Summary
What issues did the company deal with?
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Employees were not used to using modern technologies
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New management wanted to push the company to the 21st century
Which solution was chosen?
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Implement Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), especially Documents and Google Calendar
What were the results?
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The whole company philosophy was changed
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Employees started using shared documents, mobile device integration, and an enclosed social network
“I did not need a solution that would become obsolete within two years. I needed a long-term solution. That is why the transition to Google Workspace was not a question of costs but rather a move to the next century.”
Lenka Černá — CEO of Annonce
Business description
ANNONCE is one of the largest and best-known online and offline advertising publishers in the Czech Republic. It is a traditional Czech company that started to publish its printed advertisement news in 1990 and Annonce.cz ad server in 1997. Annonce is published three times a week in three versions, each differing by the main topic of the adverts. Weekly circulation is between 100 and 110 thousand copies, making it the no.1 among nationwide print advertising media.
Since its start, the online version of Annonce has gained over 300 thousand subscribers and currently reaches about 350 thousand real users per month. On average Annonce.cz publishes around 250 thousand adverts daily – only real estate offers reach around 80 thousand every day. Other most common topics are related to job offers, cars, and dating.
Annonce is a highly decentralized company with business representatives in all regions of the country. This makes traveling to meet potential new clients and working from home a necessity. There are around seventy employees, and over half of them are regularly out in the field. Their average age is around 37 years. Google Workspace is a great help both for employees in the field and for management and production.
The challenge
Employees of Annonce have started using personal Gmail accounts at work. After some time, the company has decided to create its own infrastructure consisting of an email client and FTP server. Afterward, they also started using a dedicated server with POP3 and IMAP technologies, 50 GB of storage, and a separate CRM system. Employees were thus forced to use two email accounts at once. All work files were stored on an FTP server, which could only be accessed via workstations at the office. An option to connect to the network from outside of the office was nonexistent.
“We have felt the benefits of Google Workspace on our own skin as we have been using personal Gmail accounts at work. We wanted to share this with all our Annonce employees. My goal was to teach my colleagues how to collaborate as they were not used to it before. For years we have worked strictly as individuals. The easy user interface of Google Workspace helps me enormously in this venture.”
Lenka Černá — CEO of Annonce
After two years of using a dedicated server, the infrastructure required a major change as it was inflexible and impossible to expand or upgrade. It was sufficient when employees communicated only via email, but trouble ensued whenever they wanted to work on something in a different system.
Employees were forced to use even more new system tools, and the process started to be too complicated. That was why the management started using their personal email accounts for work purposes. Personal Gmail accounts solved all of their issues but still remained outside of the company infrastructure. The definite reasons for the transition were the availability of data from any device, shared calendars, and the possibility to collaborate on and share documents within Google Documents.
“Colleagues would sometimes forget to bring files with them to a meeting with a client a presentation, for example. There was no other option but to improvise which made the meeting longer and less effective. Today the answer is clear — use Google Documents. You will have all your files with you at all times.”
Michael Matyáš — Director of print and digital products Annonce
One of the big questions for Annonce was data security, as it handles sensitive information and emphasizes its protection. The optional two-step verification, which brings Google Workspace's level of security close to that of Internet banking, has been a sufficient argument for the management of Annonce.
The solution
Management of Annonce did not want to force its employees to start using Google Workspace directly. They wanted the shift to be gradual. At the same time, it makes the employees work closer together as they are helping each other with the transition. The first ones to move to Google Workspace are always team leaders from different departments. They pass their experience further onto the team. The company will also have user training conducted by lecturers from Revolgy (previously Netmail) to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Revolgy, a company focused on implementing Google Workspace for businesses, managed the complete transition. Revolgy is one of 12 Premium SMB resellers in Europe. They have performed hundreds of implementations and provide support for tens of thousands of users.
The capabilities
The new solution brings a whole new business philosophy to Annonce. IT now uses Google Forms to evaluate the error rates of its servers. The sales department has started creating client presentations within Google Docs because it is possible to instantly edit the presentations from any devise thanks to the openness of Google Workspace. The presentations are also accessible from anywhere. The management of Annonce believes that Google can stay on top of its competition and always deliver the most advanced products. Data security is at a very high level, and constant development allows for many new options. That is why the decision to use Google Workspace was unanimous.
“For me personally the transition to Google Workspace means a comfortable sharing of documents, unified calendar and data storage. I can access my files from anywhere using any device. For instance my colleagues and I cooperate on documents from our business meetings. We collaborate on them online so within minutes we have a valuable record of our experience.”
Lenka Černá — CEO of Annonce
Annonce employees have learned to use a closed group on the social network to share not only business information but also funny moments from their work life. The IT department is currently working on a Google+ community and a company's intranet based on Google Sites so that they can leverage the synergies of Google Workspace.
“Internally we have struggled with the inefficient links between our systems. Google Workspace makes accessing the system easy — everything is unified under one identity and credentials. What is more, it works flawlessly from any mobile device.”
Michael Matyáš — Director of print and digital products Annonce
