Adopting a hybrid workspace empowers efficiency and growth for bicycle leasing business

Congestion and sustainability pressures are forcing the world to think differently about transport. In Germany, JobRad GmbH created a new way to possess a bicycle via tax-deductible leasing. JobRad has helped some of Germany's biggest employers open up bike ownership to staff through their monthly payroll.

"Why should employees only have a company car and not a bicycle? That's how our idea was born," explains Rainer Brand, D&S Operation, JobRad. "We decided it must be possible to pay for the running of a bike in a similar way to a company car."

New Ownership Model Delivers Growth – and Challenges

JobRad currently has over 600 employees and works with 50,000 employer clients nationwide, including manufacturing giants BMW and Bosch, Deutsche Bahn and the federal state of Baden-Württemberg.

"Leasing is not a new concept, of course, but most people see it as a way to run a car," says Brand. "For us, an important business driver – and also a unique selling point – is that there is now a strong political vision to get people out of cars and onto bikes."

The business has grown to become extremely integrated and tech-focused. It has links with more than 6,000 retail partners and service providers. It works with leading cycling brands to explain the business model to consumers. It needs client service teams to have access to customer data wherever they choose to work.

In 2021, JobRad moved to a new head office. This was an opportunity to mark the end of its start-up phase and establish a modern workplace with the capacity and workstyles to support continued growth. Brand says it also allowed the IT team to map out a new approach to the network architecture.

"We place heavy demands on our IT infrastructure. Moving to the new building gave us an opportunity to reassess our needs and make necessary changes," he explains. "It was our big chance, and we decided to take it. We needed a unified approach to wired and wireless network technologies."

An Opportunity to Reassess and Consolidate

The Aruba engagement establishes a high-performance mobile work environment with a highly stable network core and LAN architecture. It includes AP-500 Series Access Points, 2930F Access Switches, AirWave Network Management and Aruba 7205 Mobility Controllers managed by a Mobility Conductor for a highly scalable and integrated wireless network.

The call centre is now fully running on VoIP. The head office is now an open, modern workspace featuring shared desks and remote, mobile working. It is the ideal environment to attract new talent.

"Our previous network architecture, which consisted of a mix of providers, technologies, protocols and often consumer-level equipment, was not capable of delivering this effectively," says Brand.

The move to the new office was required to meet a very tight schedule. Bechtle, a long-time Aruba partner, ensured the new infrastructure was effectively set up and configured in a laboratory environment before installation. This enabled the network to go live in a relatively short period after access to the building was available.

Aruba ClearPass and Aruba ClientMatch ensure mobile stability, roaming and a superior user experience, with added security offered by Aruba Policy Enforcement Firewalls. It means JobRad now has a consistent, seamless and secure user experience, whether staff are working at the head office, one of JobRad's other sites or from home.

"We have several locations but the new network means there is no difference between them in terms of how employees work," says Brand. "They can work as effectively in one location with a mobile phone as they can in another building on a shared desk. It's completely transparent, and you can make the switch between environments seamlessly without worrying which network segment you are connected to."

Applying Consistent Security Policy

A key element of the approach to wireless is security, with Aruba enabling the clean identification of devices, user authentication and access. "The access points have technologies such as client networking to make everything conflict-free for the user. ClearPass offers full control over what each user is allowed to do across the entire infrastructure," explains Brand.

In 2020, JobRad launched a new subsidiary, JobRad Leasing GmbH, an entity that it needs to keep separate from other divisions and the top-level holding company. An important criterion for the new IT infrastructure was the ability to map separate entities cleanly in the group's wider network. The Aruba architecture ensures no blurring between different networks.

Enabling New Connections

The bicycle leasing market continues to develop. The boom in e-bikes means average retail prices are now more than €1,000; the average price of a JobRad bicycle, which finds discounts of up to 40%, is more than €3,500.

E-bikes are seen as a gateway into connected bike networks, with individuals tapping into fitness networks and exploring the potential to utilise bike data. This presents a further opportunity for JobRad to work with new partners and create a tighter ecosystem around bike ownership.

JobRad continues to expand, both physically and financially. It is already constructing a second building on the JobRad campus and will expand the IT infrastructure accordingly.

"We are very creative as far as leasing is concerned," says Brand. "We're always open to start-ups and new ideas and we want to make the campus concept possible for other companies too. Perhaps there are offices or other spaces we can rent out, with clean implementation of aspects such as data protection and security. Aruba has enabled us to make that happen."