Turner Industries reimagines traditional ways of working by moving to Google Workspace

“From day one, we saw the value of enhanced efficiency and communication with Workspace.”

—Stephen Toups, CEO, Turner Industries

Snapshot: Turner Industries is future-proofing industrial services by implementing agile communication and collaboration solutions. Since beginning its migration to Google Workspace, Turner Industries has achieved:

• $8 million reduction in licensing costs over five years

• 17,000 hours reclaimed in employee productivity per year

• 50% reduction in operational planning time from redundant paperwork

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The mission and the challenge

As a leader in the industrial services industry, Turner Industries has long relied on tried-and-tested processes to get things done. But in the face of rising costs and evolving customer expectations, the company knew it needed to modernize its legacy systems to stay ahead. To improve collaboration, enhance productivity, and reduce costs, the team began its migration from Microsoft Office to Google Workspace, a move that would modernize its operations and unlock productivity at scale.

“Our switch to Workspace started as a cost-saving initiative, but as we got further into the process, we realized that the platform’s communication and collaboration capabilities would help prepare us for the future,” says Stephen Toups, CEO at Turner Industries. By partnering with SADA to implement Google Workspace, Turner Industries is redefining what it means to collaborate in a traditional industry.

The switch to Google Workspace

With the migration to Workspace, Turner Industries faced the daunting task of moving vast amounts of data from on-premises data centers to the cloud while keeping sensitive information secure. As a company operating in a traditional industry, the team also had to overcome resistance to change and prove to employees that Workspace would be the right way forward.

To navigate these hurdles, the company turned to SADA, An Insight company and a trusted Google Cloud Premier Partner with deep expertise in Workspace migration. The SADA team developed a comprehensive migration plan that minimized disruptions to business operations and maximized productivity and cost efficiency — all while paying careful attention to change management for employees. Through thoughtful planning, ongoing training, and hands-on support, SADA helped Turner Industries successfully transition 4,800 employees to Workspace and the cloud, with plans to onboard more people as the migration continues.

“SADA brought us a clearly defined plan for change management — all we had to do was follow it,” says Amy Kling, CIO at Turner Industries. “Not only did the SADA team deliver on everything they said they would do but also they did so ahead of schedule.”

Since beginning its switch to Workspace, Turner Industries has already seen significant shifts in how people work. Google Meet keeps everyone connected, regardless of location, while Docs, Sheets, and Slides allow teams to work together on the same files, in real time or asynchronously. This ensures everyone stays up to date on changes as they happen and eliminates the need for version control. The result of this new way of working: 17,000 hours reclaimed in employee productivity per year and an $8 million reduction in licensing costs over five years.

Employees also feel empowered to take more initiative. During a large hurricane on the Gulf Coast, frontline workers created a shared Sheet to track the status of active sites. They continued to update the Sheet in real time from their devices to keep everyone informed as the situation unfolded. Practices like this have contributed to a 50% reduction in operational planning time from redundant paperwork.

“Our frontline leaders have been using the same processes for decades, so to have them adopt Google Sheets in this way was a monumental victory for us,” Toups says. “It gave us a central place for information during a critical weather event and became proof that our culture is changing.”

Looking ahead

Switching to Google Workspace is just the beginning of Turner Industries’ technological transformation. The company is deploying AppSheet to democratize development across teams, ChromeOS to streamline device management, and built-in security features in Workspace such as multi-factor authentication and access control. The team has also started migrating its data to BigQuery, helping unlock a trove of valuable insights that it never had access to before. This has opened up new opportunities for secure, data-driven decision-making. As Kling says, “We believe that the move to BigQuery will bring tremendous value to the organization. It will give us a single source of truth for our data and I’m excited to be on this journey.”

The team also looks forward to using more advanced AI capabilities in Workspace to further support employees with effective tools to do their jobs. “From day one, we saw the value of enhanced efficiency and communication with Workspace,” Toups says. “For the future, it puts us on a path to intersect with big data and AI. I don’t know how exactly this technology will evolve for us in the future, but I have a really good feeling that Google Workspace will help us get there.”