About the client
Tutore Poland has been sharing knowledge since 2017. The organisation was formed by passionate educators who develop original courses and reach tens of thousands of people each year, inspiring them to grow and boosting their confidence.
The company offers courses in programming, mathematics, drawing, graphics, musical instruments and chess. With Tutore support, course participants can study for national tests, like eight-grade school leaving exam and secondary school leaving exam (Matura).
In 2022, Tutore Poland acquired ProfiLingua, the largest language school in Poland, which offers courses in 23 foreign languages. It has 29 centres across Poland, frequented by 30,000 students annually.
The merger gave birth to a large organisation with over 2,600 employees, including 2,000 teachers. Team members carry out their tasks from all over the country, and the nature of their work can differ vastly.
Challenge
Once the two companies merged, Tutore was operating in the Google Workspace environment, while ProfiLingua employees had been using Microsoft products for years. Working on two different office tool packages proved challenging and hindered collaboration. It made full integration impossible.
The management of Tutore Poland wanted employees to easily collaborate on new content, share information and documents. To achieve full interoperability, they decided to transfer all users from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace.
We wanted employees to have access to their mailboxes and documents from anywhere, using a web browser, without the need to install additional applications on their devices. Google Workspace was a better fit for the dynamic way our company operates.
Migration
ProfiLingua employees email accounts, contact lists and calendars proved challenging to migrate because the company previously belonged to another organisation: educational publisher WSiP. The files the organisation needed to move were on WSiP servers and in no way separated from other data.
Another challenge stemmed from the fact that data was stored in a distributed environment. Email accounts were operating within the Microsoft Exchange 2010 package, while cloud drives were within a different Microsoft 365 package.
At the same time, Tutore wanted to avoid manual migration, which carries a high risk of errors and data loss. The company approached Google directly with their problem, and Google referred them to FOTC, a trusted partner with the knowledge, skills and tools to carry out the migration process efficiently.
When Google put us in touch with FOTC, things sped up considerably.
Employee support
Tutore’s management team was aware that the change in the IT environment could be very stressful for many ProfiLingua employees. Therefore, one of the priorities became to properly prepare teams for change.
The two organisations had been operating on the market for a long time before the merger. Both worked in a hybrid way – working with customers both online and in stationary offices. Providing employees with a comfortable work environment in which everyone can function efficiently was quite a challenge in this context.
Solution
FOTC tech engineers worked closely with Tutore specialists responsible for integration. The entire migration process required constant communication – the joined team worked on shared files and contacted each other via chat and phone.
Tutore decided to schedule a training workshop for their employees and to provide them with extended post-implementation support.
Migration
The biggest challenge for us was establishing a connection to the WSiP server using the CloudM tool that we used for migration. Typically, this process involves creating an administrator role with the privileges to copy data from the source server. Unfortunately, ProfiLingua employee data was part of WSiP's data, which caused security issues. Therefore, it was necessary to find another, non-standard solution.
FOTC recommended that administrators responsible for WSiP servers designate a special administrative unit collecting all the data for transfer. A personalised role was created with access to this part of the server.
As this was an unconventional solution, it was also necessary to consult the migration software provider. In the end, the manufacturer of the CloudM tool authorised the non-standard migration process proposed by FOTC.
We had to find a solution that bypassed the typical procedure while remaining safe for all parties involved. Ultimately, we only connected to part of the data. We also had limited information about what many users were using – some data was on OneDrives, some in the cloud, some on private drives. Despite these conditions, we migrated the vast majority of the necessary data. We have already moved the rest manually.
As approximately 230 user accounts and approximately 100 groups were being transferred, the FOTC team worked non-standard hours to avoid overloading the WSiP servers. FOTC developers also used FOTC in the migration Google Apps Script, with which they created several scripts automating selected processes.
Once everything was ready, FOTC engineers helped Tutore set up the environment for new users. Here they also used a script they wrote – the API they developed collectively gave specific settings to teams transferred to Discussion Groups.
By default, these permissions cannot be granted in the Google Workspace administration console. This can only be done at the level of a specific group (then the setting is configured by the manager) or via the API. Moving 100 groups manually would be a very time-consuming task. That’s why FOTC developers created a solution that performed this process automatically.
The second tool created to improve the migration process was a script that sent all transferred users login details to Google Workspace. Thanks to this, the instance administrator on the Tutore side did not have to do it manually.
It is noteworthy that ProfiLingua employees never noticed when their mailboxes were being transferred to Google Workspace, and migration did not disrupt their daily work.
Employee support
Once all accounts had been transferred, FOTC carried out workshops to introduce ProfiLingua employees to the new work tool: two online meetings for all users whose account was being transferred.
During the training, the FOTC specialist showed what tools are available in the Google Workspace package and how to use them in everyday work. Each person participating in the meeting could ask questions. They could also refer to the training’s recording at any time and refresh the knowledge.
I know how important it was for Łukasz Korczyński – responsible for the migration on Tutore Poland's side – to make the switch from one environment to another as smooth as possible for ProfiLingua employees and make them feel taken care of. We supported the communication process and prepared workshops for all users whose accounts were being transferred. These meetings turned out to be really necessary and the participants appreciated the additional assistance.
After transferring ProfiLingua users to the new environment, the Google Workspace administrator in Tutore was still available to employees both by e-mail and by phone. There have been reports that are typical in such situations. To ensure that all issues are resolved immediately, FOTC technical support has been involved in the process. Our specialists took over some of the notifications, so any problems were handled immediately.
Results
Tutore decided to migrate environments and at the same time switch to a higher subscription plan, Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, which users and instance administrators appreciated.
It often happens that organisations grow quickly and the technology that supports them remains stagnant. This causes many problems over time. Tutore Poland did not make this mistake. By upgrading to a higher Google Workspace plan, administrators gained extensive tools to ensure the security of company data and conveniently manage users. The change is also felt by employees, who now have extensive versions of the applications they use at their disposal.
Accounts administration
Tutore instance administrators stress that managing accounts via the console is intuitive, and access to it from mobile devices further facilitates work.
I often receive requests to add someone to a discussion group or create a new account. In Google Workspace, I can do it directly from any mobile device connected to the network. I don't have to install additional tools, so I can handle the report from anywhere.
Using Google Workspace in the organisation
Each unit within Tutore independently decides which office tools to use and to what extent. At a general level, everyone uses Google Workspace to create, communicate, and store data.
Meet, Chat and Discussion groups are used for everyday communication within and between teams. Tutore employees claim these tools are indispensable for working in a distributed team.
All files created by employees are stored on Google Drive. The two most frequently used functions are search and document sharing. The search function makes it easier to immediately browse through the organisation’s resources and find the file you need. Sharing documents facilitates uninterrupted workflows, convenient collaboration in creating specific content and joint analysis of reports. It is also important that if an employee leaves the organisation, all resources they created are then assigned to the manager. This eliminates the need to copy files from a physical device.
Tutore team members also use the suite’s office tools extensively. Docs and Slides are a big part of their daily work – preparing educational materials for course participants. Forms are used both for administrative activities (e.g. employees can claim certain benefits) and for training evaluation: course participants complete surveys about their satisfaction with the services offered. Google Sheets and Looker Studio are used to create reports and conduct analyses in the organisation.
Unifying the work environment throughout the organisation gives Tutore opportunities for further development. The team is currently considering using Google Sites to create an intranet that would support the work of the HR Department.