LINE Communications work with clients to bring about organisational change and transformation through innovative programmes based around learning and communication.
The Challenge
LINE Communications has three international offices, with headquarters based in London. The company also has offices in Sheffield and Zurich. With 170 staff spread across two countries and with sales and marketing teams and assessors frequently on the road, managing email within a highly distributed IT estate was a considerable challenge for the company.
Microsoft Exchange, our existing on-premise solution, was proving more and more problematic, explains Niyi Ademosu, IT Manager, responsible for internal infrastructure. We were experiencing frequent outages and each time this happened, the entire workforce was unable to access email causing productivity to plummet. The last time this happened the entire company lost access to email for an entire working week and there was nothing we could do.
Time spent fixing email issues was also a burden. In addition to dealing with outages, the day to day running of the system was arduous and time consuming, he adds.
The Solution
Niyi Ademosu is a personal user of GMail and championed the migration for the company. He quickly realised that Google Mail, part of Google Apps for Business, was meeting all of their email needs and offering added functionality that could help move the company forward.
Our key driver for change was reliability. After numerous outages with Exchange and with staff frequently on the road, we needed the assurance that staff can receive their email, 24/7 “ in my view Google Apps was the only option, Niyi Ademosu points out. Since the move we haven't experienced any email downtime. We no longer have to worry about staff being unable to access email and we have the assurance that, whatever happens, as long as staff have an Internet connection, their email will always be available to them.
Niyi says the move has almost completely changed his role and allows him to concentrate on projects that are driving the business forward. Fixing email issues was nearly a full-time job. Email storage limits in particular were a daily battle “ 25GB with Google Apps was a lifesaver. Since the move, I havent had a single user complain about e-mail storage, he explains.
LINE Communications made the move to Google Apps for Business based on email but Ancoris worked with the company to help them make the most of the collaboration tools. As-a-result, Google Docs and Google Sites have become an integral part of their office toolset.
Niyi says: The added functionality of Google Apps tools has seen staff become more productive as it helps them to collaborate with each other. Sharing knowledge helps them perform their roles more effectively and being able to collaborate with other offices, in real time, is a unique tool which we are making the most of. It is allowing us to progress projects quicker and speed up administrative and approval processes.
