Alquería's Digital Transformation with Google Workspace

Grupo Alquería is a conglomerate of over 24 companies and more than 4,150 employees operating in Colombia in a variety of industry sectors such as mass consumption (food and beverages), plastics, transport, and agroindustry. The company aimed to address major challenges, such as integrating teams in different cities and locations into a collaborative environment. Alquería sought to increase its digital employee base, further digitize its processes, enhance collaboration and productivity in internal processes, and improve security levels to reduce information leaks.

Alquería, a Colombian conglomerate of over 24 companies with more than 4,000 employees, faced significant challenges in integrating teams across different cities and locations into a collaborative environment. The company aimed to increase its digital employee base, further digitize its processes, enhance collaboration and productivity in internal processes, and improve security levels to reduce information leaks. The main obstacle to growth was identified as technological barriers, which needed to be broken with cloud solutions for the company to scale. The challenge was to incorporate tools that did not exceed the limit of what was possible, while efficiently allocating licenses and resources for each employee role.

Alquería decided to migrate to Google Workspace in 2016. The migration process was supported by a project the company defined as CIMA: Connectivity from anywhere, constant and inclusive innovation, mobility without depending on fixed equipment, and action to make dreams come true. The company managed to migrate all its accounts in just 15 days with the help of its partner eSource Capital, who provided training in the use of Google Workspace tools. The teams started to exchange information using Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. The advanced use of Slides was integrated with Forms and Looker Studio to capture, process, and present information and quickly democratize access to key business indicators. In response to the pandemic lockdown measures, Alquería took its digital transformation a step further by including 100% of the sales force in its digital ecosystem, adding 840 accounts in just two days.

• The migration to Google Workspace has been crucial for Alquería in three ways: it has democratized information and technology, increased collaboration, and improved financial sustainability. The company was able to optimize its resources and expand service availability from 93% to 99.9% for collaboration and productivity apps. It also reduced the costs associated with licensing collaboration and productivity applications by 23%, and reduced reporting and presentation creation time by 15% thanks to the collaborative work between departments. Alquería managed to reduce the need for its teams to commute to work, which was essential during the isolation months of 2020 and 2021. This means a 40% saving in commute time between offices by using Meet for virtual meetings. Going forward, Alquería is continuing to further strengthen the collaboration and productivity of all its employees.

• 99.9% service availability for collaboration and productivity apps

• 40% time saving for employees

• 15% time reduction in reporting