LONDON, UK (July 1, 2008) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that Taylor Woodrow, the construction, facilities management and engineering services subsidiary of Taylor Wimpey plc, has transferred all its employees onto Google Apps™ Premier Edition in a move to introduce greater mobility and flexibility to the company’s communications.
Taylor Woodrow’s 1,800 employees will now use Google Apps, which includes Google Mail, Google Docs™ (documents, spreadsheets and presentations), Google Calendar™, Google Sites™ and Google Talk™ applications at offices across its operations. The products are all hosted and managed by Google, removing the need to install any software or hardware on site.
Taylor Woodrow’s Director of IT, Rob Ramsay, says that Google Apps offered the perfect package: “Many of our staff are highly mobile with around 200 mobile technicians who spend most of their working day at construction sites and client premises. The ability to provide them with access on the move to email, documents, spreadsheets and everything else that comes with Google Apps is something that will help increase productivity.”
“Our employees can now get in touch with their colleagues easily from whatever location they are working at,” continues Ramsay. “The mobility coupled with the speed of roll-out, the lack of requirement for a physical infrastructure and the pace of new product development is very beneficial. It also gives our employees access to a system and interface that many of them are already familiar with as a result of their use of Google products at home.”
Moving to Google Apps was also a financial decision. The business has saved approximately £1 million because of the hosted nature of the technology and the fact that telephone, email and web support is included in the package. Future costs are predictable because Google does not typically charge extra as new features are brought out to enhance the current line of products.
Taylor Woodrow set up a Google Site to host online training documentation and videos for employees to familiarise themselves with Google Apps. Over 1,000 users signed up to trial the service voluntarily prior to the go-live date.
“Taylor Woodrow’s decision to adopt Apps throughout their workforce demonstrates how larger businesses are buying into cloud computing,” said Robert Whiteside, Head of UK and Ireland, Google Enterprise. “Aside from the cost benefits, the ability to share and collaborate on information and access email and documents from any device makes sense for businesses. Many of today’s employees are already part of the ‘cloud generation’ who are used to the flexibility of online applications in their use of the Internet at home and increasingly expect it at work. Taylor Woodrow has recognised and responded to this by providing a new, innovative and flexible way of working.”
Taylor Woodrow has also deployed Google Message Discovery™, which provides email security, content policy management, discovery, and archiving services to ensure that employee email is properly protected and retained. “Ensuring that all our emails are protected from threats and stored correctly is something that is important to our business operations,” said Ramsay.
Taylor Woodrow has been using the Google Search Appliance™ to manage search and retrieval of documents on its intranet for over two years.
For further information, please call the press office on 020 7031 3130.
Labels: English (UK), UK news announcements
