Seven big organisations that have switched to Google Apps

For those of you who don’t know, Google Apps is the one-stop cloud solution from Google. Incorporating email, calendars, IM and video conferencing, cloud storage, and document creation and editing it provides almost everything a business needs from IT in one neat, affordable package.

If you want more information on what Google Apps is, and what it can do for you click here.

The next question people usually want to ask after knowing what Google Apps will do for them is, ‘Who is actually using Google Apps, because if they are using Google Apps then I probably should too’ We can oblige… here are seven organisations and business that you will have heard of who have ‘gone Google’.

John Lewis

John Lewis recently started rolling out Google Apps to their stores and workforce (and its supermarket chain Waitrose) and is completed in a number of weeks. Their aim? To increase collaboration between staff via the Google Hangouts video conferencing software.

National Geographic

National Geographic switched to Google Apps to allow its remote photographers to work in the field, backing up data in real time. Google products allow the remote team to communicate back to headquarters, working on documents together in real time to ensure the clarity of their stories, and that nothing is lost. Real time access to works in progress is crucial for them. Google Apps also allows all remote workers to access all their email and calendars wherever in the world they happen to be.

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

Recently the local government of Barking and Dagenham rolled out Google Chromebooks and Google Apps to their employees. They are currently saving roughly £200,000 by not deploying Windows desktops and roughly a further £200,000 due to the energy efficiency of Chromebooks. By running their specialist software in a virtualised environment they don’t have to pay for the full deployment of Windows licences.

Whirlpool

The white goods and kitchen appliance manufacturer Whirlpool moved to Google Apps to abolish geographical boundaries. Their move to ‘go Google’ is aimed at improving innovation and the efficient collaboration.

ITV

Britain’s biggest commercial public broadcaster adopted Google Apps in 2011. The company switched its default browser to the super secure Google Chrome and started using Google Calendar to schedule meetings and Google Docs to collaborate on and edit word documents, spreadsheets and presentations all in real time. ITV also uses Google Hangouts video conferencing to communicate between teams. With all this and platform agnostic software, that works across all hardware, ITV gains the freedom and flexibility that is simply unattainable with other IT solutions.

Virgin America

Virgin America made the switch to Google Apps in an effort to cut the cost of their IT bill. Moving to Google Apps and migrating to the Gmail email system cut their annual email cost by about 50% and saved them 18 terabytes (18,000 gigabytes) of data. Moving to the Google Cloud has given Virgin America the opportunity to make huge savings without compromising efficiency and security as the company grows.

UNICEF

UNICEF, as a children’s charity is part of the United Nations’ works with children and mothers in developing countries including such initiatives as providing vaccinations against easily preventable, deadly diseases and combating child trafficking. As they’re a registered charity they have access to Google Apps for free. They used Google Hangouts on Air to broadcast video conferences to talk about those world issues affecting children such as child soldiers, polio and gender-based violence. Being able to have dialog globally about these issues, easily and efficiently, is vital to their strategic work to combat child-damaging practices and further open communication in these areas.

Sources: Computing World I, Google Enterprise I II III, Google for Non Profits

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