Keeping it Together: How Ubiquiti is Using Google Workspace to Keep Their Remote Workforce Connected

In today’s world, there are many different kinds of businesses and companies. Many businesses are rapidly expanding and have employees in different locations across the globe. Ubiquiti is one of these companies with hundreds of employees around the world. To unify their employees and make collaboration easier, they implemented Google Workspace in their environment. 

Google Workspace is a set of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software, and products developed by Google. It makes it a breeze to share documents, sheets, emails, and more with others. 

We met up with Scott Kinnersley, the Director of IT at Ubiquiti, to talk about his experience with Google Workspace and learn how Promevo helped them succeed.

Ubiquiti’s Unique Setup

Ubiquiti manufactures wireless data communication products for enterprise and wireless broadband providers. They supply and work with wireless services, access points, routers and switches, door access controls and more. Their biggest cornerstone, however, is their wireless networking for home and office.

Ubiquiti is a medium-sized company with about 1,000 employees scattered across the world. The company has a few centralized offices, but many employees work remotely from home or small rented offices. Even though Ubiquiti doesn’t have a large presence with any one location, the company’s reach is far. The company needed a solution that would keep all their employees unified, no matter their location. To do this, they implemented Google Workspace for all of their employees.

Finding a Solution

When Ubiquiti was choosing their management solution, they didn’t want or need anything fancy. They just wanted something that would work, and would work well. 

Scott runs a lean staff with the IT Department at Ubiquiti. Only two employees manage the day-to-day running the IT department for such a large company, so a lot of responsibility rests on their shoulders. It’s their job to support the company as a whole and make sure everything runs smoothly. Their big goal is to keep all of their employees connected and unified. 

Scott believes that if the company had not adopted Google Workspace, the employees would have been forced to find a management solution on their own. With employees spread across the globe, this would have led to small groups that only communicated with other small groups, instead of having a universal solution that united the company as a whole.

The Power of Simplicity

Ubiquiti relies mostly on the core features of Google Workspace—Gmail, Google Drive, and Calendar to name a few. Scott can’t say much about the initial core setup process for Google Workspace, but he has worked with Promevo to quickly configure additional resources since. He also says that the speed isn’t the only thing that’s important. According to Scott, it doesn’t matter how long a product takes to setup, if it works how it’s supposed to, that’s what matters.

“We don't want to be slowed down by anyone else… [With Promevo] We weren't waiting on anyone to get things done.”

Scott explained to us that he’s not the type of person who goes looking for training unless it’s necessary. He never needed to do any training for Google Workspace or Promevo’s gPanel® admin tools. Scott explained how user-friendly and straightforward Google Workspace is. Google Workspace makes it easy to get things done.

Since they have a small IT team, there is usually one person who manages all of the user accounts. Normally, creating new users is a time consuming process, but with Google Workspace, the process is just a couple of clicks and can even be done on a mobile phone if needed. 

According to Scott, Gmail is one of the most valuable aspects of Google Workspace because it keeps their reputation intact. Scott understands that an email reputation is everything and it can have a big effect on business. Spam and email rejection are huge problems for modern businesses. Scott has tried other email solutions in the past, such as Microsoft, but found that managing that by himself was a pain. With Google Workspace, all emails are secured so Scott doesn’t have to sit and monitor Ubiquiti’s reputation all day.

To make Google Workspace management even easier, Ubiquiti utilizes gPanel®, Promevo’s comprehensive management and reporting solution for Google Workspace. It provides Ubiquiti with customizable admin roles that allow for security-trimmed delegation to any and all features. 

The best part of Google Workspace is that it works exactly how it’s supposed to. Many other services require additional plug-ins or third-party apps for the software to run at full capacity. If Scott needs Google Workspace to do something, he doesn’t need to go out and look for something else. Scott appreciates how Google is its own being, where everything works without the need for other add-ons. Overall, Ubiquiti has found great value in Google Workspace.

“I don’t need [Google Workspace] to fry an egg—but if I needed it to, I could probably get it to do that.”

Ubiquiti’s Relationship with Promevo

There have been several times where Ubiquiti has relied on the various teams at Promevo. From answering simple technical questions to restoring an entire domain from a service failure, the Promevo support team can help provide a solution.

In the instance of a domain deletion incident, Scott wasn’t able to reach out to Google because they had mistakenly deleted his admin account. That’s where Promevo’s Google Certified support team stepped in to save the day. Scott was able to connect with Promevo’s support team to fix the issue quickly and efficiently. Ubiquiti’s domain was back up and running in no time.

The True Value of Google Workspace

Scott says that the value of Google Workspace isn’t only the amount of money they have saved, but rather what they are actually spending their money on. Basically, buying Google Workspace is money well spent. There are cheaper solutions available, even free solutions exist, but “for the price we pay and the services we receive, it’s more than a fair trade.” If Ubiquiti didn’t have Google Workspace, it would be difficult to deal with the potential hit to the company’s reputation and even more difficult to replicate Google Workspace’s abilities.

For other companies thinking about implementing Google Workspace, Scott says to just consider the pros and cons. Do you want to do it all yourself? Or do you want to let Google do all the heavy lifting for you while you simply manage the day-to-day? Google services allow you to breathe easy because the hard work is already done. 

Scott has worked with in-house solutions before and says that’s a great option when your company is small and doesn't need global solutions, but it gets more difficult as you grow. Even so, Scott believes that for small companies Google Workspace is a good option because it’s as inexpensive as it is useful. 

Google Workspace has allowed Ubiquiti to continue to expand around the world without any major issues. The seamless collaboration, secured data, and ease of use have all made Scott’s job easier. Managing a global company may seem daunting at first, but thanks to Google Workspace and Promevo, it’s not so difficult after all.