AccentHansen, part of the HansenGroup, have over 40 years experience of designing, manufacturing and installing steel and glass doors in the UK and beyond. With the help of Refractiv, a leading UK Google Apps Reseller, the Manchester based steel and glass door specialists, have switched to Google Apps almost overnight, reducing costs and supporting a number of their ‘lean business’ initiatives.

HansenGroup realised that sticking with traditional client and server based technologies would result in spiralling hardware and software costs and that their broader business requirements for a more open approach to information access might not be met. The company’s own business systems development programme was already building web-based applications and with users wise to the benefits of the approach, wanted to get the same from their office applications. Google Apps was therefore a natural choice.

Refractiv were chosen as a partner for the project and project planning for the switch was completed using Google Hangout sessions and shared documents and a go-live date was agreed. The company’s mail, contacts and calendar were migrated in a short timeframe and after receiving comprehensive training from Refractiv, all users switched virtually seamlessly from Outlook to Gmail and started using Google Drive. At the same time smart phones and tablets were connected to provide a full and rich Google experience.

The immediate benefits included: improved access to information from any device, location and at any time, substantial cost and time savings, reduction in energy and paper and improved collaboration between employees, customers and suppliers in support of AccentHansen’s ongoing ‘lean process’.

“It is early days, but I’ve been really impressed by the way the whole business has adopted Google and I’m pleased to say that I’m already seeing real business benefits. Refractiv proved to be very responsive and helped make our move to Google Apps a smooth, quick and efficient one ”

Jim Rutledge, General Manager, AccentHansen Ltd