Google G Suite was created to improve collaboration within organizations on various levels, to make it more efficient, modern, and leaner.  Google didn't just make G Suite for teams and small business, but also for large organizations and enterprises. The web-based solution can be scaled easily and allows thousands and even tens of thousands of employees to work together efficiently and effectively.

But what can G Suite offer to make a move away from the standard, familiar world of Office to a new web-based solution worthwhile? Such a move is no small endeavor when an organization has thousands of employees. Below is a collection of real-world experiences, where others share their answers to these exact questions and explain how they handled the transition.

Viessmann: Around-the-clock access to work content from any device

Viessmann GmbH took a systematic approach to the transition from Lotus Notes to G Suite, and it was a success. The move came after a systematic survey and decision-making process, whereby Viessmann also took IBM Connections Cloud and Microsoft Office 365 into consideration.

An interesting article in the online magazine LEAD digital "What makes the cloud such an attractive option" (content in German) outlines Viessmann's objectives for the transition as well as some of their experiences.  According to this, the main priority was to improve collaboration amongst employees and make it more efficient. And the transformation was clearly a success, without any major hiccups:

Since it was so easy to manage, Viessmann was able to migrate almost all of its data and applications to the cloud within six months.

Alexander Pöllmann, Smart Office and Collaboration Manager at Viessmann, says they quickly noticed another advantage:

"G Suite allows us to access work content securely from any device, anywhere, around the clock."

Nielsen: 20 percent reduction in IT support costs

With around 56,000 employees spread across more than 100 countries, the market research firm Nielsen is definitely a large enterprise. Nielsen also completed the migration to G Suite in just half a year. You can read more detailed information about the project on the Google website, where an employee says:

"By enabling employees to collaborate and comment in real time on Docs, Sheets, and Slides using any device, we’re saving time every day with G Suite. […] There’s no need to email multiple versions of documents back and forth, or be tied to a specific machine."

Another aspect that every organization has in mind when planning such a project is, of course, the financial side. The scalable nature of the cloud infrastructure pays off particularly well here: Thanks to the change, Nielsen was able to reduce both IT support costs and travel costs incurred by maintaining the previous on-site infrastructure by 20 percent.

Conrad: Consolidating numerous systems in one solution

The German online retailer Conrad Electronics has around 5000 employees in 12 countries and has been a G Suite customer since 2016. The project manager responsible spoke about the objectives behind the transition in a report in the German IT magazine Computerwoche (content in German):

"We were using a total of eleven different systems for our internet communication. One for email, another for the intranet, yet another for file storage, etc. We were able to consolidate it all into one Google system."

The official Google customer story contains more information on the transition – for example, Conrad moved all of its employees over to G Suite in just four months.

Airbus: Real transformation and not just a tool upgrade

A more recent example of a migration project of enterprise proportions is Airbus: 130,000 employees are currently making the change to G Suite. In an interesting interview with The Register, Airbus CIO Luc Hennekens provides insights into the background of the decision:

Collaboration rather than cost is the reason Airbus has given Microsoft’s old-world Office app bundle the heave ho and is migrating 130,000 staff – the entire workforce – to Google’s G Suite.

According to Hennekens, it is all about breaking down silos and artificial barriers. A long-term solution to improve collaboration was more important than short-term cost savings. And if you're going to do something like this, then it should be done properly. Quote:

"We want to force the organisation to make the change and drive a true transformation, and not just do a tool upgrade."

The Airbus executive said the following about the advantages of the Google platform over its competitors:

"It is a lot easier to achieve that with a tool that, from its conception, radically breaks with past ways of working and past concepts, rather than working with a tool (Office 365), that is a step up, but still in many ways is similar to what we’ve been using in the past."

Fossil Group: Much less overhead

Around 10,000 employees at the fashion company Fossil Group have already been using G Suite for four years now, as reported in an article by Business Insider Deutschland. Following a three-month pilot program and evaluation, they chose Google's solution over MS Office 365. Jørgen Scheuer-Larsen from Fossil spoke about the decision:

"It’s obvious that the technology level was much more advanced on the Google side, much more mature, much more edgy."

One challenge previously faced by the company was offering everyone the same versions of tools. For example, they experienced problems with incompatibility if one team was using an older version of MS Word than another. But that is now history:

G Suite only has one version, accessed from the browser, and everyone has the exact same apps.

Fossil didn't use formal training sessions for the large-scale transition to Google but instead worked with internal Google Guides as points of contact and for training.

After four years the Fossil Group now has much less overhead than before: Of the 47 MS Exchange servers used previously, just one remains for the few employees who have not yet switched to G Suite. The once 15-person email support team has now been reduced to three. This has freed up IT resources for use on new, productive projects – and now there are plans to transfer more of the company's IT infrastructure to the Google Cloud.

Start your 30-day, free G Suite trial now

These were just a few of many references for G Suite. Around 4 million organizations are already using G Suite. If your company is looking for a new, modern, and more scalable approach to office collaboration, you should consider Google's G Suite. We can help: //SEIBERT/MEDIA offers a free G Suite trial for 30 days instead of the usual two weeks.

Get in touch with us if you have any questions or want to know more. We are an official G Suite reseller and would be happy to provide advice about implementation, licensing and how to get the most out of G Suite!

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Further Information

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Can you compare Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365?