Company profile

MD is Australia’s largest online furniture retailer with over 300,000 highly satisfied customers served. According to the Business Review Weekly (BRW) and Australian Financial Review (AFR) they are Australia’s fastest growing furniture retailer with over a million products sold worldwide.

Challenges

Like many online businesses, the company was using a web based email system for correspondence and document management. As demand for products increased and an influx of inquiries, the system became extremely difficult to manage. The company wanted a solution which would help centralise their email correspondence and a way to manage the load while ensure high security of all exchange.

Solution

It is a unique experience as MD were the ones that approached Onsite Helper asking for the Google Apps solution. The company had done their own due diligence and saw Google Apps as a good fit for the business particularly as staff were already familiar with the Gmail interface. Google Apps therefore looked attractive as it mean minimal training of staff along with its other great features. The company shortlisted a few Google Apps Partners and chose to engage Onsite Helper as we have a strong track record in Google Apps implementation as well as other areas of IT such as DNS transitions between providers. The company’s inbox was enormous which made the migration a little tricky. We setup a dual delivery email service which was configured to allow for users to start using the new Gmail while still having access to the old email system while the migration took place. It took a number of weeks to migrate over the inbox which shows that the dual delivery email service was critical as the business did not experience any downtime due to the migration. Using the Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange (GAMME) tool we were able to perform an Imap migration of all emails and folders from the old server to Google Apps, which enables the users to have a very smooth transition. As soon as the business cut over to Google Apps they straight away noticed their issues with the previous email system were now resolved so this was a great result.

Capabilities of Google Apps

Managing high volumes of correspondence has been made manageable. This saves the business many hours annually which translates to thousands of dollars saved. Getting through correspondence more efficiently also assists in removing the bottleneck of interacting with and meeting client needs improving the overall performance of the business. Management of staff and security has also been simplified and the business now has much greater control of their data. The ability to share Calendars and create meetings with external parties has been a significant advantage to the business processes. Management love Google Apps.

Testimonials

“Compared to local infrastructure (servers), Google Apps has saved the business a lot of cash.”- Cameron Matthies, Technology & Marketing Manager, MD. “Google Apps has streamlined our online communications and improved efficiency and productivity throughout the business.” – Cameron Matthies, Technology & Marketing Manager, MD.

At a Glance

Google Apps is not only well suited for businesses working in white collar professions but also has tremendous applications in the retail setting. The platform is sophisticated enough to assist in the management of high volume correspondence while ensure great flexibility in setup and costs. Google Apps is really a tool for all industries. It helps the business thrive by removing bottlenecks which previously existed.