Tech Talk: Ad Agency Migrates to Web App

A 250-person advertising agency based in the southeastern U.S. recently switched its workforce from a traditional software office suite to a Web-based application that can handle mail, calendaring, documents, and other applications.

22squared, an ad agency with headquarters in Atlanta and Tampa, has been in business in some form since 1922 but has changed over the years to focus on helping foster relationships between customers and brands. The company's staff, which is spread out in different offices, was using Lotus Notes for its office needs but recently switched to the Web-based Google Apps and help desk calls have been reduced, the company's systems administrator Bill Seybolt tells IncTechnology.com.

Elizabeth Wasserman: Tell me about your history with office software.

Bill Seybolt: I've been a Lotus Notes guy for 10 years, even back when I worked in another shop. We used it primarily for e-mail and calendaring and scheduling. I had a background in application development and systems administration when I came here and I helped develop the corporate extranet within Notes and served it up on the Web. This meant you didn't have to rely on a webmaster to post content on the Web for clients to approve or make corrections to. Within the application, it allowed the client's leadership team to post content themselves and seek feedback from the client. We built our own application and it served our needs and those of our clients very well.

Wasserman: Why did you decide to switch office platforms?

Seybolt: From the e-mail standpoint, the application we were using was nowhere near what we needed. We're more of a Mac shop -- about 60 to 70 percent of our staff use Macs and that's moving more to 80 to 90 percent. The Notes applications got a little clunky on the Macs and we had to move a lot of those applications into a content management system so the Notes environment became more of a legacy system. There became less and less of a reason to keep it around. The straw that broke the camel's back was what, given the state of the economy, we weren't updating the hardware. But we had a huge server failure and it forced our hand. We needed to re-evaluate whether to keep Notes or move to Microsoft Exchange or Zimbra or Google Apps. That happened around Memorial Day 2009.

Wasserman: So how did you decide what to go with?

Seybolt: We got a group of key stakeholders together to evaluate the systems. We took a test drive on each one and kept track of what works, what doesn't, and what would you do differently with that system. We got a ton of feedback from about 30 individuals from all different disciplines about how it would impact their and department using the different systems. We set up a Consumer Reports-like chart of all the key features. Beforehand, we had asked everyone what their requirements were – or what they needed out of a system.  They listed all those things. We decided to go with Google Apps and we partnered with Cloud Sherpas, an IT consulting firm. They spent the time getting us ready to migrate our existing data to Apps -- all our e-mail, contacts, calendar entries, and so on. In November, we had our official transition date. A lot of communication went out to the entire organization via e-mail and posters that we were switching over. We had training classes prior to the cut over, which were mandatory. Come that Monday, everyone knew what to do.

Wasserman: What kind of results have you seen?

Seybolt: From an IT standpoint, we're getting nowhere near as many support calls dealing with incompatibility issues, people not being able to access their e-mail from anywhere or any device. You have a lot of people here who are relieved at not having the frustrations anymore. The level of collaboration that Google Apps ahs to offer within their tool set -- from calendar, e-mail, and documents -- is also absolutely wonderful.

 

Elizabeth Wasserman is editor of Inc.'s technology website, IncTechnology.com. Based in the Washington, D.C. area, she has more than 15 years experience writing about business, technology, and politics for newspapers, magazines and websites. Her work has appeared in such publications as Congressional Quarterly, Business Week, Portfolio and Slate.