Google Data » Laura Clowes https://googledata.org Everything Google: News, Products, Services, Content, Culture Thu, 19 Mar 2015 12:00:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.7.5 BBH fosters international collaboration with the help of Google Apps https://googledata.org/google-apps/bbh-fosters-international-collaboration-with-the-help-of-google-apps/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bbh-fosters-international-collaboration-with-the-help-of-google-apps https://googledata.org/google-apps/bbh-fosters-international-collaboration-with-the-help-of-google-apps/#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:39:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=ff815d3a0a592d031755b6fe161428b9 Posted by Ian Dobb, Interim Global CIO at BBH

Editors note:Today’s guest blogger is Ian Dobb, Interim Global CIO at the renowned advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH). Ian led the implementation of Google Apps for Business across five different countries for BBH’s 1,000-strong workforce. Ian Dobb is co-founder of Ionico. He was brought in to BBH to lead its IT change programme.

At BBH, collaboration is the cornerstone of developing award-winning advertising campaigns. As BBH expands its global coverage, staff are increasingly required to work on projects that have team members in multiple countries. Our international workforce of creative thinkers wants to operate without boundaries and not be held back by clunky email systems and restrictive mailboxes. The previous email system, Lotus Notes, did not live up to the demands of this modern and vibrant workforce.

With the help of Google Apps deployment expert and partner Appsbroker, we implemented Google Apps throughout the organisation across 1,000 staff, a move that completely transformed the way our teams now work together and share ideas.

In addition to email and calendar, many employees now use Google Talk to chat with each other, and they hold multi-person video chats through the Hangouts feature in Google+. For instance, the global executive team, including the Group CEO, recently held a meeting via a Google Hangout. This spanned multiple time zones and three continents. Cutting back on using a third party video conferencing service and associated data comms circuits will save BBH approximately £100,000 a year.

Google Apps also proved its worth as a mobile working and business contingency tool. Last winter BBH employees in London arrived to work to discover the basement was filled 5 metres deep with water due to a broken sprinkler valve, leaving the main building without power, where 450 people work. Google Apps was invaluable in keeping staff up and running. With the help of Gmail, Google Chat, Hangouts and Docs, work continued with minimal disruption while staff worked from home or from local cafes.

With the help of Appsbroker, we’re now building a custom app on Google App Engine to help feed creative thought at BBH. The app will help teams search and browse the vast BBH database of ideas and inspiration, making sure nothing is forgotten and lost in an archive file. It’s an exciting prospect for a business where intellectual property is the key currency.

With so many benefits and some exciting future prospects, we are confident that Google Apps and its constantly expanding range of collaborative features will aid the creative process for BBH staff by making it simpler for them to share ideas, streamlining processes for fast-paced teamwork, and giving clients a more responsive, dynamic service.

]]> https://googledata.org/google-apps/bbh-fosters-international-collaboration-with-the-help-of-google-apps/feed/ 0 Dutch businesses are going Google https://googledata.org/google-apps/dutch-businesses-are-going-google/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dutch-businesses-are-going-google https://googledata.org/google-apps/dutch-businesses-are-going-google/#comments Wed, 11 Jul 2012 06:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=bc0c2dbb7f43efc9c72745eba880bd9c Posted by Jasper Maters, Google Apps Lead, Netherlands

Many Dutch businesses are beginning to go Google, joining the 10 top universities in the Netherlands that announced their move to Google Apps for Education last month. These businesses have transitioned to Google Apps for Business because the intuitive applications in Google Apps facilitate seamless communication and help employees work better together. Some of these businesses have been recently sharing the advantages they’ve seen since going Google.


Seamless communication
Ahold, the biggest food retailer in the Netherlands with supermarkets in Europe and the United States, has 55,000 employees using Google Apps for Business. Ahold made the decision to move to Google Apps for cost savings and to provide its workforce with a single web-based platform for communication and collaboration. Thanks to Google's mobile device management solutions, employees can access their information and work together from any location - on their work computer, home computer or mobile device.

De Rijke Group, a logistics service provider, chose Google Apps for its ability to improve online collaboration and communication. By using Google Talk and Google+ Hangouts, they’re able to share information faster with colleagues in international branches, rather than relying on email and in-person meetings.

Wegener Media, the largest Dutch publisher of local and regional media, recently switched 4,500 employees to Google Apps for Business. Their migration fits well with their transformation from traditional publisher to a media company that delivers digital content. In the news sector, minutes -- rather than hours -- can make a difference and Google Apps enable staff to access their e-mail and calendar, use Google Talk to consult colleagues and simultaneously work on the same document, regardless of time or place.

Intuitive applications
Beeld en Geluid, the Dutch Institute of Sound and Vision, transitioned to Google Apps for Business so their employees would be able to work together anywhere. Using Google Docs, everyone has easy access to the latest version of documents that they are working on within the projects that Beeld en Geluid is carrying out. By having employees create Google+ profiles, they were able to quickly and easily create a company-wide "Who's Who". As employees can add a description of their responsabilities, Google+ allows employees to easily find the people they need to get in touch with and to share valuable insights.

Deli XL, a total supplier for the food service market, found that many employees already worked with Google products such as Gmail and Google Docs, so they were able to transition employees quickly and seamlessly. Deli XL also found a higher level of self-reliance among employees using Google Apps thanks to Google’s online support resources. The introduction of Google Apps and the implementation of Identity Management tools reduced calls to the Deli XL tech support by 25%.

We have a large variety of Dutch businesses adopting Google Apps every day. What unites them all is their desire to help employees work better together. As the pressure to remain competitive and forward-thinking increases, Google Apps is helping businesses across the Netherlands cut costs while providing employees with cutting edge technology.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-apps/dutch-businesses-are-going-google/feed/ 0 10 top Dutch universities adopt Google Apps for Education https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/10-top-dutch-universities-adopt-google-apps-for-education/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=10-top-dutch-universities-adopt-google-apps-for-education https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/10-top-dutch-universities-adopt-google-apps-for-education/#comments Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:11:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=6d1058848819a6224a71aeb48975ffb3 Posted by Grainne Phelan, Google Apps for Education Team

The sun was shining in Amsterdam and the tulips were in blossom today as 10 top universities in the Netherlands came together to announce a group migration to Google Apps for Education. This group movement, which was negotiated with the help of SURF, the Dutch higher education and research partnership for ICT-driven innovation, represents the second example of a national “wave” of universities making the transition to cloud computing together.

This group of Dutch universities join a community of schools and universities across the world who have adopted Google Apps for Education to help stay ahead of the curve in the education sector. 66 of the top 100 universities in the United States have already adopted Google Apps, and other top institutions across Europe, including the University of Warsaw and University of Sapienza in Rome, have recently transitioned to Google Apps for Education.

The universities that have gone Google today are: Open University; University of Groningen; University of Amsterdam; Utrecht University; Tilburg University; University of Twente; Delft University of Technology; Avans; HZ University of Applied Sciences; and NHL. The educational research organization TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association) also announced their migration today.



The University of Tilburg previously used Microsoft’s cloud solution, and transitioned to Google Apps for Education for staff and students at the beginning of June. Their IT director, Corno Vromans, is feeling positive:
“With the transition to Google Apps, the whole academic community, students and staff, have a new, modern working environment. With Google Apps, regardless of time and place, users can access their files and they can share and collaborate simultaneously. We are very interested in innovation and collaboration, so with Google Apps we are ready for the future."
Congratulations to the all the Dutch universities as they embark on their new journey with Google, and we look forward to celebrating the next wave of universities to join the club.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/10-top-dutch-universities-adopt-google-apps-for-education/feed/ 0 Johnston Press set to transform its business, with a little help from Google Apps https://googledata.org/uncategorized/johnston-press-set-to-transform-its-business-with-a-little-help-from-google-apps/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=johnston-press-set-to-transform-its-business-with-a-little-help-from-google-apps https://googledata.org/uncategorized/johnston-press-set-to-transform-its-business-with-a-little-help-from-google-apps/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:48:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=ede507b1894e30f7eedd729aefe87a3c Posted by Ashley Highfield, CEO, Johnston Press

Editors note: Johnston Press, one of the UK’s leading local newspaper publishers, has just announced a bold plan to transform its sales operations. Today’s guest blogger, CEO Ashley Highfield, has been discussing what’s in store.

Johnston Press is a major publisher of quality local newspapers and local Internet sites in the UK. It owns 230 local newspapers - most of which hold the number one position in their respective markets across the UK and Ireland. At JP we base our publishing philosophy on local service to local communities and we pride ourselves in delivering unique content across a variety of channels, always with the view that “content is king”.

Today, we’ve announced that Johnston Press is embarking on a new plan to transform the advertising sales operation - introducing new solutions and ways of working.

One of the major pillars of this plan is Google Apps for Business - which will be adopted by our employees as their core email system, allowing them to work together in new ways. Google Apps will allow our employees to access their information at any time, from anywhere and will enable them to work more efficiently as a team, no matter where they are.

We will also equip our 1,500-strong sales team with the Salesforce.com customer relationship management system (CRM), which will be integrated with Google Apps for Business. More than 800 non-office-based sales staff will be given iPads to allow them to work remotely and stay in touch when on the road - significantly improving their sales effectiveness at customers’ premises.

This initiative will help drive innovation by making it incredibly easy for JP’s sales executives to communicate, collaborate, and share business information. I see the move as part of the creation of a new social enterprise that places our regional newspapers at the hearts of their communities.
]]> https://googledata.org/uncategorized/johnston-press-set-to-transform-its-business-with-a-little-help-from-google-apps/feed/ 0 Three Months On – Trinity Mirror’s journey so far https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/three-months-on-trinity-mirrors-journey-so-far/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=three-months-on-trinity-mirrors-journey-so-far https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/three-months-on-trinity-mirrors-journey-so-far/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:42:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=72a452d6945a0a8509c612eda4f8cde6 Posted by Steve Walker, IT Director and Google Apps Product Manager at Trinity Mirror.

Editors note: Today’s guest blogger is Steve Walker, IT Director and Google Apps Product Manager at Trinity Mirror. In November Trinity Mirror, one of the UK’s largest media brands, announced its move to Google Apps for Business. Three months on Steve updates us on how the migration has gone so far - and what they’ve learned along the way.

In my last blog in November, I described how Trinity Mirror made the decision to move all its staff to Google Apps for Business. At the time we were part way through our migration and were aiming to complete the move by the end of November. Well, the good news is that we not only migrated all 5,200 email users to Google Apps but completed the project two weeks ahead of schedule.

The project was one of the biggest we’ve undertaken in Trinity Mirror. Previous business transformation projects targeted specific user groups such as Advertising, Editorial or Production; this project touched everyone with an email account, including the CEO, Executive Directors and all our Senior Management Team. I think everyone in the group will agree that the transition from our Lotus Notes / Exchange platforms to Gmail was a huge success and, looking back, I would put that down to a few specific initiatives that we took:

1) We involved our staff by recruiting over 300 "Google Guides". Their support during the migration process was invaluable, they were our Google evangelists and provided on-the-floor support on the business switchover days. This is a photo of some of the Google Guides in action.

2) No one likes to work across two mail and calendaring systems so we made sure we kept co-existence of Gmail and Notes to a minimum.

3) We took the decision not to migrate legacy email into Gmail because users loved the idea of being able to start fresh in a new email system. We’ve retained their old Notes mailboxes online as well as allowing access to local mail archives.

4) We made sure to provide clear, positive information and support for all staff on what was happening and when. We offered one-to-one and classroom-based training for execs and their admins (many of whom manage multiple calendars for their managers) which worked well.

5) We made good use of our deployment partner. The involvement of a partner (in our case Cloudreach) meant that technical issues could be addressed quickly and additional resource and support could be brought in to supplement the project team as and when required.

Having deployed Gmail with its integrated chat - Google Talk and Google Calendar, the Trinity Mirror project team is now re-grouping as we turn our attention to Google Docs, Sites and app development. I look forward to bringing you news on how we’re doing as we enter this exciting second phase of our programme.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/three-months-on-trinity-mirrors-journey-so-far/feed/ 0 Leroy Merlin Spain moves to the cloud https://googledata.org/google-apps/leroy-merlin-spain-moves-to-the-cloud/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=leroy-merlin-spain-moves-to-the-cloud https://googledata.org/google-apps/leroy-merlin-spain-moves-to-the-cloud/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:22:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=1192c0808d0efc82e6a46c69b03428bc Posted by Luis Herrero, CIO, Leroy Merlin Spain

Editors note: Today we are happy to announce that the Spanish Leroy Merlin stores are moving to Google Apps for Business. Our guest blogger, Luis Herrero, CIO at Leroy Merlin Spain, tells us about the move.

Leroy Merlin Spain employees over 8,000 people in 50 stores throughout the country. Our large retail spaces provide self service and sales assisted services across four areas - DIY, building, gardening, and decoration. We’re the leading chain in this sector in Spain offering products, services and solutions to over 27 million customers.

Earlier this year we identified the need to modernize our IT systems, and we were seeking a system that would allow the business to become more efficient. We wanted a unified technology solution that is easy to use and would enable our teams across multiple stores to communicate and collaborate together.

After considering various options in the market, we decided to implement Google’s technology solutions for business. The primary reasons for choosing Google Apps were the speed, simplicity, ease of implementation and the quality of the service offered, together with Google’s wide experience with many other clients.

The adoption of Google Apps for Business is part of our strategy to position our business as a dynamic and innovative company, able to merge the business with one of the most advanced technologies in the market. We see our move as an opportunity for our employees to have powerful and easy collaboration and communication tools, and we look forward to seeing what we can achieve with these tools as we complete the roll out.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-apps/leroy-merlin-spain-moves-to-the-cloud/feed/ 0 BBVA banks on Google Apps https://googledata.org/uncategorized/bbva-banks-on-google-apps/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bbva-banks-on-google-apps https://googledata.org/uncategorized/bbva-banks-on-google-apps/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:14:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=60c54738dd9a36a390b090e120fb2f30 Posted by José Olalla, CIO at BBVA

Editors note: Today, our guest blogger is José Olalla (@PepeOlalla), CIO at BBVA. BBVA is one of the largest financial institutions in the world who today have announced they are adopting Google Apps for Business to increase productivity and drive innovation.

BBVA is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in Spain in 1857. We now have over 110,000 employees in more than 30 countries across the world.

At BBVA we see technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage, and staying at the forefront of technology and business practices is key to our success. Today we’ve announced that we’re migrating our business to Google Apps to increase efficiency and to help our teams to collaborate more easily, regardless of location.

We were looking for a technology that would transform our business operations - not just make our workers more efficient. Integrating the Google Apps for Business suite with our own tools will allow us to introduce a new way of working where employees have access to all the information they need with just one click, no matter where they are or what kind of device they use, and can reap the benefits of using advanced collaboration tools.

We will migrate our old email systems to the cloud with Gmail. Google Talk, Google Sites and Google Docs will allow our teams to communicate and share ideas more easily - working in a way that they have never experienced before.

With Google Docs, for example, we’re excited about the real-time collaboration benefits - and we expect to increase productivity by removing the need to constantly update different versions of a document. We are developing our new global intranet (we call it High Performance Desktop) taking advantage of Google’s collaboration tools, changing it from a corporate communications and process management site to a place where all employees will be able to share, contribute and manage knowledge globally.

The roll-out of Google Apps will be staggered, with more than 35,000 BBVA workers in Spain initially using the Google Apps productivity tools. By the end of 2012 we expect to have migrated 110,000 employees across our global network.
]]> https://googledata.org/uncategorized/bbva-banks-on-google-apps/feed/ 0 Collaboration at work: Global pharmaceutical company IPSEN is going Google https://googledata.org/google-apps/collaboration-at-work-global-pharmaceutical-company-ipsen-is-going-google/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=collaboration-at-work-global-pharmaceutical-company-ipsen-is-going-google https://googledata.org/google-apps/collaboration-at-work-global-pharmaceutical-company-ipsen-is-going-google/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:11:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=15fb4d508bb11b67122a390b7b771f53 Posted by Franck Hémont, IPSEN

Editors note: Today’s guest blogger is Franck Hémont, Group Informatics Engineering & Development Director at Ipsen, who is leading the company’s project to deploy Google Apps. Ipsen (Euronext: IPN, ADR: IPSEY), is a global specialty-driven pharmaceutical company.
See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

IPSEN is a truly global company, with over 4,500 employees spread across almost 50 countries. We work collaboratively across borders and teams, and with a recently implemented restructure it has become even more important to allow the organisation to work together seamlessly.

It was these challenges we had in mind when we evaluated our messaging and collaboration tools earlier this year. When we met with Google, we were looking for a secure, efficient and innovative solution that would allow the IT organization to focus primarily on value creation and the business to more effectively work together.

We’ve been gradually migrating to Google Apps for Business since September this year, after a successful six-month pilot phase. It involved 180 users spread across divisions such as R&D, Purchasing, HR, Manufacturing and across numerous locations in Spain, China, France, United States and United Kingdom. The pilot has allowed us to evaluate how the solution will work in our organization, and how it will bring value to the company.

Revevol, a Google Apps implementation partner, assisted us for the deployment, both for the technical integration and change management.

We’ve been impressed by the sophistication of cloud computing and by the additional functionality Google Apps will bring to our business. The ability to collaborate within a 100% web environment will be invaluable, especially for our researchers spread over distant sites in France and the U.S.

With Google Apps, our employees will be able to access their working environment from anywhere, at any time and from any device, bringing major organizational benefits and allowing our teams to work more effectively together.
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