ALPI goes Google Cloud – increasing collaboration and efficiency

Client

Albini & Pitigliani (ALPI) is a globally renowned transportation and logistics freight forwarding company based in Italy, with eight offices in the United States. ALPI covers every aspect of freight forwarding including airfreight, seafreight, ground transportation, express courier service, logistics services and consulting, overload transports, and more. Founded in 1945, ALPI delivers to more than 270 destinations.

Business challenge

Before transitioning to Google Workspace, ALPI was experiencing significant problems with their email provider and was constantly dealing with issues of not being able to send or receive emails. With all of their employees on Outlook, they also experienced difficulty syncing Outlook. ALPI’s employees lacked mobility capabilities and anytime, anywhere access to email. Furthermore, ALPI received very little support to resolve issues that came up.

“We were experiencing a whole host of problems,” said Erin O’Leary, IT Director at ALPI’s United States practice. ALPI’s employees and customers complained about the unreliability of their email correspondence and the problems it caused for communication internally and externally.

After a couple of years of frustration with communication limitations and lack of customer support, ALPI knew they wanted to move to a reliable, cloud-based system that would give their employees the freedom to do their job instead of dealing with email issues.

Solution

After reviewing options, ALPI quickly realized that Google Workspace was the best option to satisfy their email communication needs as well as provide added collaboration benefits through Google Drive and Docs. ALPI contacted SADA, a Google Cloud Premier Partner, and after a consultative and planning meeting with ALPI’s IT team, the project quickly began.

“We knew we wanted to get it done as quickly as possible,” stated O’Leary, “and the transition was very smooth.” SADA strategized a migration plan with ALPI’s IT team and provided clear instructions as to the project timeline and tasks. A couple of weeks before the migration, SADA provided instructions and guides for ALPI to send to their employees in order to ease them into the new interface and features of Gmail and provide them with basic information on logging in and creating their accounts. SADA coordinated with ALPI’s IT team to complete the migration over the span of one weekend so that when employees came in on Monday morning, they all had Gmail.

“I would definitely recommend working with SADA,” said O’Leary, “They always get back to me immediately when something is going on, even if it is not a major issue. The response time is great and helps me do my job better.”

Results and benefits

ALPI’s employees were impressed by the reliability and functionality of Google’s email and collaborative solutions. O’Leary added, “The reception was great because there were no issues, everyone was sending and receiving emails with no problem. It was a pretty flawless move.”

The challenges and frustration caused by their old system were replaced by the ease-of-use and reliability of Google’s cloud-based communication and collaboration solutions. “They’re definitely getting their messages much faster,” added O’Leary, “and they have confidence that they’re receiving everything. The ability to search messages has been extremely helpful.”

Gmail’s folder and filter systems have made it easier for ALPI’s employees to keep their inboxes organized; they are now able to spend less time managing email and more time getting their job done. ALPI’s IT team was able to save a significant amount of time that had previously been spent setting up email and fixing the old system with limited support or guidance. O’Leary added, “Since moving to Google Workspace, we save at least 15-20 hours per week just from not managing issues and setting up email.” The reliability and functionality of Google Workspace allow the ALPI team to communicate reliably and safely with their stakeholders.