Irish-owned international provider of engineering to the manufacturing and energy sector LotusWorks has deployed Google Apps Premier Edition across its workforce.
The company decided to switch almost 100 users to the web-based communication and collaboration suite to enhance the reliability of its email system for its operations in Ireland and the US.
“Our legacy system was supported here in Ireland,” explained Gary Gilgan, IT manager, LotusWorks. “We decided to look at an alternative after we experienced a serious outage incident in Ireland which affected our business operations in the US.
“Our email system failed late one evening just as our business colleagues in the US were starting their day at work. Because it was ‘out of hours’ here in Ireland we couldn’t get the necessary IT support and a day’s work was lost in our US operations.”
Preventative measures
To avoid similar problems in the future, LotusWorks looked at the alternatives available, including an off-site data-processing facility. However, these were prohibitively expensive and it chose the web-based or “cloud computing” solution provided by Google Enterprise.
Gilgan added, “We wanted a solution that could be hosted online and when we looked at the options, Google Apps for Enterprise ticked all the boxes.
“It offered us a suite of applications including email, calendar, text and voice calling and documents which increased our productivity and enhanced knowledge-sharing capabilities and collaboration within our organisation. Google runs all of its corporate operations in the cloud and a number of large international businesses already use its products, which is a very good endorsement.
“Because Google hosts the service there is no software or hardware to install or maintenance required. Updates to the products or security updates are carried out remotely by Google, often, and as needed, without any inconvenience or action required by us.”
Round-the-clock support
Gilgan said that this removes any headache for his IT team and the company also has support and assistance from the Google Enterprise team 24/7 both online and over the phone.
“Uptime is fundamental for any business,” said Robert Whiteside, head of Enterprise for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, Google.
“Google’s enterprise solutions are affordable, highly scalable and secure so they are a great option to help reduce the costs and labour of deploying, maintaining and upgrading business technology. It will also ease the burden on the IT department and enable LotusWorks to devote IT resources and time to projects which are more strategic to their business.
“These days, businesses are looking for IT services that are less expensive than local server options. They are also looking for more collaborative solutions that better address the demands of modern working culture.
“Cloud computing meets these expectations and we have more than 3,000 businesses signing up for Google Apps every day,” Whiteside concluded.
By John Kennedy
