• Boosts employee productivity by introducing Google Workspace collaborative features to global workforce

• Reduces licensing operating costs after migrating to Google Workspace

• Creates channels for improving employee experience with Google Workspace and Google Data Studio integrations

"We have thousands of employees globally and they needed a work environment that operated as fast as they worked," says Matthieu Delorme, CIO at Canam Group. "We knew that there was a huge impact on employees because it affects everybody in the company, but it also sent a message that we're moving toward a more digital environment."

Google Workspace and migration partner Onix were the driving factors in how Canam transitioned into a digital-first company, as the accessibility and power of Google immediately appealed to the company. The cloud-based architecture of Google Workspace lets Canam communicate and collaborate faster, which brings improved productivity and allows the company to better respond to new challenges in the construction space.

"Issues like automation and finding talent are only accelerating competition," says Matthieu. "Google and Google Workspace give us the momentum to succeed by removing internal roadblocks and letting us focus on delivering the best product to our customers."

Onix was a crucial collaborator for Canam Group throughout every step of the migration process, as its staff helped develop employee training resources, joined meetings, and regularly communicated with the company team members.

"Onix gave us an excellent strategy for deploying Google Workspace," says Gilbert Tougas, IT Coordinator, Services and Quality Assurance at Canam Group. "Our Google Workspace transition needed Google training, but with an approach that appealed to the Canam culture. Onix thoroughly understood how to strike this balance."

For the deployment's final phase, Canam used resources including third-party migration tools to move nearly 1,700 accounts on its legacy solution over to Google Workspace during a single weekend. To prepare for the move, transition managers heavily bolstered support resources. Staffers with troubleshooting questions could turn to fellow employee Google Guide experts or the help desk, which temporarily tripled its staffing, for questions.

This coordination led to a stress-free rollout for the Canam team, as the deployment ran into no delays and only took four days for employees to work through their initial learning curve with Google Workspace. Immediate feedback for Google Workspace has been strong within Canam, as more than 85 percent of employees reported being satisfied after the migration. The company points to the accessibility of Google and the easy Google Workspace learning curve to support the migration's success and quick adoption by staff.

"Before Google Workspace, the questions the help desk used to receive were often about features that didn't work in our previous solution," says Gilbert. "We rarely get those questions with Google Workspace and that's a credit to its performance and reliability."

Other apps including Sites and Google Chat are used for team intranet pages and communication. Canam also uses Vault alongside AODocs to maintain industry and legal compliance for file archiving requirements.

Canam also leverages other Google and Google Workspace resources for applications beyond daily work. Every morning, IT staff members receive a one-question Forms page that asks for their mood similarly to a customer service survey. Managers use Google Data Studio to visualize this data and find areas for schedule improvement. If, for instance, employees frequently have mood drops on certain days of the week.

Another change that the organization is seeing is the shift to videoconferencing on Google Meet at high speed, replacing telephone calls. "If you can't be face-to-face, there's no substitute for eye contact," says Matthieu. "The simplicity of this feature on Google Meet, regardless of the device used and where the callers are located, has exploded the use of videoconferencing."

"Google Workspace and Google have been transformative for Canam," adds Matthieu. "Organization-wide collaboration doesn't just make work easier, it also helps us deliver stellar customer service and exceed the needs of our clients."