• A seamless collaboration experience on any device, anywhere

• Horizontal communication environment

• Seamless workbook management in one place

Mr. Choi explains that the company’s perception of the cloud has changed over the years. Until a few years ago, there was the impression that it was difficult to integrate Software as a Service (SaaS) into the core business environment. Because of this,  collaboration tools were often operated on on premise PCs.

“It's hard to keep up with the times with client-centered services now. The client method has the advantage of being able to develop and use the necessary functions freely, but it takes a lot of effort to continue development and maintenance, and it is not easy to follow sensitive trends such as mobile and security.”

Rather, Harim decided that it would be much more advantageous for companies to properly utilize cloud services that are already well developed, with new technologies and consistent updates. This is particularly because collaboration and communication-related technologies were not required to integrate with Harim’s other technologies that were related to the food production business. Instead, they were used as a support tool to improve workflows. 

During the deployment, Harim reviewed several cloud-based collaboration tools. His key criteria included ease of use for field users, who would account for the majority of executives and employees. It was also important for them to access and use it easily. Since the proportion of Android smartphones in the company was also high, there was already a basic environment for employees to access and use Google's services naturally. Familiarity with the platform would enable easy adoption and allow ease of communication at any time regardless of device or place.

“Upon deployment, we found Google Workspace to be incredibly convenient. The ease of use meant that employees didn't need training, and the new processes were seamlessly integrated into the day-to-day workflow. In order to increase utilization, training for managers was started with additional training also conducted for users who already use it well.” says Choi.

As it turned out, the Google Workspace adoption was better than expected. But more needed to be done if we wanted to go a step further, and we needed active participation from the management and executives. 

The point is that one of the manager's skills emphasized by Harim Group is that it values execution and actively monitors it through daily management. The result is the product of the process, and the performance is not judged by the result alone. It was important for management to look at many things in real time and exchange opinions. That's why we first introduced Google Workspace.

As the management directly participated in projects focused on a Google Workspace, employees' work naturally gathered in this space, and the data accumulated while working began to be organized in one place. Management is not only briefed on the results, but also checked indicators, tasks, and issues immediately and communicated directly. The pace of work has accelerated, and the time spent on reporting has completely disappeared. The work went faster and more systematically.

Because of real-time communication, the team could remove any delays and speed up decision-making processes. Employees could share their opinions and implement changes at the same time. This new way of working created a new work culture.

The benefit of using Google Workspace is the collaboration of documents. Instead of having to create copies every time, employees can work on a single document, and refer back to previous versions using the history function. This allows transparency, and at the same time, makes the history management easy as there is no risk of lost documents in between. Having this function also fosters teamwork, as everyone can access and work on the document together at the same time. 

Businesses usually want to move all existing documents into the new environment and manage them through security rules to change the document system. However, Harim's document management strategy was a little different. Rather than gathering everything into the system immediately, Harim encouraged employees to naturally adapt to the new system. 

“IT administrators expect to manage documents systematically and strictly, and to operate document centralization through security and classification policies, but in reality it's not easy to carry out. Instead, Harim ensures that every employee manages their documents in a convenient way while following security, management, and sharing rules.”

The unlimited storage space in the cloud allows each person to freely manage documents and share documents through space according to their work. Depending on the relevance of the work, documents naturally gather, and there is also a sense of awareness of common materials.

“As I shared and worked with Drive, I realized that ownership of documents is not by an individual, but it is an asset that belongs to the team and the company. Documents were systematically gathered with a simple rule to post them in a shared folder if you thought they were minimal public materials. If it's a security document that can have a serious impact on your management, you can manage it in a separate way. Real security is done not from the system, but from the consciousness and trust of the individuals involved,” shares Choi.

Currently, Harim's work-related communication is steadily moving and expanding to Google Workspace. Telephone calls have been converted to messages from Google Chat or Google Meet, and communication with multiple people has increased significantly over one to one communication. Instead of regular business trips and field trips, video conferencing on Meet has become a natural routine, and smooth communication has eased overall workflows.

There has also been a change in IT management. Traditional business software has reduced its capabilities around electronic payments, and the rest is moving quickly to Google Workspace. In the process, the ongoing operational, management, and development of groupware, which was operated on-premise, has been significantly reduced, and management points have become noticeably simpler. The burden of moving large files to and from the email server is gone because of the immediate loss of the email server or restrictions on email space.

Gmail has established itself as a very active communication tool for young people because it is fast, has no storage burden, and because it is already the most familiar communication tool on smartphones, and even when new employees come in, the burden of education and adaptation has disappeared.

Compared to the existing email environment, Gmail was easy to search and has no storage space restrictions, increasing employee satisfaction. Managing spam has also become easier, and administrative requests to IT departments have been significantly reduced because there is little to no disruption.

Through the different communication channels on Google Workspace, a better sense of camaraderie has been formed within the organization, strengthening the bond between employees. It has also created a flatter hierarchy, where anyone can discuss their work freely in an open and transparent environment.