Just Eat are just as opposed to bad email providers as they are about you cooking at home, hence their decision to “Just Go Google” and deploy Google Apps for Work with AppsCare.
Just Eat is a pioneer in the niche sector of local takeaway restaurant online aggregators, giving local restaurants an online presence via a single portal from which customers can order. Operating in 13 countries worldwide, Just Eat have a portfolio of more than 36,000 restaurants and have a combined workforce of over 1000.
To manage significant growth in the organisation, Martin Russell, Director of ICT (previously Head of IT Services) at Just Eat, recognised the need for an IT solution that would secure capacity for the future. In November 2011, the organisation began looking to find innovation in the way they work together whilst bringing stability, security and scalability in a cost effective manner. Martin commented,
Let’s spend less time on system administration and focus on service management. Let’s move our business forward.
A number of Just Eat employees work from home, are often on the road or are otherwise out of the office. It was imperative that the organisation found a solution that would not only facilitate mobility, but also allow remote users the same level and quality of access as when working from the office. This is something their existing infrastructure, Microsoft Exchange could not facilitate. Martin recalls the continual problems: “Nearly every other day a server crashed, and I would need to get up in the middle of the night to get it back up and running before the early-rising CEO started his day.”
Originally, Just Eat’s decision to migrate away from their existing mail platform was just that – a need to migrate away from a failing email system that was costing the organisation time and money to keep running. Simplicity and scale is what Just Eat sought, and they found it with Google Apps for Work. Martin Russell brought in the Group CTO, Carlos Morgado, and met with five Google partners to tender for the deal. Just Eat chose AppsCare in February 2012 as their preferred partner due to the level of commitment and breadth of expertise they received in the first meeting.
Since migrating their existing employee base to Google Apps in 2012, Just Eat has easily scaled the number of users to more than double the original number, while the business continues to grow today to more than 1000 accounts. To help facilitate self-learning and a smooth transition for all employees, Just Eat recognised that 100 employees were already familiar with Google products (Gmail in particular) and asked them to become ‘Google Guides’. They provided ad hoc training with peers and colleagues, so training became more viral rather than forced upon through traditional classroom sessions. A valuable strategy that Martin implemented was the ‘Google Tip of the Week’, an internal email to educate employees on a Google feature which improves productivity in the workplace.
With over 1000 employees in 13 countries now using Google Apps, Just Eat is working more efficiently with an anytime, anywhere, any device strategy. And it’s not just email that Just Eat are utilising, the Google Apps suite has revolutionised work for every department within the organisation.
The IT team previously supporting the Microsoft Exchange solution is now able to focus their time on other areas, including education and empowering users to help themselves by developing intuitive tools and methods of working – blurring the line between their social and corporate IT world. Google Sites is crucial for the sales team to communicate training to employees with the use of their online “Sales Bible” – which didn’t even require an employee with coding knowledge to create.
Google Hangouts have enabled the freedom to work from any location (great for retaining employees and maintaining morale) whilst increasing communication between departments without the need to travel overseas to other Just Eat offices. The result? Happy employees, a lower carbon footprint and reduced travel costs.
But it’s not just about work. Google Plus has revolutionised Just Eat’s global internal comms and social networking function. Employees can now engage and connect through video, images and the sharing of mutually accessible and relevant information. In addition, it allows Just Eat to communicate about, as well as organise and manage, global company events, such as the annual ‘World Party’ attended by every employee worldwide.
Let’s talk budgeting. Why? Because scaling just became simple. Martin knows that his infrastructure spend will be £33 x the number of employees. There is no back up costs, maintenance, additional support people or down time to factor into his budget. The result? Stress free budgeting.
And finally… what about the future?
Martin has the goal of a device agnostic Just Eat – allowing employees to use the device which works best for their specific job role. Choosing Google Apps for Work has been a big step in facilitating Just Eat’s BYOD policy and goal towards being a ‘throw-away device’ workplace.
Just Eat are also now using Chrome devices in the office to get things done faster, easier and safer. Google Apps for Work unlocks a lot of potential for communications between Just Eat and all its customers. Through the use of Google Apps, Just Eat could improve the customer experience in many ways – Hangouts could be utilised for personal, one-on-one support and Sites would be an easily accessible platform for customers to purchase promotional merchandise. When asked about the migration process for Just Eat’s additional businesses, Martin replied,
“We could migrate a new company within a week - it’s as easy as that. No problem whatsoever.”