G4S Africa is the world's leading security solutions group and the largest in Africa, operating in 29 countries across the continent and employing over 120 000 people. G4S's success has been built on its ability to provide cost-effective and innovative security solutions to its customers across all markets, giving the company more time to focus on its core activities.
With the assistance of Grove Group, G4S Africa migrated over to the Google Apps for Business platform. We spoke to Barry Doran, Chief Financial Officer for G4S Africa, on how this migration has affected their business. This is their story.
The challenge
Due to the multiple geographic locations of its businesses and the size of its workforce, G4S Africa needs to keep its communications infrastructure up and running at all times to ensure all employees remain informed and in contact. When several of the group's legacy systems began experiencing downtime in certain countries, it affected communication and productivity levels across the company. Many employees were left disconnected and unable to work effectively. The management of the communication infrastructure was proving to be a time-consuming and costly task and it became clear that G4S Africa needed to review its IT solution.
What led to your decision to move to Google Apps?
"A major challenge was that the uptime reliability of our systems was sporadic. When it went down at certain locations, it would require an engineer to sort it out."
The solution
With the aim of improving connectivity, increasing efficiency and reducing maintenance costs across the business, G4S Africa decided, after considering their options, to purchase the Google Apps platform through the help of Grove Group. They felt this decision was effective due to it being "cost-effective" and "making sense commercially," explains Doran.
Since implementing the new Google solution, G4S Africa has had to put far fewer IT hours into maintaining the system. According to Doran, it has been a relief to avoid the frustrations, costs and loss of productivity associated with the management of an unpredictable system.
How is Google Apps changing the way you manage your IT?
"With the up-time that's guaranteed by Google... it has taken the headache out of our operation."
The results
According to Doran, the new Web-based, collaboration-centric IT solution has provided G4S Africa with a range of benefits, including value for money, secure off-site storage and the ability to get new users up and running as soon as they join the company.
* With Google's online Calendar, it is easy for staff to set up and plan activities by sharing and overlaying multiple calendars within the organisation.
* Google Documents allow anyone in the company to create, share and jointly edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations in real-time, from anywhere in the world.
* Employees can access documents, spreadsheets and presentations from any device with an Internet connection and a standard browser for free.
* Staff can be productive from the office, their homes, on the road and on their mobile phones without costly or complex infrastructure.
* Google Apps makes it easy for G4S Africa to roll out new users. All a new staff member needs is an email address, and they have instant access to mail, calendar and shared documents.
* Online storage provided through Google Drive with its autosave features means that all G4S Africa employees can safely store their data and access it again when they need to, meaning that there is no need to worry about data being lost due to local hard drive failures or the power outages that hinder businesses in many African countries (including South Africa).
What was your overall experience with Grove and Google like?
"The experience with Grove and Google has been fabulous. They are very cooperative and collaborative; and we have had great feedback from our teams internally. The working relationship has been very good."
Barry adds that he "would have no hesitation in recommending a cloud-based solution through the Grove Group" to his business associates or another organisation. "The key thing to remember is that it's completely scalable, so if you have any doubts, start on a small scale and take it from there."
G4S
No. of employees: Over 120 000
Head Office: Centurion
Challenge: Communications infrastructure, multiple geographic locations, large workforce, time-consuming and costly solutions.
Solution: Google Apps for Business
Results: Cost-effective, guaranteed uptime, off-site storage, ease of use, increased communication.
''The main benefits are the cost - effectiveness, guaranteed up-time, ease with which we can roll out new users and the ability to have off-site storage. We can get new employees up and running quickly - all they need is an email address.'' - Barry Doran, Chief Financial Officer for Africa - G4S
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