across our markets because they’re creating impressive, documented workstream efficiencies.

Berenice N. Franco Garcia, Delivery Manager, Intelligent Automation, Grupo Bimbo

Apps making a company-wide difference today

Grupo Bimbo offered myriad support and training options for Power Platform through its CoE, ensuring citizen developers could achieve the scale and success of their app development. These resources included product workshops, best practices sharing, biweekly app reviews, hackathons, and architecture reviews with Grupo Bimbo’s IT, security, and compliance departments.

In just three years, thousands of Grupo Bimbo citizen developers have created apps that are changing the way the company does business. To illustrate the tangible benefits of Power Platform, an employee created an app called BIDA, a digital HR assistant that supports wide-ranging needs across unionized workers, transportation, and sales teams. Another citizen developer created a finance app that has streamlined investment approvals from weeks to just a few hours, resulting in significant cost savings and increased productivity.

“The scalability of Power Platform has enabled Grupo Bimbo to adapt and innovate to changing consumer and business needs more quickly than we ever imagined,” says Berenice N. Franco Garcia, Delivery Manager, Intelligent Automation at Grupo Bimbo. “We are replicating many of these apps across our markets because they’re creating impressive, documented workstream efficiencies.”

In the era of AI, companies must decide whether to embrace it or not. We’ve learned quickly that when we empower our people with Microsoft Power Platform, they create efficiency and productivity apps that improve how we nourish a better world.

Antonio Parra, Global VP, Business Technology, Grupo Bimbo

A brighter future with AI for Grupo Bimbo

The impact of these apps has been profound for Grupo Bimbo. To date, employees have created 7,000 power apps; 18,000 processes; and 650 agents, helping them automate low-value tasks and saving the company tens of millions annually in traditional development efforts and operational efficiencies.

“In the era of AI,” reflects Parra, “companies must decide whether to embrace it or not. We’ve learned quickly that when we empower our people with Microsoft Power Platform, they create efficiency and productivity apps that improve how we nourish a better world.”

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