Cintas may not be a household name, but if you’ve worked in an office, visited a facility, or worn a uniform in North America, chances are you’ve encountered their services. With over 1.2 million customers served weekly and more than 40,000 employees ensuring businesses stay clean, compliant, and professional, Cintas has quietly built an empire in business services. But behind this success lies a digital transformation journey that has embraced Cloud computing, AI, and data-driven decision-making.
In a recent episode of Lemongrass’s Grassroots podcast, Matt Hough, CIO of Cintas, joined Eamonn O’Neill, CTO and Co-Founder at Lemongrass, to discuss how Cintas is leveraging technology to enhance its operations, improve customer experiences, and drive business growth.
A Subscription Business at Scale
Cintas operates on a model that, as Hough describes, resembles one of the earliest large-scale subscription businesses. With a workforce visiting customer sites weekly to deliver uniforms, first aid supplies, facility services, and even fire protection, the company’s reach is vast. This scale has necessitated a robust technological foundation, enabling seamless coordination of thousands of employees and millions of service transactions.
“We need to give our people technology at their fingertips,” Hough explains. “With over 460 locations servicing 1.2 million customers, we have to deliver all that data in near real time.”
The Cloud Journey: GCP & SAP RISE
A key pillar of Cintas’s digital transformation is its Cloud strategy. While SAP remains at the heart of its business operations, the company is methodically transitioning to RISE with SAP while simultaneously taking advantage of Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The move to GCP has allowed Cintas to modernize its SAP infrastructure, unlocking performance enhancements, cost efficiencies, and access to AI and analytics capabilities.
“Our strategy has been to focus on making the core as streamlined as possible and pushing differentiation out into mobile apps,” says Hough. “That approach aligned well with our RISE journey. We started with our fire division, and over the next year, we’ll migrate more locations.”
But transformation isn’t just about migration—it’s about extracting value at every step. By shifting its SAP workloads to GCP, Cintas has not only improved performance but also freed up capital to reinvest in new innovations. “The savings from moving to GCP are funding our next generation of software and AI initiatives,” Hough shares.
Harnessing Data & AI for Business Growth
With over 40 million garments in circulation and millions of weekly transactions, Cintas generates vast amounts of data. Rather than letting that data sit idle, the company is leveraging AI to unlock new revenue streams and operational efficiencies.
“For example, we track every single piece of product we provide to customers—how long it’s been in service, repair history, depreciation value,” Hough explains. “By analyzing this data, we can better align cost structures and even predict customer needs before they realize them.”
One such use case involves weather-driven insights. If a storm is approaching, Cintas can proactively recommend and supply safety mats to prevent workplace accidents. This predictive approach not only enhances customer experience but also drives top-line growth.
The Future of SAP, AI, and a Clean Core
As Cintas progresses on its SAP RISE journey, it is also embracing SAP’s vision for a “clean core”—a strategy that minimizes customizations and allows businesses to adopt new innovations more seamlessly. “Many of us have built custom code over the years that we thought were differentiators, but they may not be today,” Hough notes. “The challenge is to transition without disrupting revenue or customer engagement.”
Beyond SAP, AI remains a major focus. Cintas is working with SAP to explore AI-driven automation in scheduling, dispatching, and compliance. It is also deploying AI models for sales intelligence, marketing, and operational efficiency. Looking ahead, the company aims to generate 30% of its code through AI-powered coding assistants by mid-year.
Lessons for Other CIOs
For CIOs contemplating their own SAP and Cloud transformation, Hough offers simple but powerful advice: start now. “If you’re an early adopter, you have more opportunity to influence where the technology goes,” he says. “The journey isn’t as hard as people think—you just have to be brave enough to take the first step.”
Cintas’s story is a testament to how an enterprise can embrace change while remaining grounded in its core business principles. By strategically leveraging Cloud, AI, and data, the company is not just upgrading its systems—it’s reimagining the future of business services.
