They say that moving house (or office) is one the most stressful things that you ever do in life, but when leading software provider Orchard Information Systems recently relocated to new prestigious offices in Central Square, Newcastle, no headache pills were required, just the removal vans and G Suite for Work.
The Newcastle based company are the largest independent provider of complete end to end business solutions to the housing sector and provide software, services and supporting technical solutions that help Housing businesses and Public Sector organisations.
Two years ago Orchard were facing escalating Microsoft costs and an increasing number of remote users, so with the support of Refractiv, a leading
UK Google for Work Partner, moved to G Suite for Work. The two companies worked closely together to develop a highly tailored and comprehensive programme of training to ensure a smooth transition and highly successful adoption of G Suite. At the time, the move delivered substantial cost savings, improved collaboration and accessibility but little did Orchard realise, that months down the line, it would also help to make their complex office move a much simpler exercise.
The prospect of moving a team of over 200 people and the contents of over 10 offices in their old premises to move across town, was a daunting one however, having fully adopted the Cloud computing platform with G Suite for Work, there were none of the usual technology headaches to worry about. Without the IT infrastructure, the company needed only to move their staff, not their email server and with hosted servers, there was no concern over interruption of mail or internal workflow.
Their new offices in Central Square at the heart of Newcastle’s business district reflect the company’s progressive approach not only to technology, but also design, ergonomics and staff welfare. The 15,155 sq ft office space features open plan work areas, a large number of meeting rooms, hot desk facilities and dedicated work/break out zones. With one person cubicles for privacy and concentration, soundproof meeting friendly chairs and state of the art catering facilities, the organisation has definitely delivered on its ethos to be “a great company to work with and to work for”.
The widespread adoption of G Suite for Work has also allowed the company to make the best use of their new workspace in a number of ways: Google Calendar integrates with Evoko room manager to make scheduling of meetings and resources simple and the company also uses Chromebox for Meetings to deliver high quality video conferencing for both internal teams and external customers. Chromecast is used to stream internal company information across communal work areas and Hangouts and Chat have continued to play a key role in the company’s communication.
G Suite for Work helped make what could have been a stressful and complex move much easier for the team and seamless for our clients. There were no email servers to migrate, so we had continuity of communication with our clients and collaboration amongst ourselves, even when we couldn’t find the kettle! G Suite for Work made the move more manageable and less stressful and is undoubtedly helping us get the most out of our fantastic new office space.