Behind its large and diverse range of products, an equally expansive network of teams and staff works together to deliver the flaconi vision. Marketing, technology, logistics, customer service, and business strategy teams must be aligned with each other in order for flaconi’s customers to browse, order, and receive their products without a hitch. Earlier in the company’s story, each team operated with a high level of independence, often with its own preferred tools and applications. Employees were using a mixture of devices and operating systems, and for a while, it worked.

However, as flaconi enjoyed more success, matured, and grew, it realized that its heterogeneous IT environment was causing miscommunications, duplication of work, and leading to a large administrative burden. When Mac users and Windows users required different software to work on the same document, how could they collaborate smoothly? When inviting someone outside the organization to a meeting required a participant to put them on speakerphone, how could meetings be efficient?

"It’s natural to initially prioritize growth, marketing, and customer service over a cohesive digital environment," explains Sven Rosemann, Director Technology at flaconi. "But as we grew, we realized that to stay ahead of the curve, we needed to work together more seamlessly."

The company decided it would be best for its employees to have a single, integrated solution they could rely on for key office processes: meetings, file storage, and document creation. With this goal in mind, it decided on a bold transition to a cloud-based working environment. When it came to deciding which solution to go for, flaconi leaned on its strong core values. As the company strives to operate with an innovative, customer-first mentality, it looked for a solution that embodied these qualities. And as it realized the move would be a culture change, flaconi had its eye on simplicity and a single interface to make the transition a smooth one. It was a search that led flaconi to Google Workspace, and implementation partner Cloudwürdig, whose approachable, collaborative style made it stand out from other available choices.

Meetings made simple

When multiple stakeholders across departments need to sign off on a document or decision, a meeting can solve an issue in 10 minutes or waste everyone’s time. Inefficient meetings were a major challenge for flaconi. Offline, room booking was error prone and not intuitive, with meeting rooms often double-booked. Online, different teams used different tools to hold meetings, and if one participant wasn’t in the office, the meeting could "break," meaning that the tool would stop working or new participants wouldn’t be able to join.

Today, by using Google Meet and Calendar together, flaconi has solved these key challenges. Online, it doesn’t matter where someone is, whether they’re part of the company, or what device they’re using, as any invitee can join via a meeting link or by dialing in directly from their phone. Offline, rooms can be booked directly through Calendar, with clear availability slots, and the addition of Google Meet hardware to the in-house meeting rooms keeps everyone connected.

One place to store information, one place to find it

With different departments using different online storage tools, as well as a mixture of online and on-premises local storage, it was a challenge for employees to find specific documents and files. New starters struggled to know where their work should be stored, as they often needed to move files from one tool to another. It was also difficult to know which version of a file was the latest and to ensure that the most up-to-date version of a document was the one being shared. Remote workers needed to access their files via VPN, slowing down their connection due to the extra encryption and security required. On top of that, increasing the number of employees accessing files remotely led to larger loads on flaconi’s servers, raising the burden on IT infrastructure.

Now, with Drive, everything is stored in the cloud, accessible from any device, and lives in a single location. Team drives and shared drives allow employees on the same team to access the files they need instantly. Access, editing, and sharing permissions can be restricted to specific individuals, certain teams, or to flaconi employees. This helps to keep sensitive documents such as important strategy papers or sales reports available only to those who need to see them.

Collaboration in real time, regardless of device

Before Google Workspace, the same spreadsheet, text document or slideshow could have its formatting changed or corrupted by being saved and reopened in multiple formats, or viewed on multiple devices, leading to a buggy and unreliable editing process.

These problems are no longer an issue for flaconi. Accessed through a browser, the same Slides, Sheets, or Docs will look exactly the same to any viewer, regardless of each person’s device or operating system, whether they are logging in in the office or from home.

In the same way that using Meet helped to simplify meetings for employees, simplifying file creation, editing, and management has had an immediate effect on collaboration within and between teams. flaconi notes that one major advantage is that large numbers of team members can now work together in real time. Stakeholders in a meeting can view, edit, and sign off on a document much faster.

Reducing administrative and infrastructure burden

Coordinating multiple tools and environments led to a high administrative burden in the background for the infrastructure team. flaconi especially wanted to invest in tools which helped to reduce workload and create simple but scalable solutions. Google Workspace requires less administration than the previous environment, freeing up time and resources for staff to add real value by automating internal processes and putting technology to work to better enable other teams within the company. With Cloudwürdig’s support, flaconi trained up "Google Guides,", or key early adopters among employees, who are then able to help to train others within the company. As Sven Rosemann explains: "We don't need to hire multiple specialists to configure our environment; Google Workspace is so easy to use that we were able to just as easily train our existing team in a matter of hours."

Working from wherever without friction

No one could have foreseen the effects of 2020’s global pandemic on the workplace. Although planning for a lockdown had not been on the agenda, the move to Google Workspace couldn’t have been more timely for flaconi. Its technical transition was completed some months before Germany’s government recommended teleworking wherever possible, and by that time its employees were very comfortable working via Google Workspace. Now it was able to put cloud-based working to the test.

With solutions such as Meet and Drive in place, flaconi immediately transitioned its office staff to 100% remote working. Employees have been able to maintain the same workflows and routines as in the office, confident that they can rely on Google Workspace to get things done as usual. Meanwhile, customers are enjoying uninterrupted service, the same reliable site performance they expect, and more products available as the company expands its lineup. "We transitioned to Google Workspace at just the right time," believes Sven Rosemann. "We’ve seamlessly moved to a fully remote way of working, changing very little, and we’re able to keep providing the best service to our customers."

Reaching the next level of growth and innovation through cultural change

So what’s next for flaconi? Its first priority is to keep helping its employees get the most out of Google Workspace to make their individual roles easier and their work more innovative. In a busy company, training is often neglected as higher priority issues come up. Today, staff are using the new tools, but not all of them are aware of which workflows help them to carry out their tasks in the fastest and most effective way. The company’s next goal is to enable more automation when it comes to administrative tasks: whatever can be automated, should be automated, freeing up staff time for more value-add activities. Finally, flaconi is looking to identify new or overlooked challenge areas across the company where an innovative solution could save time and energy.

flaconi is also working with Google Workspace to find new ways to respond to the unique challenges of the retail space, where sales like Black Friday can cause much higher demand spikes than usual. Together, they’re testing a pilot scheme using Chromeboxes and Chrome OS to enable fast scaling up of warehouse workstations in response to such a peak. While flaconi’s technical transition took just three months, its commitment to continued improvement shows no sign of stopping.