By implementing Google Workspace, the OT Group is able to create a more collaborative work environment and easily pivot to new ways of work during the pandemic.
is a consumer goods company that has served Indonesian residents for decades. Starting with traditional health drinks, the company has expanded to manufacture food and beverages that have become synonymous with the Indonesian way of life, without any compromise on quality.
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Indonesia
By implementing Google Workspace, the OT Group is able to create a more collaborative work environment and easily pivot to new ways of work during the pandemic.
Google Workspace Results
Ensuring business continuity through improved collaboration with Google Workspace.
• Implements Google Workspace in just three months
• Improves collaboration among employees with Sheets and Gmail
• Enables business continuity during the pandemic with Google Meet
• Keeps confidential information and data secure with Google Workspace permissions and access control tools
If you walk into any supermarket or grocery store in Indonesia, chances are you’ll come across brands like Tango on the biscuit aisle, or Teh Gelas and Crystalin in the beverages section and also Formula at the personal care shelf. These well-loved brands that many Indonesians have grown up consuming are the products of OT Group, a consumer goods company that has since grown its presence internationally.
Supporting Indonesians with daily consumables for decades, OT Group first opened its doors in 1948, selling traditional health drinks. Over the years, the company has expanded its scope to other packaged food and beverages, including personal care products.
As a company that’s synonymous to the Indonesian way of life, OT Group has gained the trust and confidence of Indonesians for generations. However, in order to keep pace with newer competitors in the evolving digital landscape, the management at OT Group knew they had to improve their ways of working.
Looking to improve collaboration across the organization, the team decided to move their workloads from on-premise to the cloud. With the support of Google Cloud Premier Partner , OT Group migrated from its legacy servers to in March 2019 within just three months.
Enabling unlimited storage with Google Workspace
OT Group’s existing technology had served the company well for decades. But as the company evolved, the group began to face new challenges, particularly when it came to storage. Built on a legacy on-premise platform, storage was limited, which made it common practice for its employees to download data and emails into their personal devices upon receiving them. This same data would later be deleted from servers to make space for new information.
Because old data was consistently deleted from existing servers, information would get lost when employees forgot to download them, or if they switched devices. Not having an archive was problematic not only because of the lack of accountability, but with information stored in different places, it became increasingly difficult to keep track of business operations.
"Keeping track of workflows was a challenge as we had no way of backing up data in our servers. At the same time, information was everywhere in people’s personal devices," said Candra Setianto, CTO at OT Group. With most of its work-related tools stored in servers on-premise, mobility was also a challenge as employees could only access them from the office.
Working with EIKON Technology, OT Group decided to migrate its workloads to Google Workspace, where they now have unlimited server space. "We no longer have to worry about deleting files, and better still, employees can access the information they need from anywhere."
Keeping up with business operations in a digital world
“The marketing team and our designers would often have to use their private emails or third-party file-sharing sites to share large documents like design files, and this was neither ideal nor secure. With Google Workspace, they don’t even have to upload files anymore as they can simply access them in Drive.” - Candra Setianto, CTO, OT Group
OT Group supplies products to vendors across Indonesia and around the world, so they needed a platform that could improve the way they shared data and information. Sharing large files such as inventory spreadsheets, and marketing collaterals, also proved a challenge, as there was a limit to the size of attachments allowed in their legacy email platform.
"The marketing team and our designers would often have to use their private emails or third-party file sharing sites to share large documents like design files, and this was neither ideal, nor secure," says Setianto. "With Google Workspace, they don’t even have to upload files anymore as they can simply access them in ."
The team also uses and for collaboration on a daily basis. Employees can easily view the same document that is hosted in the cloud, and work on it simultaneously. "Sheets has not only taken away the need for us to upload and download documents, but we can also keep track of who inputs what information. The best part of this is that we know we are always working on the latest version of the document," says Setianto.
Changing the work culture for business continuity
Even though employees at OT Group are reaping the benefits that have come with the migration to Google Workspace, transitioning employees to new processes is not without its challenges, especially for an organization that has been around for decades. But in order to move forward, Setianto knew he needed to change the culture of the organization and embrace new ways of working.
This is where EIKON Technology took the reins to provide support. "The team from EIKON Technology really stepped up and provided training to our employees and the IT team. They introduced the features and tools available on the platform, and even demonstrated how new tools could help improve their daily work activities," shares Setianto. With proper training, the adoption of Drive increased across the organization, alongside a spike in productivity.
The management at OT Group also appointed a Google Champion in each team. "When people have questions about how to use specific products or face issues navigating the platform, they could approach the appointed ‘Champion’ for help. This gave people more confidence to explore and learn," says Setianto.
Navigating the pandemic with Google Meet
“With Meet, we were able to keep our daily operations running smoothly throughout the pandemic. Even after the lockdowns, we continued to use Meet on a regular basis.” - Candra Setianto, CTO, OT Group
The move to Google Workspace proved timely for the OT Group as COVID-19 became a global pandemic. As a company that was used to in-person meetings, the entire organization pivoted to using regularly, supporting remote work when lockdown measures were in place. This helped ensure business continuity despite lockdowns, and that Indonesians were still able to get their daily essentials from their trusted brands.
"In a way, the pandemic helped accelerate our digital transformation journey, as employees were required to meet virtually since we could not go into the office," says Setianto. "With Meet, we were able to keep our daily operations running smoothly throughout the pandemic. Even after the lockdowns, we continued to use Meet on a regular basis." Today, it has become common practice to send Meet invitations on , which employees would receive on their Gmail accounts.
Making virtual meetings a norm also meant that employees from different offices can have more regular meetings for better collaboration, resulting in savings on travel costs and time.
Working in a secure cloud environment
“Having everything accessible with a single login makes it easy for employees to collaborate. At the same time, it has improved governance across the company because once an employee leaves the company, we simply have to disable their corporate account, revoking access to all the data and information.” - Candra Setianto, CTO, OT Group
As with any organization, employees come and go. While it may have been difficult to contain proprietary information within the company in the past, OT Group is now able to exercise higher security on confidential information.
"Having everything accessible with a single login makes it easy for employees to collaborate. At the same time, it has improved governance across the company because once an employee leaves the company, we simply have to disable their corporate account, revoking access to all the data and information," says Setianto.
With different business units across the company, setting clear access controls has also helped streamline admin processes. Employees only have access to the documents they need, giving different departments the confidence to store information in the cloud that may have otherwise been kept offline.
Having been through the challenges of the pandemic and experienced remote work with Google Workspace, OT Group is well equipped to continue working in a hybrid environment, even in a post-pandemic world.
"Our operations today are no longer location-bound, as every employee is equipped with the tools they need to complete their task seamlessly, no matter where they are," says Setianto. Looking into the future, Setianto says the team will continue experimenting with other Google Workspace tools, so that they can continue enhancing their ways of working.
Google Cloud Premier Partner
About EIKON TechnologyFounded in 2007, EIKON Technology helps companies achieve new levels of effectiveness, efficiency, and collaboration by designing and deploying the right cloud technologies for their business. A Google Cloud Premier Partner, the company’s mission is to use technology to bring positive change and redefine the way companies work.