Workspace Migration Eliminates Info Silos

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The Client

An executive search firm specializing for more than 25 years in filling executive and senior legal positions within businesses and law firms.

Business objectives include:

  • Foster long-term relationships with client firms and candidates
  • Maintain deep information sets covering client businesses, legal firms, candidates, positions, and past placements
  • Enable secure information sharing across the company
  • Foster team collaboration

The Challenge

Over the years, individual team members have built extensive data sets covering their own client businesses, legal firms, and candidates. To foster collaboration and growth, the silos needed to come down without risking the integrity of the carefully curated information.

The Solution

Design and implement a five step approach including:

  • Deploy Google Workspace Business Standard for access to Shared Drives and increased pool storage.
  • Create an access and permissions architecture to define Share management and membership.
  • For each share, defined access roles and assign creator, editor, contributor, and view-only permissions.
  • Manage a migration from personal Google Drives storage, local file servers, other cloud services, and local devices
  • Provide on-ongoing guidance and support to maintain the information store

The Results

A successful migration to Google Workspace Standard, including:

  • Shared Drives configured with well-defined managers, contributors, and viewers creates an organized system of managing, maintaining, and sharing information across the organization.
  • Simple policies to guide naming conventions and file/folder hierarchies encourage consistency and enhance searchability of the information
  • Advanced mapping ensured an organized and clear placement of files and correct permission settings.
  • Migration support included planning and reviews with each individual, ensuring no data loss and minimal operational inconvenience during the migration period.
  • On-going guidance and support reinforces norms and helps users take advantage of Google Workspace capabilities across all of the included apps.

Strategic Productivity Platform for Sustainable Growth

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The Client

A growing full-service marketing and advertising firm with multiple branded lines of service.

Business objectives include:

  • Growth through acquisition and integration of services
  • Leverage video services to improve communication and efficiency
  • Ensure internal and client intellectual property (IP) is segregated and secure
  • Simplify team management and staff assignments.

The Challenge

Support the creation and implementation of an employee-owned holding company, under which the company will add new brands and operating units. The growth will be organic and through strategic acquisitions of other agencies and firms.

The Solution

Design and implement a phased, 4-point approach including:

  • Transition to Google Workspace Enterprise for improved collaboration, communication, and identity management and security.
  • Leverage the advanced security and data protections within Google Workspace Enterprise, and third party services, to provide comprehensive data loss prevention and data security services.
  • Solidify intellectual property protections through segregation of client data and staff. Deploy permissions management and user segregation across organizational units and dynamic groups
  • Support integration of third-party applications and solutions for critical workflows, including the use of AppSheet and SmartSheet for workflow and project management.

The Results

A successful launch of the new holding company and fully integrated entities and brands.

  • With user management consolidated across the enterprise into a single Google Workspace ecosystem reduces overhead and facilitates staff management and allocation across brands, teams, and client engagements.
  • Expanded use of Meets fosters increased internal collaboration and client engagement. With advanced features, including breakout rooms, transcripts, and AI-powered notetaking, project timelines improve and teams reduce the risk frequency of miscommunications.
  • Protection of intellectual property meets or exceeds internal expectations and client requirements. With multiple vectors of protection, teams and administrators easily manage client data segregation, access controls, and permissions.

Case Study: Google Apps Supports Strategic Growth at Merrimack Mortgage Company

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The Company

Founded in 1983, Merrimack Mortgage Company (MMC) continues to be a leader in residential mortgage lending throughout the Northeast and is one of the region’s largest independent mortgage bankers.

MMC prides itself for being the company that delivers the same products as the big lenders but with the high quality service levels inherent in a small lender. This winning combination of finesse and strength has led Merrimack Mortgage Company to its exceptional growth during the past three decades. The company’s success is attributed to its core strategy of providing a high level of customer satisfaction at a competitive price.

The Challenge

Merrimack Mortgage Company relies on extending its operations by expanding the size of the company’s geographic market area with new satellite branches. The IT department is challenged with bringing these loan officers located in satellite branches into the company’s processes effectively and quickly to allow them to be up and running as fast as possible.

The Solution

With integrated communications and file services, the transition to Google Apps was part of a strategic initiative to put the company in a competitive position to enable it to expand its operations effectively, from a primarily New England-based operation to cover their expansion outside of New England. This expansion included enabling a homogenous environment to all of the company’s loan officers while still complying with SOX, GLBA, ISO and other internal governance and audit requirements.

“The business side of me saw Google Apps as a slam dunk from a ROI and TCO perspective, and the technologist in me also couldn’t argue against introducing variable costs, scalability, availability, and OS and hardware independence. Cumulus Global recommended and helped us deploy CloudLock and Backupify for compliance, policy enforcement, risk mitigation, and data protection. This allowed us to fully embrace Google Apps and made both my Chief Compliance Officer and CFO very happy.”
— Matthew Seaton, CIO Merrimack Mortgage Company

Integrating Google Apps and CloudLock, Merrimack Mortgage Company extends its security perimeter to the cloud. MMC ensures its use of email, calendars, contacts, and files stored and shared via Google Drive comply with regulations like SOX, GLBA, ISO and other internal Acceptable Use Policies.  Backupify protection data across Google Apps accounts against data damage or deletion due to user error.

“I am not sure if I would have felt confident with my decision to move our company’s communication and collaboration needs to Google Apps for Business without the solutions and assistance from Cumulus Global. The integrated solution has relieved my anxiety over having our company data hosted by a third party,” said Seaton.  “Our management team was relieved by the value proposition.  We pay as we grow rather than making large up-front capital investments.”

Since MMC’s initial Google Apps for Business implementation in June of 2011, MMC has increased sales staff by 15% and the number of physical locations by 26%. Operations staff increases have been minimal in comparison. The greatest benefit, in regards to increased sales staffing and locations, is the ability turn-up new team members literally in minutes. In more recent months, MMC has seen back-to-back monthly company record breaking sales numbers.

To learn more about Merrimack Mortgage Company, visit: www.merrimackmortgage.com.