Chinese Television System with
Google Workspace
Google Workspace is quite handy, as Google guarantees that it will work normally 99.9% of the time. Our IT department no longer needs to fret over version updates or usability. Security is not an issue, either. Compared with previous solutions, Google Workspace has caused us no vexation, truly freed us from all worries and brought us the greatest return on investment
Huang Ri-Chun
Director of the CTS’s Information Technology Department
Overview
The Chinese Television System Inc. (CTS) has been for 40 years providing quality TV programs to Taiwan’s audiences. Headquartered in Taipei, the CTS has 24 round-the-clock TV channels serving 23 million viewers.
The CTS has 650 employees in total, whose primary responsibilities include internal communication, programming management and keeping up daily TV ratings. TO do so, they require highly stable tools, e.g., email and office Apps, to facilitate coordination and collaboration. Despite already having a set of internal solutions at the time – Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office, as well as a built-in Exchange Server in the CTS server room, the IT department and other employees still had work-related needs that were not met.
Limited storage space and unstable email system
The main reason is that the storage space provided by Microsoft Exchange is very limited. Employees’ email accounts had a capacity of only 150 MB per person, so they had to spend at least 10 minutes a day deleting emails to make room for new emails. Moreover, the Microsoft email system was never stable, often prone to failure, taking the IT department up to three hours each time to repair the program. Additionally, the emails or files did not support mobile access, which resulted in version inconsistencies. Huang Ri-Chun, director of the CTS’s Information Technology Department, stated, “Besides the above challenges, we had to spend four hours a day backing up the entire company’s emails.”
From assessment, implementation to technical support, employees can seamlessly start using Google Workspace
When evaluating all solutions, Google Workspace (previously G Suite) stood out with its practicality and prevalence. Most users in the company are aware of and have used Gmail and Google Cloud services, so they could quickly get the hang of it. Further, Google Workspace has shown greater performance in storage capacity and system reliability (e.g., providing regular services 99.9% of the time).
Master Concept, as the Google Cloud Premier Partner, assisted with the entire implementation process and provided a comprehensive integrated solution in the deployment of Google Workspace. The entire package comes with the early stage of technical assessment, the intermediate stage of solution implementation and the final stage of staff training and technical support. It took only eight months from the initial evaluation to the full deployment for the company
During the implementation process, Master Concept provided the following expert technical support:
Account synchronization: Help the CTS synchronize accounts, groups and shared contacts on the Active Directory Server
Single Sign On: Protect corporate data security through verification on the Microsoft Active Directory Server
Mail dual delivery: Send the email concurrently to both the Google Apps and the existing Exchange Server mailbox to avoid missing any mail and to give users some buffer time for conversion.
The CTS went on a gradual step-by-step conversion process of the entire email system while covering security without hindering the employees from working. Also, Master Concept assisted the CTS in successfully transferring existing data in the Exchange Server, e.g., emails, contacts, calendars and files, to Google Workspace to facilitate a seamless setup for work.
A more stable and secure email system, and IT costs are greatly reduced
The switch to Google Workspace has since reduced the CTS’s IT cost significantly. Director Huang said, “Even without taking into consideration the electricity saved from the email server, the switch to Google Workspace alone saves us US$25,000 per year. This subscription model eliminates the convoluted server maintenance and royalty calculation.”
The additional benefit is that productivity will increase for both the regular staff and the IT staff. With Gmail, employees no longer need to delete their email every day, saving them one hour per week. The entire company is also swept up in an ethos of collaboration. The IT department has real-time control of the project progress by accessing Google Doc and Google Sheet, removing the hassle of version inconsistencies. Director Huang said, “After switching to Google Workspace, I am able to restructure my team and stipulate more strategic proposals in line with the company’s central objectives.” Google Site and Google Form enable employees to rapidly build a website based on various needs. The Community Leadership Award presented by the CTS at its 40th anniversary Dinner was the result of its employees voting through an embedded form on the Google Site.
Statistic data such as the daily TV ratings used to be stored on servers in the form of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and therefore only certain users have access to them. Now the CTS stores its daily TV ratings and other statistic data on Google Sheet and has Google Sheet managed through Google Site so that everyone in the company can access the files on any device, and the employees can do a search on the archived content. Google Doc and Google Sheet have powerful and flexible features, thus prompting the CTS to quit Microsoft Office altogether.
Director Huang pointed out, “Google is a reliable and trustworthy provider and has dissolved our concerns about data security. After switching to Google Workspace, we have not had any downtime or other issues. Compared with previous solutions, Google Workspace has caused us no vexation, truly freed us from all worries and brought us the greatest return on investment.”
Actual results
• Drastically reduce annual cost by US$25,000
• Save 4 hours per day on email backup
• No longer having to delete emails to free up space, employees save 1 hour per week per person
• Sharing data is made easy (e.g., rating statistics)
• Build a trustworthy, safe solution, minus any downtime or other issues