In Short
- The project to implement Google Workspace for so many different departments and types of staff needed external support.
- Email and calendar, the two crucial apps used by the municipality’s staff were implemented and ready to use in half the standard time: six weeks.
- Change management was critical.
“The Hagfors project team understood quickly that this project will mainly impact the people in the organisation: the way they do their work, how they collaborate, how they communicate.”
About Hagfors Kommune
Hagfors is a municipality in Sweden with a population of around 12.000. In 2018 Hagfors, encouraged by their schools’ decision, moved to Google Workspace.
The Problem
The municipality’s IT team felt the solutions they are using are outdated and no longer relevant. They wanted to implement G Suite for Education for schools. The decision-makers knew that a better solution would be to implement is for a whole municipality, not just in schools.
The Goal
Improve collaboration and project management without surpassing the budget, resources. Include staff trainings to increase the efficiency of the change.
The Solution
The tempo of the project, the structure of the municipality, and the staff’s old habits of using well-known tools meant that the change management component of the project needed a lot of attention. The tight deadlines were a challenge and this is why Devoteam also worked on introducing broad communication to the employees.
“Change management was critical. That’s why we needed Devoteam G Cloud, to do it in the right way and help people go through the change.”
Methodology
Hagfors’ IT team decided that the employees’ files can be moved to Google Drive by them on a case-by-case basis, when the most crucial parts of Google Workspace were already in daily use. All schools were already using G Suite for Education, while the rest of the departments were getting used to new tools.
The Result
The biggest challenge was the fast pace of the project. Managing to implement the new solution before the Zimbra licenses’ renewal date to avoid paying for a solution no one wanted was crucial for the project.
The two crucial apps, email and calendar, used by the municipality’s staff were implemented and ready to use in half the standard time: six weeks.
