Google Apps, Mobility and limitless Cooperation for GES Seguros

It has now been two years since the company GES Seguros y Reaseguros chose to introduce Google Apps. Beyond a simple alternative to its email solution, Google Apps for Business has become a key tool in the company Commercial System, providing collaboration and seamless mobility to employees and partners thanks to Google’s app suite.

Ges Seguros is a Spanish-owned company founded in 1928 that caters for any type of insurance requirement. The company enjoys an excellent reputation in the sector gained over years of activity thanks to its vocation to customer service among other aspects. GES currently employs about 200 people and has an agency network consisting of 900 agents throughout the country.

For years the company, in terms of its technology strategy, has been committed to cloud-based environments, which provide it with flexibility, and mobility tools.

They worked with Sendmail on Linux, with its own servers, and although everything was working correctly, mobility and collaboration options were limited. There were three key factors to be considered when adopting a new solution: the ability of the selected tool to meet current requirements and be able to evolve in the future; the cost of licenses; and the reliability of the provider to guarantee the service.

This is the context in which GES looked into adopting Google Apps. “We needed a top level technological provider -Google- whose systems would provide flexibility and availability; and Google Apps for Business was an ideal choice in order to provide our users with the mobility and collaboration tools that any dynamic business needs today”, says Juan Julian Garrido, IT Director for GES Seguros.

In addition to the advantages of Gmail; Google Calendar, Google Drive and Google’s Office Suite have become cornerstones in the commercial operations of GES Seguros. “We now have over eight hundred 30GB accounts, a much greater capacity than we had before. Users can access their documents, spreadsheets, presentations… from any location or device and they can also work with other colleagues on any of those files simultaneously”, added Alfonso Rodriguez. “This environment has allowed us to address business developments, such as the organisation of our sales network tasks, thanks to the incorporation of Google Calendar accesses to our CRM system, combining its use with a powerful professional agenda with their own personal agendas and on any device. This improves work planning for our agents and is user-friendly. And this has a direct effect on the productivity of our sales network. We can assert that we are at the forefront of the industry in these solutions.”

Users are very happy with the change due to its functions and modern feeling. Accessing files, including e-mail, from anywhere and knowing that availability is not affected by the failure of a PC is one of the aspects most appreciated by users. “We were concerned about the possible rejection to change, rather common in the case of many projects and more so in one of this kind, after many years using other mail systems and platforms. We were surprised that the tool itself, thanks to its ease of use, power and capacity, managed to overcome this fear”, says Juan Julian Garrido.

Regarding the development of the migration project, GES indicated that it was an unmitigated success. It was performed in 3 months, under a careful implementation plan and various risk management plans. The experience of the partner chosen -Intelligence Partner- was key in this process and the key to success. The correct analysis and assessment of the migration meant that, even when some of the hazards expected arose, the mitigation measures were applied quickly and the project concluded successfully within a very reasonable time.

GES Seguros marked their experience with Google Apps as highly recommendable. Mobility, ease of use, multi-device capability, technological adaptation (runs on the latest operating system on any device) and the ability to share documents and work on them rather than having to distribute them, are factors to be considered by any company that wants to be at the forefront.

More information:

GES Seguros y Reaseguros: Juan Julian Garrido, IT Director: jj_garrido@ges.es