Background: first steps towards the cloud
The history of G Suite adoption by the Ministry of Housing is similar to many organizations, stemming from the need for an email provider that meets standards of usability, capacity, and cloud hosting. In 2010, the Ministry of Housing, Construction, and Sanitation utilized an Outlook solution. However, due to issues with licensing and cost savings, they migrated to Zimbra. This change brought about a significant challenge: from a technical standpoint, there was no partner or trained personnel to raise a ticket when advanced support needs arose, such as database dumping, insufficient hard drive space, or upgrading the server or operating system.
From the user's perspective, the same issue experienced with Outlook was inherited with Zimbra: limited storage space. At the Ministry, users were categorized into two types: common and VIP, with storage capacities of 1 GB and 3 GB respectively. These capacities were certainly restrictive. When greater storage capacities began to be assigned to certain VIP users, the hard drive remained the same, leading to the consumption of space allocated for non-VIP users. Additionally, frequent difficulties arose, such as the absence of a security certificate or personnel with the expertise to implement double authentication or session management techniques.
All these difficulties derived from having an on-premise system for the mail service motivated the Ministry to think about the cloud as an attractive option. As Rubén Alcalá, Director of the Information Technology Office of the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, stated: “Google far surpasses the Office 365 solution in terms of third-party applications: you can link G Suite to other third-party applications and can make them coexist in a perfect ecosystem. Another advantage is infinite storage, which benefits IT areas because web systems can upload their attached files to this storage and we could do experiments with file servers and upload them to the cloud.”
An agile and transversal adoption
As for adoption, it was not complicated since there were many Gmail users in the organization, it was not necessary to go through a long learning curve. From the initial phase, staff began using Calendar to schedule meetings and Google Drive for file storage. Alcalá highlights that while younger staff, referred to as advanced users, adopted the platform swiftly and easily, many collaborators with no prior technology experience also successfully embraced G Suite tools: “There was a gentleman, 70 years old, who did print advertising and had never even used Paint. He would take the file on a USB and go to printing presses to print billboards. After the training sessions led by Xertica, he learned how to create web pages with Google Sites.”
“We have saved storage space on the servers because more and more users are uploading their files to the cloud. We have realized that today, people are more organized when scheduling meetings because they are using email and Calendar in good synchronization. People are also using cell phone notifications for G Suite,” highlights Rubén Alcalá. He adds, “We have saved on maintenance procedures because we always have the support from Xertica and Google. For Accounting and Logistics, we taught them Sheets. The legal areas benefited from the use of Docs because all the lawyers wrote the same document and did not have to pass the versions one by one, but rather had live control of changes.”
Teleworking and cloud in times of Covid-19
"When the Covid-19 pandemic emerged, the benefits of using the G Suite platform tools became increasingly evident: it has effectively facilitated working from home for all members of the Ministry,” highlights Rubén Alcalá. In Peru, rumors of a probable mandatory quarantine gained strength in the second week of March. Anticipating the situation, Ministry of Housing workers were asked to upload their information to the cloud through Google Drive.
“The process of enabling the use of communication and collaboration tools showed significant results. About 80% of the staff already use the Google cloud; the rest still connect remotely through Google Remote Desktop, migrating their information to the cloud and storing it in Drive,” Alcalá noted.
The Ministry of Housing, in the era prior to the Covid-19 quarantine, managed a project called “Transparent Rooms”: meeting rooms with transparent glass walls and cameras that record audio and video to prevent corruption issues. In response to the current contingency and to maintain this practice, Alcalá gives an example of how G Suite, specifically the Meet tool, is facilitating the continuity of work: “Now that we cannot meet within the Ministry in our transparent rooms, we are bringing together people from local and regional governments and our engineers in these Meet rooms. A member of the Citizen Service or Anti-Corruption area records the session in Meet to ensure everything remains transparent. We make this clear in a Calendar posted on the Ministry of Housing website.”
Finally, Rubén Alcalá shares his view on how work dynamics will evolve in the post-coronavirus era: “We have had to reach this point for some areas and companies to realize the importance of technology in times of crisis (not just pandemics, but other disruptions as well). We are discovering that many people can perform their work as effectively, if not more so, remotely. This will lead to greater adherence to the teleworking law, which is already in place and regulated.” He further explains how the adoption of teleworking will enhance the quality of life and work environment: “Embracing cloud solutions will save us physical space. For instance, there will be fewer paper storage needs as we digitize more documents, freeing up room for people: maternity rooms, recreational areas, larger meeting rooms, and auditoriums. I am confident that the private sector will implement these changes, and we hope this approach becomes widespread in the public sector as well.”
Usage Metrics - April 2020
- 75.66% Drive adoption.
- 10,539 files shared with external users.
- 212,013 files shared with internal users.
- 8,148 emails sent from Gmail.
- 35,925 emails received in Gmail.
- 92,481 MB in files stored in Gmail.
- 93,880,471 MB in files stored in Drive.
- 22,514,780 MB in files stored in Gmail.
