Fairfax sails calm seas in Google Apps transition

Fairfax Media’s Google Apps rollout to over 7500 staff has gone without a hitch, according to chief information and technology officer Andrew Lam-Po-Tang.

The transition for the majority of staff occurred over last weekend, with a small number of regional users to come on board by the end of this year. 

“One of our priorities has been migrating to Gmail with minimal disruption to business activity. As we've worked through our phased migration, we've managed to do this,” said Lam-Po-Tang, in an email to iTnews.

The biggest part of the transition wasn’t technical, but human, he said.

“A large part of this project has been preparing employees sufficiently for the change - making sure they’re trained and understand how to find the right support,” said Lam-Po-Tang.

However, iTnews previously reported that Microsoft hasn’t been completely outsted from the media giant, with power user staff still able to access the Microsoft Office suite on a needs-basis.

Microsoft licenses would be assessed as they come due, and either allowed to expire or refreshed depending on staff needs.