• Protects business continuity and clear communications with remote working in Google Workspace

• Boosts company morale and adds to recruitment with strong connections made over Google Meet

• Accelerates the digital transformation of customers for long-term flexibility and mobility

Change is inevitable. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Specializing in digital transformations, Devoteam, a French technology company and Google Cloud Premier Partner, has been helping businesses adapt to cloud technology for more than twenty years. By emphasizing the human factor as much as technical expertise, the company has gone from strength to strength. "We strongly believe that the technology has to work for people," says Maciej Klein, Global Marketing Director at Devoteam Cloud Services. "It’s not the technical solution that makes the difference, it’s how people interact with it." This approach has proved a recipe for success. Today, the company works with more than 3,000 businesses and organizations across 18 different countries.

When much of the world went into lockdown due to COVID-19 in early 2020, Devoteam’s customers were faced with a much more rapid change than they were used to and the company’s services were more in demand than ever. In order to keep serving its clients in a time of unprecedented restriction, Devoteam turned to Google Workspace.

As a technology firm working with clients across multiple continents, Devoteam is no stranger to working remotely. "We’ve been using Google Workspace to work remotely with colleagues and customers for years," says Maciej. "So the situation was not difficult for us to adapt to. We wanted to focus on helping our customers, and supporting them to protect their business in this very challenging context."

With 3,000 customers ranging from small startups to sprawling public sector organizations across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, Devoteam needed to communicate quickly and effectively to minimize disruption from COVID-19 and make sure that their clients could keep running where possible.

While Devoteam did not have to use any new tools during the lockdown in the early months of 2020, the company began to use Google Workspace in different ways to work around some of the restrictions it faced. Video conferencing with Google Meet was essential for transitioning successfully during this period. The most obvious use was as a replacement for in-office meetings. As Global Marketing Director for Cloud Services, Maciej has to coordinate multiple teams over the course of his day and often check in multiple times with people. "I probably have twenty-five to thirty meetings a day with Google Meet," he explains. "These aren’t all big 30-minute meetings. Often they’re quick chats, but it all helps to keep us on the same page and make sure things are running smoothly."

With employees so spread out due to the restrictions in place, it was essential for them to feel connected not just to their work but to the company itself. The CEO and COO held regular Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on Google Meet, and these are then stored on Devoteam’s intranet, which is partly built with Sites. Google Meet has proved useful not just for work meetings but also to foster greater bonds within teams and improve morale.

"We care about our employees, and we wanted to recreate the company’s atmosphere as much as possible," says Maciej. "For example, a team might have a shared coffee break in the afternoon on Google Meet, just for them to socialize. It helps them relax and not just think about work the whole time."

Some parts of the company have taken the restrictions as an opportunity to examine how they work and make improvements. For example, the sales department, which has had to cut back on in-person meetings and cold calls to offices, works more closely with the marketing department now. Collaborating together over Docs, Sheets, and Slides, the two departments have found a way of building case studies and reference points, generating new leads and approaching new customers.

"It’s been a global effort combining our sales efforts with the marketing team, and it’s worked really well so far," says Maciej. "Using Google Workspace means that we can find new ways of working and not lose any time to whatever restrictions are in place."

Devoteam has been able to grow as a company, not just in finding new customers but also in terms of personnel. The company has been actively recruiting new employees and onboarding them to its teams all over the world, with Google Meet being the primary tool of connection. Managers check in several times a day over short meetings to give new hires the guidance they need.

"With Google Meet, we can share more of our culture with new recruits. It’s a deeper connection," says Maciej. "If we just communicated over email, we’d be missing out on so much of their enthusiasm and energy."