Supporting around 350 independent shareholder companies across some 1,500 retail and specialist trade locations means balancing two priorities: providing technology at scale while preserving the entrepreneurial independence that has defined hagebau for more than 60 years. This is the daily reality of hagebau IT, the central IT service provider for one of Europe’s leading cooperative groups in the building materials and DIY sector, with operations across seven European countries.

Balancing enterprise scale with franchise independence

“Our role is to provide independent shareholder companies with the best possible IT service,” says Anna Wüstenberg, Cloud Services Sales Lead at hagebau IT. “They’re free to make their own choices, so we have to prove that we offer the best value.”

For more than a decade, Citrix has helped hagebau IT deliver a secure, standardized digital foundation that reduces costs, simplifies operations, strengthens security, and gives independent shareholder companies access to enterprise-grade services.

Today, 80% of hagebau shareholders use services provided by hagebau IT, while more than 9,000 users rely on digital services powered by Citrix to support retail operations across Europe.

“Retail never stands still,” Wüstenberg adds. “Because everything is changing, cybersecurity needs, regulatory aspects, and a shortage of skilled labor, we need scalable and unified solutions to support everyone. That is where Citrix comes into play.”

Person walking through the entrance gates of a large home improvement hardware store.
$
25000

Saving for a single company

4

Years device lifecycle extension

4500

UniconOS device rollout planned

Reducing costs and extending hardware lifecycles

To counter rising hardware costs, hagebau IT modernized endpoint management without forcing franchisees into expensive PC refresh programs.

Using Citrix UniconOS, Citrix’s secure, immutable endpoint operating system, franchisees can transform existing PCs and low-cost hardware into secure, centrally managed terminals. This extends device lifecycles up to four years, reduces management complexity, and eliminates local administration while protecting sensitive data within the central data center.

IT replaced inconsistent, local Windows environments with standardized endpoints to deliver a predictable, secure user experience. With 1,450 Citrix UniconOS endpoints deployed, and up to 3,000 more planned, the initiative significantly lowers operational costs network-wide. One independent shareholder company with more than 500 Citrix DaaS users has already migrated around two-thirds of its workstations to UniconOS.

“By eliminating maintenance fees for the previously deployed endpoints alone, this one company is saving approximately €21,000 ($25,000) per year,” explains Wüstenberg. “For our wider community of independent shareholder companies, this demonstrates that modernizing endpoint devices not only simplifies IT operations but also delivers measurable business value.”

Wüstenberg adds, “With UniconOS, we can further enhance our overall security posture, It allows us to provide standardized, state-of-the-art security features and keep the operational attack surface as small as possible.”

By eliminating maintenance fees for the previously deployed endpoints alone, this one company is saving approximately $25,000 per year, with UniconOS, we can further enhance our overall security posture, it allows us to provide franchisees with standardized, state-of-the-art security features and keep the operational attack surface as small as possible.”
- Anna Wüstenberg, Cloud Services Sales Lead at hagebau IT

Building a cloud workspace tailored for autonomy

Delivering IT services across hundreds of businesses required hagebau IT to offer a service individual companies would actively choose over traditional mandatory corporate deployments.

Instead of positioning the service as a Citrix deployment hagebau IT provides the hagebau Cloud, a complete managed workspace, powered by Citrix DaaS Cloud. Operating on ISO-certified infrastructure, it offers secure access to critical applications and retail operations (including trade desks and Click & Collect) through a flexible self-service ordering portal. Local teams no longer need to manage underlying tech, allowing store staff to focus entirely on customers.

Because participation is voluntary, adoption directly measures the platform's value; today, over half of all independent shareholder companies choose to standardize on it. The managed environment gives store owners enterprise security, expert support, and lower costs without requiring in-house IT teams.

“We don’t have to ‘sell’ them the hagebau Cloud,” says Ralph Radigk, Department Head at hagebau IT. “They can feel the benefit. Working with Central IT means they’re working with the experts, the cost is lower, and management headaches are removed.”

Operational visibility improves device and application performance

Maintaining application performance across hundreds of independent stores is critical to both employee productivity and customer experience.

Using Citrix Director and Citrix Experience Insights, formerly known as uberAgent, hagebau IT maintains deep visibility across its environment and can proactively identify bottlenecks across store networks, ERP systems, and infrastructure before sales floor operations are disrupted.

“At this stage, we’re using Experience Insights on the terminal servers,” says Markus Lehmann, System Administrator at hagebau IT. “This generates the data to help categorize issues and analyze the problem. We can then isolate the source of the problem and determine where to focus troubleshooting.”

This visibility helps hagebau IT rapidly identify the root cause of performance issues, reducing disruption to employees and helping maintain a consistent customer experience across the retail network.

Driving hagebau’s retail future

As hagebau continues to evolve to meet the demands of modern retail, the central IT team remains focused on improving security, efficiency, and the overall user experience.

The Citrix Universal license provides a unified framework that simplifies growth, accelerates onboarding, and gives hagebau IT access to the latest Citrix innovations. Future priorities include evaluating next-generation authentication methods, enhancing centralized identity management, and further streamlining user administration.

Growing adoption of UniconOS has also sparked interest in expanding the concept beyond traditional store environments, with independent shareholder companies already exploring additional use cases for secure, centrally managed endpoints.

With Citrix, hagebau has created a model that combines the agility of independent businesses with the security, scale, and expertise of a large enterprise, allowing store owners to focus less on technology and more on serving customers and growing their businesses.

“Together with Citrix DaaS and the UniconOS solution, we’re able to make the lives of our shareholder companies so much better,” reflects Radigk. “Citrix is the foundation of our digital world.”

Together with Citrix DaaS and the UniconOS solution, we’re able to make the lives of our shareholder companies so much better, Citrix is the foundation of our digital world.”
- Ralph Radigk, Department Head at hagebau IT.

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