RSVP Design

How Cobry helped RSVP Design make the most of Google Workspace

Organisation Profile

RSVP Design is a leading global player in the field of experiential learning. They provide support to training programmes for learning & development professionals, organisations, & business schools.

With more than 16 years of experience working with local and global organisations, they have the necessary skills to ensure their clients’ training and development needs are fulfilled. Through the creation of world-renowned experiential learning activities, RSVP Design works hard to provide clients with everything they need to successfully further their skills.

Project Scoping

Existing Circumstances
RSVP Design began their Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) journey by setting up a Basic tier domain without a Google Cloud partner. This was configured alongside Office 365 while a number of Dropbox accounts were being used for file storage. Inevitably, using numerous different IT solutions with overlapping services led to some confusion and unnecessary costs.

Cobry were introduced to RSVP Design by an existing supplier for their cloud computing expertise. The aim of this project was to consolidate RSVP Design’s existing IT systems, ensure that all files were centralised and easily accessible from any of RSVP Design’s 5 European locations and allow for better collaboration between team members.

Our Recommendations
After assessing the existing setup and hearing about ongoing reliability issues with Microsoft, Cobry recommended that RSVP Design upgraded their G Suite licenses to the Business tier; providing them with unlimited file storage in Google Drive with access from anywhere, secure and reliable email through Gmail and improved collaboration with Docs, Sheets & Slides. This recommendation also allowed RSVP Design to save on their recurring IT costs by cancelling their subscriptions with Office 365 and Dropbox.

Project Delivery

Technical Configuration
To begin the project, RSVP Design transferred their G Suite Basic domain to Cobry’s Google Cloud Partner Console, allowing Cobry to upgrade their domain to the Business tier and configure the required settings. This included deploying new security settings such as two-factor authentication, anti-spam and spoofing, disabling the Take Out service (preventing user data from being exported) and applying the required data retention policies in Google Vault.

After using Outlook for such a long time, the RSVP Design team were used to the interface, so to ease the transition to Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Cobry were able to configure Gmail to display in a similar style – providing the same preview pane they felt comfortable with.

Proactive Advice
RSVP Design had also been using a VoIP service for international calling between their locations, customers and suppliers, however, the service has become somewhat unreliable and they were on the lookout for a replacement. Cobry were able to advise of Google Voice’s upcoming launch in the UK, which is a VoIP service that tightly integrates with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) and allows businesses to allocate phone numbers to user accounts, set up call routing, voicemail services and more. Voice will be available for RSVP Design and all other Google Workspace customers from Spring 2019.

Migration
RSVP Design had files stored in a number of locations, including numerous Dropbox accounts and local hard drives. Cobry were asked to migrate these files to Google Drive so that they could be easily accessed by all team members and used with Docs, Sheets and Slides for real-time collaboration.

Another new feature that RSVP Design gained access to after upgrading to G Suite Business was Shared Drives. These are shared spaces for teams where the data stored is owned by the organisation, rather than the individual (much like a shared server compared to a personal hard drive). Cobry were able to set these up and migrate the files into the relevant Shared Drives for internal and external access. This provided a huge advantage in terms of locking down their company data and taking full control over who had access to it. This made it easier to work with external parties.

Data Backup
RSVP Design had some concerns around employees deleting data when working in the cloud, so Cobry recommended a cloud-to-cloud backup solution which provides automatic daily backups for all users. This service is administered by Cobry and can be used to restore any lost data from any point in time.

Training
After the technical configuration was complete, RSVP Design decided to take up Cobry’s Google Workspace Training sessions, for all employees. Even though RSVP Design had been using G Suite Basic before Cobry began the project, they knew that they were only just scratching the surface. Cobry delivered training in person at the RSVP Design offices as well as via a webinar for remote workers that were unable to attend. This ensured that all team members were upskilled and learned the best practices for working with the new tools. One particular area of interest was working with Microsoft Office files as RSVP Design had a huge amount of data in these file types and wanted to make sure that they would not run into any issues when trying to use them.

Support
Following project completion, RSVP Design decided to continue their business relationship with Cobry by agreeing to an ongoing support retainer. Cobry provides a number of different support services and RSVP Design opted to utilise Cobry’s Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) expertise to carry out all administrative tasks, backup support and IT helpdesk services.

User feedback on Google Workspace

“The Cobry recommendation was wider in scope than we’d initially expected as the Google Workspace Business tier seemed to offer many more features than we’d realised.”

“Our users’ workflows weren’t impacted by the security enhancements and the switch to the new email platform was the biggest challenge for them, but Cobry’s training helped to ease the transition.”

“The migration process was very smooth and it also allowed us to streamline the new Shared Drive set-up, re-examining and allocating appropriate permissions and structures.”

“As we are well aware good learning transfer requires practice, repetition and follow up and we decided to take advantage of having Cobry available to answer queries and provide support – we have found this support to be fast, useful and knowledgeable.”

End Result

Switching to G Suite Business allowed RSVP Design to consolidate their IT systems and save on overall licence fees. They have also been able to help their remote workers collaborate with new tools and vastly improve their productivity.

If you’re interested in a similar project for your organisation, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team to discuss how we can help, book a discovery call here or drop us a message using the form below.

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