Alquería encourages +50% of its teams to work collaboratively with Google Workspace
About Alquería
Grupo Alquería is a conglomerate of +24 companies and +4,150 employees operating in Colombia in a variety of industry sectors such as: mass consumption (food and beverages), plastics, transport, and agroindustry.
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About eSource Capital
eSource Capital is a company with expertise in business consulting for cloud solutions and work transformation.
The company has achieved time savings of 40% for its employees by adopting virtual meetings using Google Meet.
Results
- 99.9% service availability for collaboration and productivity apps
- 40% time saving for employees
- 15% time reduction in reporting
- 2,000+ Google Workspace licenses
+23% saving in licensing costs
Alquería, a Colombian conglomerate of over 24 companies employing more than 4,000, decided to migrate to Google Workspace in 2016. The aim was to address major challenges, such as integrating teams in different cities and locations into a collaborative environment.
That is why it was crucial for Alquería to respond to very specific needs, including increasing the company's digital employee base to further its digitization of processes, increase collaboration and productivity in internal processes, and improve security levels to reduce information leaks.
The start of the transformation
For Alquería, it was essential to start by identifying the main obstacle to further growth. The company realized it had to break the technological barriers with cloud solutions in order to scale.
This step required dealing with the business structure and incorporating tools that did not exceed the limit of what was possible.
"The first aspect we considered for our digital transformation was increasing the digital employee base and their interactions; that’s why the model’s financial sustainability was important. We needed to do more without overspending and exceeding our allocated budget. Google Workspace was the most competitive solution in the market for us."
—Alejandro Palacino Díaz, IT Manager, AlqueríaIn the beginning, Google Workspace allowed the company to efficiently allocate licenses and resources for each employee role, without losing capabilities. It also increased the digital employee base by 30%, generating more interactions and productivity at all levels.
The foundation for growth
The migration process was supported by a project the company defined as CIMA: Connectivity from anywhere, constant and inclusive ninovation, mobility without depending on fixed equipment, and action to make dreams come true.
Alquería managed to migrate all its accounts in just 15 days as all its employees were quick to adopt the change. Its partner eSource Capital’s help and training in the use of Google Workspace tools throughout the technical process proved vital for that purpose.
Almost immediately, the teams started to exchange information using the resources ofGmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive.
"Drive has become the information hub for all our teams. The solution even gives us the confidence of knowing the information is more secure in the cloud than on the computers."
—Alejandro Palacino Díaz, IT Manager, AlqueríaSubsequently, there was a greater uptake of the advanced use of Slides, which was integrated with Forms and Looker Studio to capture, process, and present information and quickly democratize access to key business indicators.
Accelerating change
Changing times have presented Alquería with new challenges. Faced with changes in work routines as a result of Colombia's pandemic lockdown measures, the company decided to take its digital transformation a step further.
The second phase came in March 2020 and included 100% of the sales force in its digital ecosystem. Alquería added 840 accounts in just two days, supporting them in real time to deal with the contingency through intensive use of Gmail, Google Meet, and Google Chat. As a result, the company had more than 2,000 employees adopt Google Workspace.
Alejandro Palacino Díaz emphasized that the involvement of technology leaders inside the organization was pivotal in both the initial and second phases. They have been tasked with sharing their knowledge of using Google Workspace solutions to help Alquería's employees adopt them.
After migrating to Google Workspace, more than 2,400 employees now use the tools intuitively.
Democratize, collaborate, and support
For Alquería, migrating to Google Workspace has been crucial in three ways: it has democratized information and technology, increased collaboration, and improved financial sustainability.
"We made the decision to democratize technology so we could all align on usage as a company and move forward as one team. This is possible because cloud technology is intuitive and approachable. Doing something independently doesn't become a 'state secret' with Google Workspace’s tools."
—Alejandro Palacino Díaz, IT Manager, AlqueríaThe move to Google Workspace allowed Alquería to optimize its resources and expand service availability from 93% to 99.9% for collaboration and productivity apps. It also reduced the costs associated with licensing collaboration and productivity applications by 23%, and reduced reporting and presentation creation time by 15% thanks to the collaborative work between departments.
Finally, Alquería managed to reduce the need for its teams to commute to work, which was essential during the isolation months of 2020 and 2021. This means a 40% saving in commute time between offices by using Meet for virtual meetings.
Going forward, Alquería is continuing to further strengthen the collaboration and productivity of all its employees. The goal is for information in digital environments to be accessible, efficient, and transparent.
Consequently, Palacino Díaz said that the next step is to ensure its employees can adopt Google Cloud tools in their processes to further complete the company's digital environment.
Alquería also expects to soon be in a position to take a crucial step towards business scalability by migrating to cloud servers to improve its infrastructure.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About Alquería
Grupo Alquería is a conglomerate of +24 companies and +4,150 employees operating in Colombia in a variety of industry sectors such as: mass consumption (food and beverages), plastics, transport, and agroindustry.
About eSource Capital
eSource Capital is a company with expertise in business consulting for cloud solutions and work transformation.