Client Case: SoftTeco

How SoftTeco rules the workflows with an advanced security using Google Workspace solutions

About the client: SoftTeco is an international software development company focused on innovation and sustainability. With over 200 projects successfully delivered and 75 clients served, the company is among the top software providers and is well-recognized worldwide.

SoftTeco delivers custom software solutions uniquely tailored to every client’s requirements. From the healthcare and financial industry to education and logistics, the company serves various industries and can create a secure and scalable product of any complexity. The core of the company’s success lies in the team of 500+ dedicated professionals. Every team member contributes their unique view and opinion, which helps stay innovative and balance high professionalism with an appropriate amount of creativity.

Project Start Date: November 13, 2020

Project End Date:  January 13, 2021

Challenge: SoftTeco has relied on various Google services since the company was founded in 2008. However, the company has always needed a unified and structured approach to its internal information processes, from license management access control and collaboration tools. Using G-Suite Basic (now known as Google Workspace Business Starter) pricing plan, SoftTeco desired to get more advanced Google Workspace (further, GWS) features to cover the company’s needs.

One of the essential points toward an upgrade was the possibility of more storage per user, enhanced security and management controls, meeting recording, Shared Drives, and other requests that were not covered by the existing solution.

Moreover, when the company has decided to significantly enhance its information security management system and certify it under the ISO27001 standard (International Organization for Standardization), upgrading its GWS has become an obvious next step.

Solution: The moment SoftTeco re-imagined company workflows and sought the best pricing plan coincided with GWS’s transition to what is known now as the previously named G Suite. So, that was the time Google’s team rolled out new subscriptions, upgraded their features, and came up with some new propositions for the organizations.

Considering that, SoftTeco combined their licenses and got 480 Business Standard licenses and 155, the most advanced GWS plan – Enterprise Standard. This choice was made according to workers’ functions and the company’s needs to build the most qualified teams’ collaboration.

With the Business Standard plan, the workers got more extensive storage, up to 2 TB per user, and another crucial feature, such as meeting recording. Even more, with the Enterprise Standard edition, the team got such Google Meet functions as noise cancellation, an allowance to host up to 500 participants, and unlimited storage per user. Shared Drives were another essential feature the teams got to easily store, access, and share files within the company anywhere from any device.

While many available features for the Business Standard plan are familiar to everyday GWS users, the advanced Enterprise Standard edition opens a new world of some critical aspects. One of the main requests of the SoftTeco team was to improve the information security management system and pass the ISO27001 audit, which proves the safety of the organization’s assets. The GWS Enterprise Standard edition proposes a DLP (Data Loss Prevention). With this feature, SoftTeco can now create and apply rules to control the files that users can share outside the organization to prevent unintended exposure of sensitive information and make the work with all files more protected and secure.

Another significant part of GWS solutions covered by the chosen pricing plan is Access Transparency. Access Transparency logs control all data taken by Google staff, Support Team, some basic engineering investigations, and others. You can verify why the Google team accessed your data, and analyze and track all access events from almost all the GWS tools (Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive, Docs, Forms, Sheets, Meet recordings, etc.).

And last but not least crucial function was also Context-Aware Access, which allowed IT admins to control which applications a user can access based on their context and to analyze whether this device complies with the company IT policy. Many other security and control functions are possible with the GWS Enterprise Standard plan, so SoftTeco established the most transparent and highly protected data management and passed the ISO27001 audit.

Results: Google Workspace has quickly become a compelling communication, collaboration, and information security set of tools within the SoftTeco organization.

As a result of the transition to the new GWS Plan, the company got:

1. Advanced meeting experiences with recording, noise cancelation, and the maximum number of participants.
2. 100% of teams with the GWS Enterprise Plan actively use Shared Drives that enable the teams to collaborate on files effectively.
3. The growth of the amount of storage for teams with Business Starter plan – up to  2 TB per user, and for workers with Enterprise Standard plan – unlimited storage .
4. The most transparent and secure data management with Data Loss Prevention, Access Transparency, Context-Aware Access, and other GES features.

GWS solutions play an essential role in SoftTeco’s operations and have greatly contributed to the maturity of the company’s processes. Communication within the company has become more streamlined, and the data has become well-kept and secure.

Cloudfresh Role: Cloudfresh maintained Softeco’s team during all stages of their transition to the new GWS plans, helping them to choose the suitable plan configuration according to the company’s requests.

In addition, Cloudfresh GWS team provided the entire cycle of implementing new features. We provided professional services enabling SoftTeco with a quality deployment and ensuring a high adoption of the new features. Cloudfresh’s assistance helped SoftTeco get the maximum out of GWS and run more seamless and productive workflows.