G4S Integrated Services

G4S Integrated Services, a division of G4S, a worldwide security outsourcing provider, delivers facilities management solutions to organisations that operate in secure and critical environments requiring the highest service levels, availability and governance standards.

The Business Challenge

G4S Integrated Services implemented SharePoint in order to ensure that its hundreds of business professionals had access to a collaborative environment in which they could work with company documents, including contract and proposal templates and core information, that were current, approved, and consistent. With an immediate goal of expediting their sales process and winning new business, G4S Integrated Services faced the challenge of getting employees used to one way of getting things done to adopt SharePoint.

In addition to managing this business challenge, SharePoint manager Dave Barnes had to figure out how he was going to grow and maintain the company's SharePoint environment, without requiring any additional technical resources. 

Further – especially given the nature of G4S' core business – Barnes needed to make sure that any new product he introduced to help him with his management and support efforts could meet the company's stringent security standards.

The Axceler Solution

G4S Integrated Services chose Axceler's ControlPoint to administer their SharePoint environment. "In implementing any new system, two things are paramount," says Barnes. "First, it's getting the right system set up, with the right infrastructure to support it. And then there's getting users to actually use it.  For us, the key to adoption was providing management with timely information on how others were using the system. We chose ControlPoint because it was the best product we found for quickly and easily delivering usage statistics."

Taking Advantage of ControlPoint

G4S Integrated Services chose ControlPoint for its usage metrics. "There are just so many reports, just a few clicks away - there's almost too much to choose from. ControlPoint lets me easily supply information on what pages are being used, and by whom, to my management.  Our directors want to give additional users more confidence in adopting the new SharePoint system, so they're using the data I provide to help them with their missionary work, encouraging more employees to use the system. ControlPoint really helps with this effort." 

ControlPoint has enabled Barnes to manage, on his own, a growing environment that now includes 19 sites and sub-sites, and is used by upwards of 600 users – and growing. Barnes anticipates that several hundred new users will be coming on board with SharePoint in the near future.  Barnes also relies on ControlPoint to manage security/access, as well as to get a handle on storage needs. More recently, Barnes upgraded to a newer version of ControlPoint, enabling him to more easily move content around, while retaining all the associated meta data and version history.

The Results

ControlPoint has "made my life easier," Barnes reports. "Because the reports are there almost instantly, I've been saving several hours a week in producing them since I began using CotrolPoint.  As the sole person dedicated to managing SharePoint, saving even a couple of hours a week is very important. Now, with a newer ControlPoint version, with its improved document library management, I'll be saving even more time. Depending on the move being made, ControlPoint will be saving me days of work, not just hours." 

ControlPoint has quickly become an essential element of G4S Integrated Services SharePoint system. "When we chose ControlPoint, I knew that it would be a 'nice to have' for us, but I soon realized that, for anyone running a SharePoint environment, it's a 'must have.'"