Future plc. is an award-winning international media group and leading digital business. The organisation reaches more than 51 million international consumers a month and creates world-class content and advertising solutions for passionate consumers online, on tablet & smartphone and in print. Future are recognised as a global leader in tablet publishing and digital publishing. Exporting or syndicating more than 200 publications to 89 countries also makes Future the UKs number one exporter and licensor of magazine content.
Future Publishing were initially working on an old Microsoft Exchange infrastructure for their 1,500 users, which was nearing its end-of-life with mainstream support disabling in April 2014. This demise prompted Future’s IT department to reassess their current on-premise solution and used the 2014 end-of-life deadline as an opportunity to evaluate the market, in particular the growing trend for cloud computing within enterprise. Ed Haynes, Digital Delivery Director at Future approached AppsCare, early in 2013 to discuss how Google’s 100% cloud offering, Google Apps for Work could specifically enable Future to achieve business objectives.
Operating on a global scale, Future needed a solution that would facilitate communication and collaboration across borders. It was imperative that the organisation found a solution that would enable this between global offices, in particular Future’s UK and US offices, without compromising on the level and quality of access employees received. This was something that an on-premise solution could not facilitate. After an evaluation of Google Apps for Work, and similar products in the marketplace, Haynes decided that Google Apps for Work was the right direction to take the business.
Following a successful deployment of Google Apps for Work in the summer of 2013, all of Future Publishing’s employees are now using the Google Apps for Work platform. Haynes, describes the experience.
The migration from email and then moving on to other parts of the Google Apps suite has been a slightly viral process. People have seen something done in a collaborative way and they think, I want to join in with that.
Future are now looking to use Chromebooks and Chromebox for Meetings as part of their initiative to promote cloud-based, mobile working. As a result of moving to Google, Future Publishing are now piloting a work from home scheme and are able to consolidate office space.