Folha de Pernambuco invests in collaborative work to transform its newsroom’s daily routine
About Folha de Pernambuco
Founded in 1998, Folha de Pernambuco is a news outlet aiming to provide comprehensive, quality information to readers from various social segments.
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About Safetec
A Google Cloud Premier Partner in northern and northeastern Brazil, Safetec is a certified Enterprise Work Transformation expert.
By adopting Google Workspace’s solutions with support from Safetec, the company fostered collaboration among its newsroom staff and made cost savings.
Results
- Increased security for storing materials with Google Drive
- Annual cost savings
- Improved internal communication
Team productivity increased by 60%
Founded in 1998, Folha de Pernambuco is a communications company comprising three outlets: a radio station, a print newspaper, and a news portal. Headquartered in Recife (Brazil), it has around 200 employees who are increasingly facing transformations in how they work and the incorporation of technology into their daily routine.
As a result, Folha’s main challenges revolved around its employee teams and how they communicated. The company also needed to increase productivity and collaboration to keep honing its work.
Therefore, a plan was hatched for employees to stop using their email accounts, which in many cases had been created over 15 years ago, and also the on-premises model, whose settings and updates were managed internally.
“Besides the instability of our email accounts, we also wanted to solve file storage issues, particularly for photos. That’s why we started looking for alternatives and since I was already using Gmail, I knew Google Workspace could provide us with good solutions.”
—Fred Oliveira, IT Coordinator, Folha de Pernambuco.New paths with the migration process
Folha de Pernambuco’s outlook changed after migrating to Google Workspace. But for that to happen, it was essential to plan the project together with partner company Safetec, which hosted testing and group training sessions, before making the final decision to move to the platform.
Deployment began in March 2020 and took place in two stages for about three months. In the beginning, users and groups were provisioned in Google Workspace and most email accounts were migrated using PST files with the GWMMO tool.
The first stage included the migration of users from the IT department, who started using the new email accounts. In the second stage, the other employees were trained and transferred. Besides acquiring 120 licenses, the whole image file server was migrated.
“Safetec provided a method for the process based on the customer success path, which aims to identify opportunities for improvement, correct bottlenecks, and enhance department performance. And we noticed that both the support for the tools and the feedback were amazing.”
—Eduardo Alves de Lima, Customer Success Expert, Safetec.Results as proof of a positive impact
Folha de Pernambuco’s newsroom is regarded as its main internal customer. By deploying Google Workspace, all the changes soon led to positive outcomes.
The journalists, who previously had to commute to the office to write the stories, save the files in on-premises directories, and obtain approval from editors, started doing all that remotely, either from where they were covering an event or from home, during the social-distancing period recommended to fight COVID-19.
Communications between all employees became simpler, and the shared document access and real-time editing were among the most easily noticeable advantages, thanks to a collaborative culture.
“Photographers have also benefited from the platform. As photos were stored on DVDs and CDs in the past, it was harder to search for files. Drive was the ideal answer to that need. Other essential tools for making progress with work were Google Meet and Docs.”
—Fred Oliveira, IT Coordinator, Folha de Pernambuco.The tools helped to considerably increase worker productivity in the newsroom and the photography department by 60%, mostly because remote working was introduced. Currently, the newspaper’s managers can make decisions quickly, as they can easily access finished stories.
Other benefits include secure file storage and significant cost savings stemming from lower outlay on email packages, operational systems, and email hosting in a private provider.
“Our main goal was bringing digital transformation to a company with 20-plus years in the communications market. I believe we have fulfilled our role and we have seen results emerge and change the newspaper’s daily routine,” says Safetec’s Customer Success Expert.
In the future, Folha de Pernambuco expects to start using Google Workspace in other departments, such as management. It then intends to assess the usability of other Google Workspace/Google Cloud products as part of its natural quest for innovation.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About Folha de Pernambuco
Founded in 1998, Folha de Pernambuco is a news outlet aiming to provide comprehensive, quality information to readers from various social segments.
About Safetec
A Google Cloud Premier Partner in northern and northeastern Brazil, Safetec is a certified Enterprise Work Transformation expert.