The Bannatyne Group had adapted Google Workspace but Head Office IT Manager, Nigel Wilby, wanted to ensure it was reaching its full potential across the business. Nigel also wanted the IT department to spend more time on strategic, solution-focused work rather than break-fix problems. Finally, he wanted the team to support The Bannatyne Group in keeping up with their competition with a modern technology strategy.

The team lacked strategic and technical support for Google Workspace. Nigel wanted to work with a Google partner who would be in regular contact with the team, be on hand to help assist with business challenges and share how to use Google Workspace tools more strategically for maximum ROI.

“We needed someone to talk to about our problems, someone who is more available and who we can lean on. I wanted a partner that could help us do things, and offer solutions and quick answers. Those were the initial things we were first looking for, but I think we have got a lot more than that so far from Netpremacy.” – Nigel Wilby, Head Office IT Manager

With this in mind, Netpremacy suggested their Customer Success Services programme, designed to forge a strategic partnership with businesses and create incentives to meet their business goals. Throughout the pandemic, Netpremacy and The Bannatyne Group worked together to solve industry challenges and have conversations on how to use Cloud technology across the business for a more productive and collaborative workforce.

“The CSS service is great, the team updates you on new updates and things that are going on in Google that you may not realise. The team have got to know us, and what we would be interested in, so tailor the content they speak to us about. To be able to reach out and ask questions is great. I always know someone will come back to me with an answer to my questions” – Nigel Wilby, Head Office IT Manager.

Initially, the programme supported the team to raise awareness of Google functionality, increase adoption and provide an extra layer of support and guidance. The programme also included workshops and discovery sessions to provide tailored support. One example of a project the CSS team and The Bannatyne Group worked on was a rollout of 2-step verification across the business to provide an extra layer of security to the workforce, especially crucial in a remote environment.

“It’s a great team of people, it’s not just about one individual. You can see that it is a group of people who work well together and want to get things done” – Nigel Wilby, Head Office IT Manager.

In addition, The Bannatyne Group used Netpremacy’s project management experience to transform how they approached transformational change and new initiatives to ensure structure and accountability. This work included internal communications and planning for teams returning to offices and health clubs following lockdowns. Packs of content that could be pushed out easily from the CSS team to The Bannatyne Group helped them to get through the pandemic. The assistance from the CSS team helped The Bannatyne Group to bridge the gap in communication between the head office and the fitness centre teams. They were involved with the day-to-day communication in projects through custom-built content for The Bannatyne Group and helped to raise awareness of Google Workspace tools and how to use them to the best of their ability. They also worked with Netpremacy to deploy more Chrome devices to support teams seamlessly working from home.

“We were looking for a partner that was interested in what we were doing, and not just in it for the money” – Nigel Wilby, Head Office IT Manager.

Reminding people about the Google toolset when people are back in the office is the next step for The Bannatyne Group and Netpremacy. The company wants to look into how assigning Google Champions when they are back in the office is the next step towards better understanding and usage of the Google tools.

Looking back over the past year, it is clear to The Bannatyne Group that their way of working has fundamentally improved. The way the company has been able to work and stay productive in a pandemic is solely down to Google Workspace tools. As business returns more to usual, there will continue to be a remote workforce, similar to many organisations across the globe.

“We did see what could be achieved quite quickly when working remotely. There were so many things that progressed and were completed within weeks when you would have expected those projects to take months otherwise.” – Nigel Wilby, Head Office IT Manager.

The Bannatyne Group will continue to work with Netpremacy to identify strategic opportunities and support the business in reaching its goals with Google technology. Future projects involve improving Google adoption, Data warehousing in GCP and Smart Analytics to drive membership sales.

“With Netpremacy we can leverage contacts into Google, to be able to get us onto BETA programmes etc. that we weren’t able to do before.” – Nigel Wilby, Head Office IT Manager.