Tag Archives: Google Hangouts

Belgian groceries supplier louis delhaize keeps things fresh with Google Apps for Work

Posted by Jean-Marc van Cutsem, CEO, louis delhaize Delfood, Montignies-sur-Sambre, Belgium

Editor's note: Today we hear from Jean-Marc van Cutsem, CEO at louis delhaize Delfood, a groceries supplier in Belgium with an annual turnover of €160 million. louis delhaize neighbourhood stores have been a fixture of Belgian life for generations, and all of the food they sell – from fresh fruit to baked goods – comes from the Delfood warehouses. Read how this 140-year-old family firm is using Google Apps for Work to create a faster, more efficient business.

It’s exactly 140 years since Louis Delhaize, the fourth son of a Belgian winemaker, followed his three brothers into the groceries sector. The pioneering companies they set up would go on to dominate Belgian chain-store retail, so that generations have grown up knowing they’ll receive friendly, fast service on everyday items at their local louis delhaize store.

For the Delfood team that supplies the food, honoring that trust means staying one step ahead of rising expectations. So when our 2007 email solution was due for an upgrade, we took the opportunity to build a more efficient business.

With help from Fourcast, we began introducing Google Apps for Work in January 2015. After our early adopters and IT department had migrated, Fourcast and HR gathered crucial feedback using Google Forms to ensure that staff were content with the process. By April, the whole company was online, and the new tools were already making a difference.


From warehouse to shop display, we’re delivering food faster with Google Apps for Work. If items from our 9,000 dry and 3,000 fresh food lines arrive damaged at our two warehouses, staff use Hangouts on a Chromebook to provide visual proof to headquarters and inform our suppliers. When food heads out to the stores, we calculate optimal routes for 40 trucks with Google Maps. Once it arrives at stores from our warehouses, our inventory managers and their teams photograph anything in less than perfect condition and upload the image to Google+ for immediate action at headquarters.

In store, floor managers display food according to promotions and advice posted by our experts on Google+. This close communication between our store teams on-site and our experts located across the country helps us arrange our products in the most sensible way for our customers – ensuring, for example, that when strawberries are in season, they’re the first thing customers see.


Google Apps is helping us improve the working lives of staff throughout the company:

  • The marketing department moves along the promotion decision process much quicker through the real-time collaboration functionalities of Sheets.
  • Rather than keep time sheets on paper, store staff enter hours directly into Sheets, so that compiling hours can be done in two minutes, instead of a the full day every week it used to take.
  • All staff, wherever they are, can use Gmail. With its powerful search function, 30GB storage space per user, and seamless integration with Calendar, it’s everything we could ask for.
  • Departments use Forms to request leave and sales teams use it to report issues in stores.
  • Chromebooks at our warehouses and owned stores ensure that information travels fluidly around the company instead of only one-way from headquarters.
  • We use our Google logins to access other Google for Work products, such as Chrome for Work to manage digital signage in stores, and Google Cloud Platform to build internal applications.
  • Docs and Sheets with their collaborative features help staff at our separate sites feel like part of a larger team.
  • Our teams receive continued support and advice so that they can find new ways to implement Google Apps with tutorials in-person and on Hangouts from Fourcast.

With Google Apps for Work, we know we always have the latest and best tools at our disposal. Automatic updates to the software mean we can count on Google to cover new needs in an ever-evolving business environment. Being open to innovation has helped us remain a market leader for more than a century, and we plan to honor that legacy well into the future.

Collaborating on mobile has never been easier

Posted by Ryan Weber, Product Manager, Google Docs

If you’re like most of our Google Apps customers, there’s a good chance you’re working from different locations throughout the day. Whether you’re on a tablet at the breakfast table, a phone on the train or a laptop at the office, it’s important to have a suite of apps that allow you to be productive from wherever you are. So starting today, you can use the same rich commenting experience across Google Docs, Sheets and Slides on your Android and iOS devices. You can now also quickly add a teammate to the conversation just by starting to type their name in a comment.

For the times when you’re at your desk, you’ll notice the new commenting experience makes it easy to instantly insert a comment using the comment bubble that appears on the right side of a doc.

At Google, we know that mobility is critical for today’s professionals. That’s why we continue to invest in features that make being productive on the go simple, such as the Research feature in the Docs Android app, or making the Google Docs app on mobile fullscreen so you can see all the info you need and hide the controls you might not want immediately (although they’re only ever a click away).

Docs, Sheets and Slides are just part of the mobile experience for Google Apps. Join a video meeting from your phone with Hangouts, check your agenda in Calendar, or see your most important emails in Gmail — your apps are in easy reach and help you collaborate from anywhere. Google Apps for Work also includes advanced security and control with complete Device (MDM) and App (MAM) Mobile Management.

Learn more about Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

Taking a cloud-based leap: How Oscar W. Larson Co. transformed its business with Google Apps

Posted by Pete Wayne, CIO, Oscar W. Larson Co.

Editor's note: Today’s guest author is Pete Wayne, chief information officer at Oscar W. Larson Co., a leader in full-service petroleum and fluid handling equipment contracting. Founded in 1946, the company now has more than 300 employees, counts Fortune 100 companies, including GM, Ford, BP and ExxonMobil, as customers, and recently expanded into the automotive, service and airline industries.

While sticking with an old solution might seem safe, it doesn't always guarantee success. This is particularly true in our hometown in the Detroit area, where many of our neighbors worried about losing their jobs after the 2008 recession. We’ve grown our business through tough times by shaking up the status quo. For instance, when we doubled our employee count and ran out of server storage space two years ago, we decided to switch IT solutions — even though many of our employees had used Microsoft for decades and had no experience working in the cloud. After months of research, we opted to migrate to Google Apps for Work, with the expert support of Cloud Sherpas. Here’s what we’ve learned since transitioning from our old way of working to something entirely new:

Google Apps saves us money and time


When we hired 150 new employees in 2013, just getting them company email accounts would’ve required a $26,000 Microsoft system upgrade and a $27,000 storage upgrade. By switching to Google Apps, we saved $65,000 on licensing, storage and server costs. We save time as well by avoiding patch updates and server maintenance.

Google Apps also helps us onboard new employees faster. Because we only have to set up one account for each employee, we don’t need to provision each tablet, phone and computer. We hired 50 people in the last six months, and got each one up and running within minutes.

Google Docs and Drive help us improve efficiency and manage compliance


Technicians need to access manuals and material safety data sheets whenever they’re on the job. We work with Fortune 100 companies that prioritize safety, so compliance is critical. Now, we use Google Drive to ensure our employees have updated information at all times.

Our field technicians used to print their manuals, lug around binders to job sites and flip through hundreds of pages to find the right information. With Drive, we can upload product manuals and safety documents to a shared folder, and technicians can search for the content they need on their phone or laptop.

Google Hangouts let field technicians problem-solve on the spot


We used to send two technicians to every field inspection, so we’d have at least one veteran on site to troubleshoot complicated scenarios. Now that we communicate with Google Apps and can rely on Google Hangouts for instant face-to-face time with veteran technicians who aren’t on site, we only need to send one technician to a job. If our technician needs to call in an expert, he or she can use the Hangouts mobile app. The specialist can see the situation in detail, down to the blown fuse or misplaced wire, and help the technician fix the problem right away. Because we can send just one technician to a job, we have more folks in the field to respond to customer requests.

Google Apps gives us a competitive advantage


We can now communicate more efficiently and access information on demand, which allows us to focus on the service we provide. In addition to consulting with their colleagues via Hangouts to make more informed decisions when proceeding with repairs, our technicians can also provide customers with photos and quotes directly from job sites. With better service, more immediate troubleshooting and instant quotes and photos, we’ve strengthened customer experience.

Sometimes the biggest risk for a business is not taking one at all. Companies need to be smart to survive, and that can mean changing the way they do things. We placed our bet on Google Apps, and it paid off. Google Apps has helped us save time and money and has also helped us build a more efficient, connected and customer-focused business, the business model we needed to stay competitive today and tomorrow.

Romania’s Raiffeisen Bank transforms itself with Google Apps and Android for Work

Posted by Carl Rossey, COO, Raiffeisen Bank

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Carl Rossey, COO of Raiffeisen Bank, one of the top five banks in Romania and a unit of Raiffeisen Bank International. See how Raiffeisen Bank uses Google Apps for Work and Android for Work to work better together across its 527 branches and offer innovative banking services to two million customers.

The way people manage their bank accounts today stands in stark contrast to a decade ago, or even just a few years ago. Where they once walked into branches to deposit or withdraw money and check on their balances, they now use laptops and mobile devices, and they do it from anywhere and at any time of day. As a business, we know we need to change with them, to be as mobile as they are, so we’re on a constant quest to transform both how we work with our customers and how we work ourselves. Moving to Google Apps for Work and using Android for Work are two steps we’ve taken to further that digital transformation. We’re proud to be one of the financial services industry’s earliest adopters of Google to create true mobility for both customers and our team.

Before moving to Google, we were relying on tools that held us back rather than pushed us forward. We were using Lotus Notes, which lacked the necessary collaboration tools and required people to be at their desks to do their work. We had to shuffle presentations and reports back and forth between employees, so new products took months to get to markets.

Our deployment to nearly 5,400 employees took just 90 days, and with the help of our implementation partner Netmail, we’re already on our way towards becoming a completely new bank. During the rollout, for example, we created a Google+ community called “Simply Coll@borate,” and invited employees to share advice and tips on using Google. It quickly became the fastest and most useful channel for seeking guidance on our new tools. And our Project Management Office, the first department to shift all its work to Google, now creates and shares Google Docs and Google Sheets in Google Drive, and builds monthly project reports using Google Slides.

Our Human Resources department used to gather feedback on training and hiring by using paper forms or sending out emails that generated few responses. Now they use Google Forms to make data collection easier and more seamless – like gathering suggestions for improving the quality of HR services. They’re also replacing phone interviews with interviews via Google Hangouts, as meeting candidates over video helps hiring managers get more accurate first impressions. The retail bank sales team also uses Hangouts for sales meetings, saving travel time and costs.

We’ve also completed rolling out smartphones equipped with Android for Work to every employee, and we believe we’ll see our vision for the mobile Raiffeisen Bank team come to life. No longer tied to our desks, we’re free to work in new ways for our customers. We save them time and offer them a higher level of customer service by meeting where they work — or from anywhere using Hangouts on mobile devices. We put the rigid ways of traditional banking behind us and have our sights set on a more flexible, innovative future.

HubSpot embraces top tech tools like Google Apps to meet employee demand

Posted by Jim O’Neill, Chief People Officer at HubSpot


Editor's note: Today’s guest blog comes from Jim O’Neill, Chief People Officer at HubSpot, the world’s leading inbound marketing and sales platform.


As a fast-growing SaaS company providing the world’s leading inbound marketing and sales platform, top technology solutions aren’t just a bonus at HubSpot; they’re an expectation. We aim to hire savvy employees who expect the benefits of modern, efficient tools for better collaboration and mobility. Our dynamic workforce appreciates the latest technologies, and as a business we need to stay up to speed. The relationship between people and technology is especially important to me as HubSpot’s chief people officer and former chief information officer; I’m particularly focused on how our people are adopting new technology.

We switched from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps in 2010 when the cloud was still more of an idea than a reality for most businesses. We loved that Apps allowed us to work from anywhere and that many of our employees already loved using tools like Gmail and Google Docs. Plus, our costs are now more than three times less per user, per year, using Google Apps.

Apps eliminated worries about system maintenance and upgrades, while offering us the storage space we needed. For example, our co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah stores more than 20GB of data in his inbox alone.

Five years after going Google, employee adoption continues to drive our technology decisions. We observe the products that are gaining traction among our team and standardize on the ones that reach critical mass. We also collect feedback about our team’s technology preferences and usage.

In addition to Apps, we’ve also seen the growing popularity of other tools, like messaging platform Slack. A huge benefit of these types of products (similarly to Apps) is that they require little or no IT maintenance. We can measure this by the number of IT tickets we receive, which dropped from dozens regarding things like syncing issues and PST file corruption to nearly none as a result of using easy-to-manage, cloud-based tools like Apps.

In addition, we’ve integrated Chromeboxes and Hangouts into daily life at HubSpot. Nearly half of our conference rooms are equipped with Chromeboxes, and nine times out of 10 our employees request this set-up over proprietary third-party hardware that is historically quite expensive when compared to Chromebox. As an employee preference and more than 4x cost saver, Chromebox is an ideal solution for on-the-spot or routine team meetings. People love the flexibility to stay connected with their teams, whether through ad hoc chats or planned meetings. We even have a team member named Jordan who is based in Alabama and connects through video Hangout almost all day, every day. We also use Hangouts on mobile to chat on the go. When you’re constantly in transit, like I am, the mobile experience is key.

HubSpot is focused on creating a leading technology platform, and the products we use should reflect this goal. The future of work involves tools that are available on the public Internet — legacy systems with VPNs and private networks require more IT maintenance and cause friction, which just doesn’t cut it for us. We’re constantly prioritizing how we can offer our employees the latest and greatest tech, and Google plays a major role in helping us achieve this.

Michigan schools redefine the classroom with Google for Education tools

(Cross-posted on the Google for Education Blog.)

Posted by Drew Sidel, Google for Education

Editor's note: Educators and administrators across the state tell us that Michigan schools are seeing great success with Google for Education. From bringing a global experience into the classroom to freeing students to learn from each other and their teachers, from anywhere, technology has improved the learning experience for students across the state. To learn more about Google solutions for Education, join us for a webinar on January 28th at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.

If students in Michigan want to learn about life on a farm in New York or a city in Australia, they don’t need to buy a plane ticket or even leave the classroom. Educators in Michigan are bringing global experiences to the classroom using cloud technology, such as Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks. Inspired by how Michigan schools are transforming classroom experiences with technology, we’re highlighting a few success stories in the region.

Turning moments of curiosity into learning opportunities 


At Grand Haven Area Public Schools, Google Apps for Education put student learning, collaboration and feedback at the center of the classroom. Grand Haven has launched 4,500 Chromebooks for students and staff and has deployed 8,400 Google Apps accounts. Before introducing the new tools, when students had a question, they had to wait until a teacher had time to work with them. In classrooms of 20 students or more, many of these teachable moments would simply get lost in the shuffle.

Technology allows those moments of curiosity to turn into learning opportunities for students. With Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education, teachers are able to provide feedback on assignments to each student individually in a single class period. For example, at Grand Haven, students use Google Docs to share their progress on math assignments with their teachers. Math teachers then check-in virtually with each of the students as they’re working on the assignment to provide them with real-time feedback by adding comments in the Doc. The teachers also use Doc’s revision history feature to see the logic students are using to solve the problem, giving them better insight into how students are progressing.

One high school teacher said she was able to give real-time feedback on an assignment to every single student — during a one hour class period — for the first time in fifteen years of teaching. “It’s much more than just handing a student a device,” says Doug Start, instructional technology coordinator at Grand Haven Area Public Schools: “Google Apps for Education lets our teachers move from being the ‘sage on the stage’ to the ’guide on the side,’ as they now have time to work more directly with students.”



Traveling the world from inside the classroom 


Lincoln Park Public School District (case study) considers technology a key part of its mission to prepare and inspire students to achieve educational excellence. Many of the district’s students don’t have access to technology at home, and others struggle with state standardized test questions that are based on the assumption that students have traveled.

To overcome this challenge, the district launched Google Apps for Education for 4,900 students and introduced 4,400 Chromebooks. Students now have unlimited access to global information online. “We now have the ability to bring virtual knowledge into the classroom. The virtual experience opens up the world for our students and allows them to learn more,” says Cheryl Irving, assistant superintendent for Lincoln Park Public School District.

Collaborating with virtual learning 


To provide students with anytime, anywhere learning, Fenton Area Public Schools launched 1,300 Chromebooks and 4,600 Google Apps for Education accounts for students. “Our Google solutions and services are creating new learning spaces that are spontaneous and less constrained,” says Kevin Powers, technology director at Fenton Area Public Schools.

Teachers are providing students with opportunities to work, learn and collaborate anytime, anywhere using technology beyond the classroom walls. For example, they created live after school study groups via Google Hangouts and Docs, as well as virtual book clubs during the summer via Google Groups. The district also used Hangouts to host a CNN Hero of the Year nominee, who spoke to three elementary classrooms at once.

For students and teachers in Michigan, the classroom is now bigger and richer. With Google for Education tools, students and teachers have global opportunities in the classroom and beyond.

Check out more schools’ stories and join us for a webinar on January 28th at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.

We’ve heard great stories from many of you about how you’re using technology to do amazing things in your schools, so we're going across the U.S. to see for ourselves! Check out the map below to see where we’ve been. We’d love to hear what’s happening in your state, so please share your story on Twitter or Google+ and tag us (@GoogleForEdu) or include the #GoogleEdu hashtag.

Michigan schools redefine the classroom with Google for Education tools

Posted by Drew Sidel, Google for Education

Editor's note: Educators and administrators across the state tell us that Michigan schools are seeing great success with Google for Education. From bringing a global experience into the classroom to freeing students to learn from each other and their teachers, from anywhere, technology has improved the learning experience for students across the state. To learn more about Google solutions for Education, join us for a webinar on January 28th at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.

If students in Michigan want to learn about life on a farm in New York or a city in Australia, they don’t need to buy a plane ticket or even leave the classroom. Educators in Michigan are bringing global experiences to the classroom using cloud technology, such as Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks. Inspired by how Michigan schools are transforming classroom experiences with technology, we’re highlighting a few success stories in the region.

Turning moments of curiosity into learning opportunities 


At Grand Haven Area Public Schools, Google Apps for Education put student learning, collaboration and feedback at the center of the classroom. Grand Haven has launched 4,500 Chromebooks for students and staff and has deployed 8,400 Google Apps accounts. Before introducing the new tools, when students had a question, they had to wait until a teacher had time to work with them. In classrooms of 20 students or more, many of these teachable moments would simply get lost in the shuffle.

Technology allows those moments of curiosity to turn into learning opportunities for students. With Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education, teachers are able to provide feedback on assignments to each student individually in a single class period. For example, at Grand Haven, students use Google Docs to share their progress on math assignments with their teachers. Math teachers then check-in virtually with each of the students as they’re working on the assignment to provide them with real-time feedback by adding comments in the Doc. The teachers also use Doc’s revision history feature to see the logic students are using to solve the problem, giving them better insight into how students are progressing.

One high school teacher said she was able to give real-time feedback on an assignment to every single student — during a one hour class period — for the first time in fifteen years of teaching. “It’s much more than just handing a student a device,” says Doug Start, instructional technology coordinator at Grand Haven Area Public Schools: “Google Apps for Education lets our teachers move from being the ‘sage on the stage’ to the ’guide on the side,’ as they now have time to work more directly with students.”


Traveling the world from inside the classroom 


Lincoln Park Public School District (case study) considers technology a key part of its mission to prepare and inspire students to achieve educational excellence. Many of the district’s students don’t have access to technology at home, and others struggle with state standardized test questions that are based on the assumption that students have traveled.

To overcome this challenge, the district launched Google Apps for Education for 4,900 students and introduced 4,400 Chromebooks. Students now have unlimited access to global information online. “We now have the ability to bring virtual knowledge into the classroom. The virtual experience opens up the world for our students and allows them to learn more,” says Cheryl Irving, assistant superintendent for Lincoln Park Public School District.

Collaborating with virtual learning 


To provide students with anytime, anywhere learning, Fenton Area Public Schools launched 1,300 Chromebooks and 4,600 Google Apps for Education accounts for students. “Our Google solutions and services are creating new learning spaces that are spontaneous and less constrained,” says Kevin Powers, technology director at Fenton Area Public Schools.

Teachers are providing students with opportunities to work, learn and collaborate anytime, anywhere using technology beyond the classroom walls. For example, they created live after school study groups via Google Hangouts and Docs, as well as virtual book clubs during the summer via Google Groups. The district also used Hangouts to host a CNN Hero of the Year nominee, who spoke to three elementary classrooms at once.

For students and teachers in Michigan, the classroom is now bigger and richer. With Google for Education tools, students and teachers have global opportunities in the classroom and beyond.

Check out more schools’ stories and join us for a webinar on January 28th at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.

We’ve heard great stories from many of you about how you’re using technology to do amazing things in your schools, so we're going across the U.S. to see for ourselves! Check out the map below to see where we’ve been. We’d love to hear what’s happening in your state, so please share your story on Twitter or Google+ and tag us (@GoogleForEdu) or include the #GoogleEdu hashtag.

Norwegian ad agency invents a new creative process with Google Apps for Work

Posted by Christoffer Lorang Dahl, Digital Director, SMFB, Oslo, Norway

Editor's note: Today we hear from Christoffer Lorang Dahl, Digital Director at SMFB, an advertising agency based in Oslo, Norway. In the 14 years since it was founded, SMFB has delivered award-winning campaigns for local and international clients including Geox, Ikea and Statoil. Read how SMFB created a whole new work environment around Google Apps for Work and made its clients, collaborators and 65 staff happier in the process.




It’s hard to be a 21st century creative agency when we’re bogged down with a 20th century-like IT platform. As SMFB’s Digital Director, I work with creatives and account managers to make digital ideas happen. With at least five projects on the go on any given day, my hands are full, but I always make time to help out with IT, too. One year ago, this informal role took up at least three hours of my work week, while the rest of the team collectively lost 10 working hours a day to spam and a calendar system so clunky it was almost unusable. It was time for a change, so we trialled two possible solutions and chose Google. Not only did we see huge potential in Drive, we guessed that staff would be familiar with Gmail and adapt quickly. We were right.

Google Apps solved the core problems we wanted to address. Gmail fixed our issues with spam, and Google Calendar is exactly the synchronised, reliable and easy-to-use calendar we were looking for. Because of its straightforward interface, everyone can use it to book meeting rooms and tell designers which teams to work with on which days. We used to run everything through a server in Sweden, and when it crashed, none of us could work. We’ve never experienced any downtime since switching to Google.

As well as fix the problems we knew we had, Google Apps for Work has rejuvenated our creative process. It’s hard to put someone in an office and tell them to “be creative.” That’s not how creativity works, but it’s exactly what we used to do. A typical day at SMFB used to begin with a briefing from the account director to the creatives. After that, the creatives would head to their offices to come up with ideas, which they would share by late afternoon so that they could get feedback by the next day. Now creatives start every morning with a Hangout, spend the day in a cafe, under the sun or wherever they like, and share their ideas on Docs. The account director and account manager — even the clients — can pitch in on the process, concepts and copy, which constantly evolve. And we never experience the confusion that results from multiple drafts and versions floating around. Film scripts do change, but if the wrong draft is sent to an animator or a director, the consequences can be dire.

Once we have a project concept, we compile a budget together in Sheets and contact external production companies. We handle at least five of these at a time, and they change from one day to the next, but because Drive documents can be shared with anyone, we can send these external companies briefs, handle agreements and manage the whole process on one platform. Anyone can immediately see how a project is progressing by looking it up on Drive — something that’s vital for running campaigns on social media, where every second counts.

I like to help my colleagues, and Google’s simple administration interface makes it easy. When a workmate accidentally deleted crucial files, I retrieved them from Drive, which lets you recover documents from up to 10 users for up to 25 days. And rather than just react, I suggest better ways of doing things — like creating a group email account for a new project, which I can have ready in two minutes. It’s a whole new way of working. So much so, in fact, that I recommended Google Apps for Work to our partner agency, Forsman & Bodenfors. Now they’re on it, too.

United Biscuits prepares for another Christmas sales rush with help from Google Apps

Posted by Barry Kelly, Enterprise Architect at United Biscuits 

Editor's note: Today we hear from Barry Kelly, Enterprise Architect at United Biscuits, a leading international manufacturer and marketer of biscuits and cakes, producing brands including McVitie’s, Jacob’s and Carr’s. Read how the company’s employees use Google Apps to work together globally and deliver significant incremental sales.

Christmas is a peak trading period for us here at United Biscuits, as people up and down the country stock up on their favourite snacks and treats to get ready for the festive period. We make 30% of our yearly sales then, so it’s important to get every area of the business focussing on driving seasonal sales. But with thousands of employees based all over the country, we had to find a way to work as a single team and get around the geographical challenges.

By using Google Apps for Work we’ve become a stronger team: we share over 700,000 documents on Drive, spend 1,600 hours a month meeting together on Hangouts, use Sheets to help coordinate marketing efforts and rely on Sites to continually develop our company intranet for better communication.

Google Apps tools have also delivered huge sales increases that add to our bottom line. Richard Williams, Field Sales Controller has been leading our seasonal in-store promotion days — or Making A Difference Days (MAD), as we call them. These now bring in additional significant revenue each year, thanks largely to the motivation and inspiration teams get from being part of our Google+ community. These specific days see up to 200 employees from across the company working together to improve our customer offer and taking on roles they’d normally never do. MAD days are a chance for people at every level to contribute to the customer-facing parts of the business during our busiest time of year.

On our MAD Day last Christmas, teams used Google+ to instantly share over 700 photos and videos with colleagues in other stores, and teams inspired and encouraged each other to go the extra mile. By allowing teams to share ideas across regions instead of work alone in a single store, Google+ revolutionised the day, and staff left feeling exhilarated rather than exhausted.

Google technology has transformed our merchandising days — and, with this year’s Christmas activity not far away, we’re confident our sales figures will reflect this. And by year end, every single United Biscuits employee will be a member of our Google+ community, meaning knowledge and ideas will continue to be shared and developed across the business, no matter where we’re based.

What’s new with Chromebox for meetings?

Chromebox for meetings brings high-quality video conferencing to any room. To help Google Apps customers who use Chromebox for meetings devices stay on top of new feature releases and improvements, starting today we’ll provide a regular recap of recent and upcoming launches. Today’s update coincides with the release of Chrome OS 47 stable, and we will continue to post updates moving forward following the Chrome OS six week release cycle. 

Guest Access
Google Hangouts now supports meeting participants who do not have Google accounts.

Various Performance Optimizations
  • Improved WebRTC to reduce audio echoing and optimize performance on Hangouts.
  • Faster HD resolution, smoother video rendering, and OPUS codec for improved audio quality on CfM.
  • Screenshare improvements for faster updates for complex on-screen changes.

Admin Email Notifications
We recently launched the ability for domain administrators to be notified when a Chromebox for meetings device goes offline, either by email or SMS. There is a known issue on being notified after scheduled reboots, and we are actively working on resolving it.

On-screen Volume Control
In addition to using the buttons on the speaker/mic, it is now possible to adjust the volume using on-screen controls that have been added to the user interface of Chromebox for meetings.


Launch Details 
Release track: 
All features launched to both Rapid release and Scheduled release; Performance optimization improvements require an upgrade to Chrome 47. Chrome 47 will roll out automatically over the next week for customers who have auto updates turned on.

Impact: 
All end users, plus the admin-only email notification feature

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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