For decades, DPG Media has been the media company of Belgium and the Netherlands. The news publisher touches its readers and listeners with inspiring stories, the most recent news articles and entertainment. Behind every door, you will find the news of DPG Media: a publisher with real people, real media and real results.

The challenge

Collaboration became a challenge for DPG Media, once they started operating in three different countries divided over many internal divisions. As the world of media is changing continuously, effective and efficient collaboration is essential in order to keep the leading position.

Some divisions within DPG Media already made use of Google’s so-called “collaboration tools”. Its added value became very clear and so DPG Media decided to fully focus on Google Workspace (formerly G Suite).

The solution

“From the very beginning, we decided to partner with g-company, our Google Cloud partner. Together we set up the Google Workspace environment. Google Workspace makes it possible to create a modern workplace within an organization by integrating several productivity and collaboration tools. g-company has been involved in the integration from the very first steps and shared thoughts and feedback to finetune the modern workplace,” DPG Media adds. “Together with g-company we have created a transformation plan to introduce Google Workspace to our employees. That plan consists of several aspects,” according to Maarten Cautreels, Product Owner at DPG Media.

Transformation lab
Together with a number of 'key people', we get together to find out which important work processes exist. Together with them, we will convert some of these processes into Google tools to show them how cooperation could be better, more efficient or easier.

Trainings
Apart from that, we also offer training with the ins and outs of the Google Workspace tools. Think of it as a kind of manual to take the employees through the software, so they know exactly where they need to be and which button is for what.

Dr. Google
Thirdly, we offer sessions called “Dr. Google”, which kind of works the same as your general practitioner. You schedule an appointment with the specialist at a specific timeframe. During the appointment, you can ask your particular question to your doctor and within your timeframe, you try to come to a solution together.

Floor walking
In addition, we visit every single employee physically in the office. During this visit, employees are able to ask questions to the specialists. We experience a lower barrier if people can ask questions in real life.

Intranet
Within our intranet, we created a section where employees can find structured information of the process of the modern workplace. That includes information about training, the transformation lab and about the use of Dr. Google. And in addition, some tips and tricks are shared. We have also created a community on the intranet for people to ask questions to their colleagues, to answer questions from others or to collaborate with team members for certain projects.

g-company also assists with the execution of this transformation plan, as the workload should not be underestimated. “The transition to Google Workspace is not easy for everyone and we realize that,” adds Stefan Demey. “The world of media is dynamic and to keep up with all the changes, we collaborate intensively within different teams and countries.”

The result

DPG Media now collaborates as a webbased team, and that pays off. The organization especially sees a lot of time saved by the use of Google Workspace. On a daily basis, they make use of Google Meet and because of the fact that collaborating takes less time, more interest is shown in training. That is why they have also implemented Google Classroom. “The added value is certainly there. If it is not there today, it will definitely be there tomorrow,” Stefan Demey concludes.

Coronavirus crisis

As a result of the Coronavirus, many divisions were suddenly forced to work from home. On the one side, this change resulted in a relocation of the workplaces from the office to the homes of DPG Media employees. But on the other side, the Google Workspace was already fully deployed. This resulted in efficient and easy ways of virtual collaboration. Until this day, DPG Media still holds its editorial meetings through Google Meet, and also almost all other meetings take place remotely. Even the weather forecast is presented from home now!