1. At a Glance
What they wanted to do
• A low cost email server that would
prevent spam and offer huge
storage space
• Work efficiently and increase
collaboration among members in
New Zealand, Philippines and London
What they did
• Selected Gmail for its capabilities
• Transited to using the Google Apps
suite to increase collaboration and
work efficiency. Also uses Calendar,
Drive and Sites
What they accomplished
• Time savings of 5 – 10 hours per employee
each week
• Cost savings of between AUD $18,000 –
$22,000 annually
• A 36% growth in 2012 compared to a
20% growth in 2011 over the same period
Business
TravelCafe is an online travel company based in New Zealand. Three years
ago, the company restructured its business model and shifted its entire
operations online. TravelCafe, today, offers its database of approximately
60,000 clients travel booking services for flights, hotels and car rentals. The
company, which first set up operations in 1976, has 22 employees working
remotely in New Zealand, Philippines, London and Macedonia.
Challenge
TravelCafe operates in a fast moving environment so its employees
understand the importance of responding promptly to customer enquiries
in order to close a sales deal. As most of these enquiries are received through
emails, it is paramount that the company’s email system remains efficient at
all times.
However, the email server that TravelCafe was using at that time often
classified customer emails as spam. As a result, employees missed emails
and this affected their response rate, which led to lower sales. To manage
the problem, the IT team had to constantly step in to retrieve emails from
the spam folders and make adjustments to the system. Greg Southcombe,
Managing Director of TravelCafe, said “The amount of time the IT team spent
on trying to fix this issue was a distraction from their primary responsibilities.”
Employees also had insufficient storage space to accommodate their large
volume of emails. This led to a loss of productivity as the company had to
routinely liaise with the host server for email archiving. The company was also
hosting its website on the same server and faced the risk of losing their emails
and a website crash should the host company meet with a server issue.
In addition, it was crucial for the business to keep their databases up-to-date
so that they could advise clients on changes on the prices of flights, hotel
rooms and holiday packages. It was therefore crucial for the TravelCafe to
be equipped with the right tools that will allow them to meet this standard
of efficiency and ensure customer satisfaction and company growth.
“Google Apps has helped us reduce the time taken to update our
database and website and that definitely gives us a competitive
advantage over other local travel agencies.”
—Greg Southcombe, Managing Director, TravelCafe
Solution
TravelCafe looked for a solution that would address their spam and storage
issues but also kept in mind that they wanted it to be affordable. Greg opted
for the free trial of Google Apps while still looking for other alternatives. He
TravelCafe attributes company growth of
36% to Google Apps
Case Study | Google Apps

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All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
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quickly realised that Gmail successfully addressed their initial concerns about
spam and storage.
After the free trial expired, Greg transitioned to utilising Google Apps. “It just
felt like it was natural for us to progress to using the Google Apps suite, so we
moved the entire office onto Google Apps in just one night. It was so easy!”
he said.
Results
Greg highlighted that with their initial vendor, the company was not getting
valued service and IT support for the amount that they were paying. At a
monthly cost of USD$5 per user, Google Apps turned out to be a good fit for
TravelCafe as they were looking for a cost effective solution. The company
saw a great reduction in their IT costs by about AUD $18,000 – $22,000 per
year after switching to Google Apps. Since then, TravelCafe has completely
done away with IT support.
Google Apps has also brought about unexpected benefits such as increased
collaboration between employees, and even allowed Greg to hire a virtual
administrative assistant, Rona, from the Philippines. This additional resource
has significantly freed up Greg’s time. “By hiring Rona, I spend significantly
less time sorting out administrative tasks such as processing payments
for employees. While Rona manages this whole process now, it only works
because Google Apps gives us the ability to collaborate and consolidate
centrally,” he added.
Having a team of employees who are based remotely can present challenges
to efficiency and productivity. However, Google Apps has helped TravelCafe
create a collaborative environment whereby workflow processes have also
been streamlined. Employees can now simultaneously work on the same
document via Google Drive and key in their inputs in real time. This has
brought about time savings of between five to ten hours each week,
per employee.
Being able to provide the most up-to-date information at a rapid speed is
critical to the business. Speed and accuracy of information on flight and
accommodation prices can make or break a sale. “We’re extremely pleased
to have the right tools to instantly update our database whenever there are
price updates. Google Apps has provided great support for our business
model in allowing all our employees to be able to collaborate and provide
accurate information to our customers so that they can make an informed
decision,” Greg said.
The company witnessed a 36% growth this year, compared to the 20%
growth they experienced within the same time last year. Greg attributes
this to the fact that employees are now able to get the products and the
right information out to the market at a much faster speed. “Google Apps
has helped us reduce the time taken to update our database and website
and that definitely gives us a competitive advantage over other local travel
agencies” he concluded.
About Google Apps
Google Apps is a cloud-based productivity
suite that helps you and your team connect
and get work done from anywhere on any
device. Google Apps includes Gmail, Google
Calendar (shared calendaring), Google Drive
(online content storage and sharing), and
Google Docs, Sheets Slides (document
creation and collaboration).
For more information, visit
www.google.co.nz/apps
“It just felt like it was natural for us to
progress to using the Google Apps suite,
so we moved the entire office onto Google
Apps in just one night. It was so easy!“
—Greg Southcombe, Managing Director,
TravelCafe