Posted by Ben Flock, Director of Operations Support, Osmose


Editor's note: Today we hear from Ben Flock, director of operations support at Osmose, which provides inspection, maintenance and rehabilitation services and products to electric and telecommunications utilities. Read how Osmose provides its field workers with connectivity using Chromebooks.


In business, as in life, connection breeds success. When you feel connected to your team, your network, your customer, your family, relationships are stronger and everybody wins.

Osmose is in the business of connecting people. We do the work that ensures your utilities are up and running so when you open your laptop, you can connect to the internet, and when you pick up a landline telephone, you get a dial tone. We offer reliable service by maintaining the poles on which utility and electric lines are strung. This means our crews spend most of their time away from the office, and we rely on Chromebooks to keep them connected in the field.

Foremen are our first line of management and key to our operations. In the past, foremen had little connectivity and limited technology when working on a job site. They used paper and pen to collect data and complete administrative tasks. When they worked remotely they often missed important family events, such as childrens’ ball games or recitals. This made it hard for us to attract and retain staff. The problem compounded as we grew: we've tripled our number of field crews since 2006. Each crew has on average three people in it: a foreman plus two other field workers.

To connect our teams and provide greater mobility, we replaced paper with Chromebooks. The devices combine the best features of tablets and laptops: they’re light, easy to use and have keyboards. Chromebooks are tough and sturdy, and well-suited for field work, including some models which have waterproof keyboards and rubberized edges so they can withstand rough weather and hard treatment in the field. They provide our crews with the capabilities they need at a price that has allowed us to provide one for each field crew at a relatively low cost.

Chromebooks play a central role in our employees’ work from the day they start at Osmose. All onboarding forms are completed online, eliminating the vast majority of our paperwork. Every crew member is issued a Chromebook during their eight-week training period, which makes the process faster and more convenient because they can refer to it for information any time they want.

Our foremen use Chromebooks on a daily basis and see the most significant benefits. They’re able to send data from the field, communicate with the main office and access safety information with the touch of a button. They can easily complete administrative tasks without carrying heavy binders. And it’s now possible for our crews to enjoy a better work-life balance because they can work from anywhere and their colleagues and family can reach them at any time via email or Google Hangouts video calls.

We’re now expanding how we use Chrome devices. We’ve introduced Chromebox for meetings in our conference rooms and our training environments. Some of our vice presidents are also using Chromebooks for everyday computing because of their portability and convenience. These devices are helping to fuel our growth and accomplish our mission to help people stay connected.

Posted by Josh Diemert, Lead Systems Administrator, Scheels

Editor's note: Today we speak with Josh Diemert, lead systems administrator for Scheels, a 26-location sporting-goods chain with stores in 11 states.


Scheels, an employee-owned, privately held business with more than 6,000 employees, has a long history of adapting to changing times. Founded in 1902 as a small hardware and general merchandise store in Sabin, Minnesota, it added sporting goods in 1954, athletic clothing in 1972, and eventually grew into an all-sports chain. In this interview, we see how the company continues to adapt today, using Chrome to deliver better service to its customers with expert advice.

Why is technology important to Scheels?

We aim to understand our customers and give them personal attention and local information. We’ve taken the in-store experience to a new level by leveraging technology to make shopping fun, while at the same time empowering our sales team to deliver a better quality of service.

How has Chrome helped?

Chrome has dramatically improved our digital signage. We use Chromebits to power digital signs in key parts of the business, like our fishing shops. The signs display information on nearby river conditions and advice on the latest equipment and local fishing techniques. They’re incredibly popular features that have helped build customer loyalty.

Given the success of our digital signage, it made sense to use Chrome for our in-store kiosks. The kiosks allow customers to order items that aren’t available in their local store. It’s the best of both worlds: hands-on advice from a local professional and access to the large inventory of an online retailer.

Our sales team also uses Chromebooks to streamline the customer workflow. Some purchases require background checks and a lot of paperwork, but Chromebooks makes it easy and more efficient to fill out the required forms. The technology also puts the right information at our employees’ fingertips, helping them provide better on-the-spot advice to our customers.

How did you get started with Chrome?

About three years ago we transitioned to Google Apps with the help of Google Apps Premier Partner Agosto. We purchased our licensing through them. They also gave us guidance on migrating our data out of Lotus Notes and into Google Apps, and showed us the benefits of Chromebooks over the legacy machines we were using. When we saw the difference, we decided to try Chrome for digital signage, kiosks and our sales staff.

What other kinds of benefits have you gotten from Chrome?

Before Chrome, it was a pain to get digital signs working — it could take a week or more to set up our legacy hardware. With Chromebits, it takes ten minutes to set up a digital sign, and we can manage them all from one location. This saves valuable time for our IT department.

We’ve also saved money. We were considering Windows laptops for our sales associates, but by choosing Chromebooks we’re saving $200 per laptop.

Overall, the biggest benefit has been giving our customers the attention they deserve, whether by offering local information, access to a larger range of products through our in-store kiosks, or making the customer workflow process easy with Chromebooks. We pride ourselves on being experts on everything we sell. With Chrome, our experts can spend more time with our customers and show them the personalized customer support that helps them choose exactly the right camping gear for a first family camping trip or the mountain bike that’s exactly the right height and weight. We’re such big believers in Chrome, we now turn to it as the first option for any new challenge.

Posted by Lewis Graham, Chief Executive Officer, Jtel

Editor's note: Today we hear from Lewis Graham, Chief Executive Officer of Jtel, which provides call center technologies for telecommunications companies and enterprises. Read how Jtel is transforming the call center industry using Chrome, which has added efficiency, time savings and ROI (45% increase for Jtel customers).

Think about the last time you needed to get in touch with a business. How did you contact them? You may have picked up the phone, but it’s just as likely you sent an email or a text message, tagged the company in a post on social media or visited the website to chat with a customer service rep. Today, there are dozens of ways for people to communicate with businesses. Companies who embrace this fact are rewarded with more engaged customers.

Jtel set out to reinvent the call center so businesses can handle all the ways people get in touch with them. Based on our 25 years of experience providing call center technology for telecommunications firms and enterprises, we’ve built a new multi-channel call center platform using Chromebooks and WebRTC. WebRTC is an open source project for real-time browser-based communications that was developed by Google. The Chrome and WebRTC solution eliminates telephones while letting agents handle email, chat and voice calls. Rather than switching between a phone and computer, the agent uses just one device.

Chrome has improved our call centers on three important fronts: call center teams work more efficiently, their calls are more effective and they save time. Chrome devices are easy to configure and manage, and they’re highly reliable — particularly important because call centers are notoriously difficult to install. Chrome and WebRTC have dramatically reduced the time required to set up a new call center: it takes four hours to set up a center with 200 to 300 Chromebooks, compared to the four days it takes to set up a traditional call center of similar size.

Chrome saves our customers money as well. In a traditional call center, each agent needs a PC and a telephone. There are also high deployment costs for each agent because of the complexity of the systems. Between hardware and implementation, it adds up to almost $1,300 per agent. Chrome and RTC save a huge chunk of that — about $800 per agent. By our calculations, that leads to a 45 percent increase in ROI for our customers.

Chromebooks with WebRTC also transform the way companies interact with their customers. It lets agents connect with customers in multiple ways, not just by phone. And it allows companies to integrate their call centers with their CRM systems so they can create self-service modules for their customers. This empowers customers to resolve issues on their own.

Companies need to to be able to help customers, however they choose to get in touch. Today, that’s through phone calls, emails, text messages and live chat. As these channels keep evolving, we will, too, thanks to Chrome and our partnership with Google. Chrome is helping us build the future of communications.

Posted by Leon Paternoster, Deputy Head of IT, Suffolk Libraries

Editor's note: Today we hear from Leon Paternoster, Deputy Head of IT at Suffolk Libraries in Ipswich, UK. Suffolk Libraries serves the UK county’s population of over 700,000. Learn how Suffolk Libraries uses mobile technology to keep its members engaged and interested in visiting their local branch.


As a modern library network, we’re more than a place to read — we connect our members to the world around them. That connection could be a book, a newspaper or access to the internet. My job as deputy head of IT involves supporting and growing our libraries’ web services. Making access to information fast and easy across any and every library-owned device is a main focus for my team.
We know our members love browsing the web when they visit the library, so we wanted to make getting online as seamless as opening a book. In 2014, we worked with our partner Ancoris to replace many of our outdated Windows PCs with Google Chromebooks. We also purchased a number of touchscreen Google Chromebases, which allow children to interact with websites without using a keyboard or mouse. Ancoris developed a Chromebook Access Management System (CAMS) that integrates the Chromebooks with our existing library management system. This controls who can log on and how long they can stay online. Today we have more than 200 Chrome devices available for visitors to check out across our 44 branches. Now visitors are able to go online anywhere in the library. From young children playing literacy games to students diving into heavy research, customers of all ages can engage with material — whether at a shared table or in a quiet nook — on their Chromebook until the device is due back.

Chromebooks and Chromebases have been so cost-effective — both initially and once deployed — that we’ve been able to increase the number of computers available to library users while upgrading our technology overall.

Now that we have fast and simple ways for our visitors to get online, our branches are hosting new programs that people love. For instance, some branches have introduced “Code Clubs,” weekly meetings for younger visitors to play games and explore coding languages like Python and Scratch. We also provide a free family history service that helps members research their family trees online.

From an IT perspective, Chrome devices are ideal. They’re secure, easy to use and require very little of our team’s time to manage. With Chrome Device Management, we don’t have to worry about data on lost or stolen devices because we’re able to centrally shut down devices that we’ve identified as lost or stolen. Despite staff concerns about theft, we haven’t had a single Chromebook stolen. And with automatic system updates, the Chromebooks stay fast, up-to-date and ready to use at a moment’s notice.

Our technology is a huge draw for library members. They look to us as a portal for information as well as a resource for pursuing their interests and professional goals. Chrome devices are the perfect library companion for our visitors and a simple solution for our IT team.

Posted by French Williams, IT Director, Royal Technologies


Editor's note: Today we hear from French Williams, IT director of the Michigan-based Royal Technologies, a 25-year-old engineering and manufacturing company specializing in plastic solutions for the automotive, furniture and consumer product industries. Read how Royal Technologies replaced its digital signage system with an affordable, easy-to-manage Chrome for Work solution with help from their partner Promevo, a premier Google Apps and Chromebook reseller.


When you think of advanced engineering and manufacturing, you probably don’t think of signage. But at Royal Technologies, digital signs powered by Chrome allowed us to communicate with our team of 1,200 employees in new ways, improved uptime by five to 10 percent on our factory floors and saved us $20,000 in the first year alone.

The digital sign in the photograph runs on Chromebit and displays a 1080p video about the different products Royal Technologies makes.

Our partner Promevo recommended the affordable Chromebit signage solution that’s working so well for us today. It’s a small ChromeOS computing stick you can plug into any screen with a HDMI port. We were already using 142 Chromebooks, Chromebox desktops and Chromebox for meetings for everything from IT computing to giving shop-floor operators access to manufacturing job paperwork, documenting work orders for our maintenance department, company meetings and performing transactions in our material requirements planning system. Some employees have even started using Chromebooks as their primary work computers. So we didn’t hesitate to give Chromebit a try.

Since we were already using Chrome, we were able to quickly and easily deploy each Chromebit for digital signage in just 15 minutes. Promevo’s customer support also showed us how to use the Google Admin Console to manage our digital signage. We learned that we could manage our signage and our Chromebooks from the same interface.

In just a few weeks, we updated a variety of digital signs across the company using Chromebits.
Digital signs on the factory floor in five of our six locations now display the latest production data. This data automatically updates every 15 seconds and shows our employees weekly goals for machine uptime. Displaying this goal-driven information has improved uptime from five to 10 percent on our factory floors.

With the $20,000 we saved in one year by switching all the old signage solutions to Chrome, we’re now in a position to expand our use of digital signage throughout the company. We’re now using 11 Chromebits and counting — we bought ten more to use across our locations very soon after trying out the first one. We’re also planning to add Chromebits to the reception areas of our facilities, too.

Chrome device management helps us manage all of our devices more easily, and streamlines software and OS updates. The Chromebit was a better hardware solution for our manufacturing environment because its lack of moving components makes it less susceptible to problems caused by heat and dust on the shop floor.

The combination of Chrome Digital Signage and Promevo's expert guidance and support helps us deliver plastic solutions efficiently without straining our resources.

Posted by Neil Delaney, Director, Global Inside Sales / Mid-Market, Google Apps for Work


Back in October, we made it easy for companies locked into an Enterprise Agreement (EA) to switch to Google Apps by providing our productivity suite for free until their existing contracts expired. We even helped prospects with the deployment costs of going Google through the help of our Google for Work Partners. And if interested companies weren’t under contract, we offered to help pay for their migrations from other solutions to Google Apps.

Since then, nearly 200,000 additional users have gone Google. We’ve also received tremendous interest to make the program available to smaller companies. So today, we’re excited to announce we’re extending the global program until the end of 2016. Companies between 250 and 3,000 that currently have an EA with another vendor can qualify for zero-cost Google Apps licenses for the term of their existing EA. And now, companies with 100 users (previously 250) to as many as 3,000 can qualify for a Deployment Voucher. This greatly expands the number of companies that can take advantage of the Deployment Voucher.

In addition to saving money and improving business productivity, the security benefits of Google Apps are especially valuable to mid-market businesses. For mid-market customers that sign up for this promotion, Google will pay for a Security Workshop, to the value of $750USD, through our trained Partners, to help them maximize the security and data protections Google Apps offers.

One example of those data protections are Security Keys. To help get customers started with security keys, our security partner Yubico will provide a limited number of free Security Keys for mid-market customers. These keys help protect users from phishing, account hijacking and other attacks with 1-touch encrypted, 2-step verification. They’re state-of-the art in account protection. They’re also a great example of the security benefits of Google Apps. Additional Security Keys can be purchased at a 50% discount.

Finally, with this announcement, a number of our Recommended for Google Apps for Work partners are announcing additional cost-savings for Google Apps mid-sized companies. Customers can now get similar savings when they build structured document lifecycles and workflows with AODocs and Powertools, move business phone systems to the cloud with Dialpad, use a tightly integrated CRM from Prosperworks or manage projects online with Smartsheet.

Our EA program gives new customers the opportunity to influence the move to Apps — and gives decision makers the final incentive to make the switch.

“Even before we made the official switch to Google, many of our employees used Apps without involving IT. Our entire international team migrated on their own before the roll out, because our previous solution didn’t mesh with their workflow,” says Sam Davidson, systems engineer at The Motley Fool. “Our previous solution was sluggish, with pretty consistent outages. We wanted to move to Google Apps, but we were locked into a three-year contract with our previous provider. The [EA] program allowed us to make the switch much sooner.”

Mid-size companies don’t always have the same resources as larger enterprises, and constraints (like contract lock-in) shouldn’t hinder collaboration or efficiency at work.

Additionally, companies with basic EAs and no dependencies have the potential to cut costs by up to 70 percent through switching to Google Apps for Work.

“Peterborough City Council took advantage of the EA program when the previous provider wouldn’t let us move from on-premise to the cloud without breaking a contract. Our council felt comfortable making the switch after evaluating companies and other councils that had already gone Google,” says Richard Godfrey, Project Director at Arcus Global and formerly Assistant Director, Digital at Peterborough City Council, England. “We’ve come to expect the pace of innovation that Google offers, as well as the flexibility it enables for our team. Google Apps will give us the freedom to work anywhere; all our employees need is a Chromebook, mobile phone and an internet connection.”

Learn more or call 844-420-0601 to get started now!

Posted by Tia Lendo, Head of North America Education Marketing

(Cross-posted on the Google for Education Blog.)

Last month we announced Education on Air — our free online conference taking place May 8-9, 2015 — and asked what you wanted to hear about. Today we released the schedule of sessions, based largely on what we heard from you. We’ll emphasize innovation — 44% of you voted for this — as well as how to empower students and use Google tools effectively. It was clear from our second poll that you also want practical examples, so our speakers will go beyond theory and share their specific advice for enacting change.


Here’s a look at what you can expect over the two-day conference:

Friday, May 8: Leading for the future

Tune in from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET to hear from educators, business and policy leaders, students and researchers, whose keynotes will challenge you to innovate and improve education. In our kickoff session, panelists will tackle the question “What are the skills of the future?” and will touch upon results from an Economist Intelligence Unit survey. You’ll also hear panels of different perspectives about some hot topics for educators, including how technology is transforming learning and how students are guiding their own learning.

In addition to these panels, our keynote speakers will share their personal passions for the future of education. You’ll hear from Actor, Education Advocate, and Host of Reading Rainbow LeVar Burton, Google Senior Vice President of People Operations Laszlo Bock, education leader and Order of Canada honoree Michael Fullan, and Sir Michael Barber, chief education advisor to Pearson and former Chief Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education during the first term of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Educators and school leaders like Ryan Bretag, education researcher and Chief Innovation Officer of Illinois’ District 225, and students like Brittany Wenger (2012 Google Science Fair winner) will also share their perspectives.

Saturday, May 9: Shaping the classroom today

Over 100 sessions will be led by educators from 12 countries and 29 U.S. states, all specifically designed to offer practical advice and examples. Whether you’re interested in the track for educators, administrators, IT or “anyone,” we invite you to join for the sessions that are most interesting to you.

Presenters will discuss tools and techniques that you can implement easily, affordably and immediately. Many sessions highlight how Google tools like Google Apps, Earth, Chromebooks and Android tablets can support learning and help educators save time. Others will relate to themes including collaboration and community, computer science and STEM, creation and creativity, digital citizenship, literacy and professional development.

Here’s a flavor of the range of sessions:

• Guy Shearer, Head of IT for the David Ross Education Trust in the UK will lead “Create impact by rolling out Chromebooks across a network of schools” at 8:30 a.m. ET
• Kim Meldrum, Pedagogical Consultant for the Lester B. Pearson School Board in Canada will lead a session on “Developing literacy with Google Apps” at 11:00 a.m. ET
• Sean Beavers, Digital Information Specialist at the West Morris Regional High School District will lead "Fostering student genius: empowering student leadership through technology" at 12:15 p.m. ET
• Tonia Dousay, Assistant Professor at the University of Wyoming will lead a session called “Bringing the maker movement to your classroom” at 12:30 p.m. ET
• James Sanders, Director of Innovation for the EdTechTeam will lead “How to survive a zombie apocalypse using Google Apps” at 3:00 p.m. ET

Visit the Education on Air site to see the full line-up of sessions and make sure to register; because even if you can’t join us live, if you register we’ll notify you when the recordings are available to view.

We hope to “see” you there!