Google Workspace increases productivity at TOTVS to drive innovation
About TOTVS
TOTVS is the largest tech company in Brazil, with a robust portfolio of management, back office, and business performance solutions and a fintech unit, offering a suite of financial and technology solutions.
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About SantoDigital
SantoDigital provides services and solutions focused on digital transformation, infrastructure, big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
TOTVS integrated its collaboration & communication processes through Google Workspace, promoting a more productive environment inside & outside the workplace.
Results
- Increased total storage used from 285 TB to 352 TB in only six months
- Use of Chat and Google Meet by 90% of the company, reducing commuting and phone calls
- Reduced technical maintenance time in messaging and collaboration environments, with greater focus on the business
- Home office deployment for 7,000 employees in five days, without disrupting operations
Over 13,000 active accounts in Brazil and abroad
Innovation is one of the factors that made TOTVS the largest technology company in Brazil. With over 10,000 employees (or TOTVERS, as they are called internally), more than 40,000 customers, and offices in over 40 countries, a multinational is always searching for new ways to offer their customers the most advanced technology using business management, financial services and business performance solutions. In the past five years alone, the company has invested BRL 1.7 billion in research and development.
And this also happens inside the company. Innovation is present in every discussion on how to improve culture, communication, and collaboration in the workplace. In recent years, the company has been on a deep transformation journey. Moving the headquarters location in 2017 brought teams from six different units together into one building. Coupled with the adjustments inside the organization and in team routines this change brings, the entire telecommunication structure was thoroughly reviewed.
Before, TOTVS was using an on-premises email solution, while deploying a video call tool and digitizing its telephone communications. However, the team perceived that the solutions in use were not helping as expected for the business model pursued by the company: greater delivery agility and speed through collaboration and information exchange between teams located in Brazil and abroad.
The video call tool made it difficult to set up meetings, and available licenses were limited. As to email, the two main obstacles were unavailability and high traffic consumption. When reviewing a document, TOTVERS ended up creating different versions and sharing all by email, even storing duplicate files on the local server.
“The email tool was one of our main communication channels, and having the email system down for one hour was chaos. We experienced problems and unavailability, which had an impact on the company as a whole,” explains Mara Maehara, CIO of TOTVS. “Driving and implementing collaboration was key to our transformation. We decided it was time to deal with it, as it had been on the table for some time.”
Engagement from the top
After a thorough analysis performed with the company's board, the team chose Google Workspace tools to drive a new culture of collaboration. The entire process was conducted with the help of SantoDigital, a partner working side by side with TOTVS to define and drive migration, communication, and engagement strategies.
SantoDigital's team guided the company in following the methodology recommended by Google for solution deployment. From the second semester of 2018 and for eight months, the process unfolded in three stages: deployment with early adopters, that is, employees chosen to initially use and validate the tools; deployment with IT professionals; and, finally, deployment with all TOTVERS.
“The key point for migration to take place with the lowest possible impact, with no downtime and little user resistance, was following Google's methodology to the letter, which had already been validated by a number of other customers.”
—Roberto Oguma, Sales Director, SantoDigitalTOTVS also formed a commission devoted to the project, including IT, marketing, and HR professionals. This helped ensure that the methodology was successfully followed across offices in Brazil and abroad, making the necessary adjustments based on the culture of each location. Another strategy that worked really well was selecting Google Guides: employees from different teams who helped their colleagues during the transition.
To communicate and drive the use of Google tools, several engagement actions were implemented, with the support of all of TOTVS executives. Information was shared through internal communication channels, in-person and remote workshops, and a special decoration at the headquarters to spread the news. “The team was constantly guided by SantoDigital, bringing all of its experience in this type of in-person advertising with great visual impact. Being a witness to the change all over the company was very rewarding,” adds Mara.
Autonomy and collaboration for greater productivity
All of these efforts yielded excellent results, which can be seen to this very day. TOTVS has over 13,000 active Google Workspace accounts in Brazil and abroad. Instead of concentrating communication almost exclusively on email, the teams started using tools such as Google Meet and Google Chat,which speeded up and enabled interaction between professionals working from different locations.
“Google Workspace tools will allow TOTVS to bring even more units, spread across Brazil and other countries, together,” says Roberto Oguma, Sales Director at SantoDigital. Currently, 90% of the company is using Meet or Chat to communicate, which helped reduce the number of phone calls and the high costs involved in traveling and commuting to attend meetings.
“The tools we used before were not as user friendly as Chat and Google Meet. Having these solutions at hand with easy access from the same email tool was a big change, a huge step forward for us.”
—Mara Maehara, CIO, TOTVSAnother big step was the autonomy achieved by employees in managing document access. Before, they had to open a ticket and submit it to the IT team for them to provide access to file directories. Some people chose to create new file versions and send those by email, which resulted in an unnecessary use of storage space.
Using Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, TOTVERS themselves can control access to files and work directly on the documents in a collaborative way. Drive offers greater file traceability and sharing capabilities.
In addition, the high availability of the solutions and an adequate cloud storage space for both documents and emails on Gmail provide peace of mind to the IT team, which used to get many requests on these matters.
This greater autonomy and collaboration results in higher productivity for all employees, especially the IT team. “We reduced the time and effort invested in the technical maintenance of messaging and collaboration environments, being able to focus on our core business,” the CIO adds.
Innovation inside and outside the workplace
These benefits were not only secured and driven in 2020. TOTVS had already started testing home office with some teams. Then, with the social distancing required to face COVID-19, home office had to be implemented across the company.
With Google Workspace collaboration and communication tools in the cloud, the process was streamlined, as the environment can be accessed from any device, anywhere. Migrating 7,000 employees to home office took five days, with zero impact on operations.
“In five days, we managed to empty our offices without affecting operations in any area of TOTVS.”
—Mara Maehara, CIO, TOTVSThe CIO explains that remote work drove collaborative culture even more, as the tools became essential allies in this new context. In just six months, the total storage used by the company on Google Workspace went from 285 TB to 352 TB. This figure will shortly increase even more, with the migration of files that are still on the local server to Drive.
Using Meet and Chat, teams were able to stay close and keep the agile in-person methodology dynamics in the virtual environment. Document security was also maintained. With every TOTVER accessing files from home, all files are stored with company-controlled security and access.
TOTVS's innovation capability remains even in challenging times, and the company is moving forward, exploring new possibilities with Google Workspace tools. In addition to launching campaigns to reinforce its resources and benefits, the IT team helps each area identify how the solutions can solve their specific needs. Looker Studio was integrated with the tools to support a series of operational indicators, extensively used at executive meetings.
Other projects are being validated and developed, supported by SantoDigital as part of its ongoing partnership. “Our role here at SantoDigital is to study, train, and suggest initiatives that make sense and that we can validate together. What's great about TOTVS is that they're always open to this kind of innovation. In fact, to a true partnership," Oguma concludes.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About TOTVS
TOTVS is the largest tech company in Brazil, with a robust portfolio of management, back office, and business performance solutions and a fintech unit, offering a suite of financial and technology solutions.
About SantoDigital
SantoDigital provides services and solutions focused on digital transformation, infrastructure, big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.