Kenyan cloud services company and Digicloud Africa partner Altostratus Africa Limited (AAL) are helping Kenyan businesses transform their operations and employee experience by migrating them to Google Workspace.

Digicloud Africa, Google’s chosen reseller enablement partner in Africa, believes African businesses of all sizes are realising unexpected benefits by moving to Google Workspace.

Gregory MacLennan, CEO of Digicloud Africa, said: “Our partner Altostratus is driving change for Kenyan companies by helping them change the way they work.”

And chief marketing officer at Altostratus, Elseba Adewa, said: “Kenya has long been a ‘Microsoft country’, but it was a default rather than an actual choice. For many, it was a natural transition to move from their desktop environment to using Microsoft in the cloud.”

Kaari Mwilaria, chief revenue officer at Altostratus, added: “When many businesses move to a Microsoft cloud environment, there’s not much of a change in their work culture. They still tend to work in isolation, save multiple drafts of documents and e-mail attachments back and forth. They bring their old habits to the cloud and don’t move to the new way of working.

“To remain relevant and compete, businesses need to change their culture and be in the cloud. Google makes it easy to change work culture once an organisation unlocks its benefits.”

Altostratus works to onboard businesses to Google Workspace and help them optimise the value of the move by showing them how to use the tools and features at their disposal.

Everything in one place

Adewa said: “Google is simpler, and opens a whole new world for them. One thing they find astonishing is that they can all share and work on the same document or spreadsheet. When we show them what’s possible, it recalibrates the way they think. Instead of paying for multiple tools from various vendors, they have everything they need in one place.

“Clients are loving the fact that it’s so secure, and that they never have to lose data or work again. They also appreciate the centralised storage across the subscriptions from business to enterprise editions, which eliminates the need for any extra third party storage or backup platforms. Those nine Google Workspace dots open a new universe for them.”

“Another key benefit for many organisations – particularly those with teams in the field – is the offline capability that automatically syncs once they have access to Wi-Fi and the reporting tool that allows field users to share real-time data from the field. Basically, real time is transforming the businesses,” said Mwilaria.

MacLennan added: “Since everything works with Office apps, users don’t even have to worry about converting or reformatting anything. Google asked a third-party firm (Quadrant Strategies) to conduct independent research to tease out non-technical differences between the Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. The firm’s findings revealed that companies that use Google Workspace are more likely to experience positive outcomes than comparable companies using Microsoft.”

Since everything works with Office apps, users don’t even have to worry about converting or reformatting anything

He says the Google research report, Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 Impact on Business in March 2022, found that businesses that adopt Google Workspace are more likely to report greater productivity, innovation, and increasing revenue than those that adopt Microsoft 365; and the more Google Workspace tools a user employs, the greater their preference for the solution. Collaboration is a key benefit, with 52% of survey respondents who use Google Workspace saying the communication platforms on Google facilitate meaningful conversations. Google Workspace users say they have an average of 13.4 collaborators per document, and 56% say using Google Workspace allows them to quickly and easily get what they need from team members.

An IDC report on the business value of Google Workspace indicates that Google customers will realise benefits worth an annual average of US$120 700 per 100 daily active Google Workspace users, by providing a collaboration solution that matches the changing way that employees work, enabling employees to spend more time on value-added and innovative activities, enhancing digital experiences for employees and generating significant operational efficiencies.

About Digicloud Africa
Digicloud Africa is Google’s chosen enablement partner in Africa. Through Digicloud, Google is creating an ecosystem of Google Cloud partners across the continent. Digicloud supports its partner network by providing the necessary training, tools and resources needed to implement cloud solutions and support their customers successfully. As customer demands for technology intensify, Digicloud is increasing its investment in supporting partners to achieve sustainable growth. Digicloud’s partner enablement helps organisations build skills around open, advanced technologies to go to market with outcome-based solutions. Find Digicloud Africa on LinkedIn.