kfzteile24: Reducing costs and boosting productivity with Google Workspace
kfzteile24 has blazed a trail in the automotive sector by adopting cloud technologies to meet customers’ needs, moving over to Google Workspace has significantly improved its operational efficiency.
kfzteile24 is an automotive business specializing in spare parts and accessories. It grew from an eBay power seller to become one of Germany’s largest online retailers in this sector, with more than 1.9 million customers.
kfzteile24 has blazed a trail in the automotive sector by adopting cloud technologies to meet customers’ needs, moving over to Google Workspace has significantly improved its operational efficiency.
Google Workspace Results
Migrates 720 accounts in just two months.
• Saves up to 20 hours of work per week on infrastructure maintenance
• Replaces on-premises infrastructure with €14k cost saving per month
• Delivers staff training remotely during the coronavirus pandemic
• Enables seamless collaboration between remote workers
• Shifts around 80% of new productivity to Google Workspace
“We were keen to reduce our costs and improve our security, while employing a platform that’s easy to use and administrate. Google Workspace fit the bill perfectly.” - Anil Can Baykal, Chief Technology Officer, kfzteile24
We live in a rapidly changing world. Developments in technology mean businesses must stay nimble to meet shifting habits and demands. Recent years have seen consumers across the world turn to online sales channels in increasing numbers. Germany, in particular, has seen a 28% increase in online shopping since COVID-19, compared to a European average of 13%, according to a 2020 McKinsey survey. And the trend seems likely to continue, with 72% of first-time digital shoppers in the country reporting that they will continue buying online as the pandemic subsides.
The global automotive industry has been somewhat reluctant to make the digital leap, but Berlin-based kfzteile24 has led the market in this area since its inception in 2001. Embracing the benefits technology has to offer, the company has moved with the changing times to meet its customers’ needs, whether that’s supplying consumers, garages and mechanics, or larger business clients. As part of its latest evolution, kfzteile24 has been undergoing an internal transformation to expand its capacity and operational efficiency. When it came to improving internal processes, kfzteile24 turned to Google Workspace.
"We were keen to reduce our costs and improve our security," says Anil Can Baykal, Chief Technology Officer, kfzteile24, "while employing a platform that’s easy to use and administrate. Google Workspace fits the bill perfectly."
Migrating user access to Google Workspace
One of the key innovations kfzteile24 has implemented is to move its user access for productivity and collaboration solutions from an on-premises infrastructure to Google Workspace, saving around €14,000 per month in maintenance costs. kfzteile24’s main goal was to migrate its email and calendar services to Gmail and Google Calendar. Baykal and his team were pleasantly surprised at how quickly the migration was completed, with a total of 720 internal and external accounts moved across in just two months. Mike Treschewski, Head of IT, Kfzteile24, estimates that the company is now saving around 15 to 20 hours of work per week as a result. He adds: "Migrating to Google Workspace means that we no longer have to worry about providing space for, and maintaining, our servers. It’s also freeing up time for other projects. That means our admins our now able to experiment with other Google products and features, including two-step authentication and single sign on."
kfzteile24 had some assistance with its Google Workspace project, teaming up with Google Cloud Premier Partner Cloudwürdig to make sure the migration process was as painless as possible. Cloudwürdig helped to resolve any questions that the team had. The majority of kfzteile24’s on-premises hardware has now been removed, although a small proportion remains to facilitate storage and access for legacy files that are still being migrated.
Training staff remotely with Google Drive and Google Meet
“With projects this size we usually send our experts into the company. Thanks to Google Meet, we were easily able to deliver our training remotely.” - Patrick Thomas, Head of PMO Collaboration, Cloudwürdig
kfzteile24 and Cloudwürdig conducted the migration process almost entirely remotely, due to the unusual circumstances of the Coronavirus pandemic. Experts from the Google Cloud Premier Partner worked closely with kfzteile24’s technical team, developing a strategy for training kfzteile24’s 35 staff on how to use the new solutions available to them. This resulted in a four-hour briefing session for each member of staff, delivered using Google Meet. Cloudwürdig also produced a number of bespoke videos, made available on Google Drive, to guide members of staff in the future. Cloudwürdig also trained 25 of kfzteile24 staff as Google Guides, equipping them with advanced knowledge to further aid their colleagues.
About the move Patrick Thomas, Head of PMO Collaboration Cloudwürdig said: "With projects this size we usually send our experts into the company. Thanks to Google Meet, we were easily able to deliver our training remotely."
Improving collaboration with Google Docs, Sheets and Slides
Having trained staff on how to use Google Workspace, Baykal estimates that around 80% of the work that’s now produced by kfzteile24 is created using it. As with many businesses, Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are among the most widely used. One of the key benefits to this approach is that staff needed very little training to adapt from the legacy software they were previously using, Baykal says. It’s also allowing them to collaborate more effectively with colleagues.
"What we are trying to do is to prevent people from sending legacy files," he adds, "so that we can take advantage of the benefits of Google Workspace solutions, such as versioning. It’s about changing the habits of our staff, as well as the software available to them."
Looking to the future
“Google Workspace makes collaboration easy and saves us time. With Google Calendar and Google Meet, it’s easy to schedule meetings and allow people the convenience of remote working.” - Anil Can Baykal, Chief Technology Officer, kfzteile24.
kfzteile24 has seen significant changes to the way the company operates, thanks to its adoption of Google Workspace. One of the biggest has been offering flexible ways of remote working, that have led to changes in the company’s culture that Baykal believes will remain beyond the pandemic. He says: "Google Workspace makes collaboration easy and saves us time. With Google Calendar and Google Meet, it’s easy to schedule meetings and allow people the convenience of remote working. We don’t have a huge amount of office space, so it’s a win-win situation."
Baykal believes that kfzteile24’s partnership with Google will continue to grow in the future as the company continues to grow and adapt to the changing world. Among the company's potential plans are updating its website, expanding its offline retail presence, and exploring the possibilities offered by even greater integration into the cloud. Baykal says that Google is likely to play a key role in these plans.
