About the company
Docplanner provides applications and system solutions for doctors, medical facilities, hospitals and patients in 13 countries on three continents, and the Polish version of this platform operates under the domain ZnanyLekarz.pl. The company has established itself as a leader in the health tech industry by consistently delivering on its mission of ‘Making the healthcare experience more human’.
Platforma Docplanner w każdym miesiącu pozwala pacjentom znaleźć informacje o dwóch milionach Each month, the Docplanner platform allows patients to find information on two million doctors conveniently, securely and quickly. Choosing the right specialist and making an appointment is a matter of a few clicks – but the patient journey doesn’t end with just a schedule. The platform also facilitates follow-up treatment and provides social features such as reviews, ratings and messages. These put users in touch with doctors and allow them to leave feedback, providing valuable advice for future patients.
Docplanner Group has more than 2,200 employees – from those responsible for platform development and technical maintenance of systems, administration and business representatives who liaise with doctors, and moderators of patient content. Every company member has a Gmail account within the Google Workspace Enterprise service.
How does the Docplanner team use Google Workspace?
It has been ten years since Docplanner’s management provided employees with the Google Workspace business apps toolkit, then operating under G Suite. Since 2012, the company’s international workforce has developed several habits that speed up daily work in Google applications.
Individual apps selection in smaller teams
Due to the heterogeneous nature of project work, the teams at Docplanner Group work differently. The local ones, such as sales or customer service, were accustomed to seeing each other in the office daily before the pandemic, while members of the technical teams are spread across the globe, so they have always relied on online communication. Work tools are selected at the team level in a way that allows everyone to be as productive as possible.
This differentiated style of collaboration relieves the burden on Google Workspace administrators. They are still responsible for the fundamental global settings, permissions and integrations, but many decisions related to day-to-day work in the cloud are left to team leaders. Each team can set up their shared drives, email groups or add-ons and deploy services for themselves from outside the Google ecosystem.
Efficient communication
Docplanner Group uses a few modern communication channels that are also familiar to other tech companies.
For video conferencing, each team chooses a platform that suits the habits of its employees. Video meetings take place not only on Google Meet but also on Zoom.
Convenient app integrations
Combining the functions of individual apps from inside and outside the Google ecosystem is one of many ways to personalise the working style of teams. For example, sales heavily use Gmail integration with CRM products, and technical teams create their own process automation with Google Apps Script.
When an employee is in a meeting, the text chat window displays information about their unavailability taken straight from Google Calendar. The calendar is also integrated with Zoom, so employees can select their preferred video conferencing platform when planning a meeting.
Management of more than 60 email domains
Every employee has an email account with the primary domain @docplanner.com, but the company uses many other domains, such as @znanylekarz.pl, @doctoralia.com or @miodottore.it. Domain aliases are assigned to people working in local markets or on selected projects. This is often done automatically – when creating an employee account, an alias in the regional domain is also added.
Correspondence-based onboarding
One part of inducting new employees into the company community is to provide them with essential information in a structured and convenient way. Docplanner uses the Gmail inbox for this purpose. On the first day of work, the user logs into their account and immediately receives emails with a knowledge base about the company. These initial messages include a list of the most important people to contact, a set of links, as well as descriptions of employee benefits, daily processes and crucial tools. Thanks to the reliable search engine in the Gmail inbox, the employee always has all the relevant information from their first day in Docplanner at hand.
Onboarding does not need to include training in business applications, as no employee has so far had a problem using Google suite. Even people who were used to iCloud or Microsoft tools in their previous jobs quickly switch to working in the Google ecosystem.
What are the benefits for Docplanner of working with FOTC?
The contact between the IT director at Docplanner and the marketing manager at FOTC came about during a discussion in the Google Workspace user group on Facebook. The Google Cloud partner guaranteed better cooperation conditions than the service provider, so Docplanner joined FOTC as a customer in 2019.
Service cost optimisation
FOTC provided Docplanner with discounts when Google was raising prices for its services. The reduction in licenses cost is prompting many businesses to move their instances into FOTC’s care, as the experienced partner can negotiate long-term rebates on behalf of the customer that are unavailable elsewhere. Another benefit that reassures businesses that they have made the right decision is the reliable technical support – this was also the case with Docplanner.
Quick and effective requests response
Out of habit, Docplanner employees contact Google technical specialists. When the provider’s support is prolonged or insufficient, the administrators turn to the FOTC team, which provides support in the local language and treats each problem individually.
There have already been two situations when what Google support said was impossible turned out to be easily achievable with the help of FOTC. In the most challenging case, we got stuck during a complex data migration between two cloud services. A loop in Google made it impossible to find the right person – our case was passed on until we had come full circle. Fortunately, the FOTC team helped us faster. Instead of waiting more than 40 days for a solution, it was done in 4 days.
Upgrade from G Suite Basic to Google Workspace Enterprise
Recently, FOTC accompanied the Docplanner team in transitioning to the higher Google Workspace suite. The new options that have appeared in the Google Admin console have given the security specialists ample room to develop the company’s data protection system. With the service upgrade, there has also been no shortage of improvements for users. Local helpdesk teams most readily use the advanced features of Google applications – employees themselves discover new possibilities and find uses for them.
When we moved from G Suite Basic to Google Workspace Enterprise, the teams created shared drives and worked on them from that day. This solution started working for us automatically and naturally.
Google Workspace administrators at Docplanner plan to undergo training in the coming months on how to manage an instance in the Enterprise suite to learn how to use the service to its full potential.