Overview
Problem – The institute (≈ 650 users) was using Google Workspace for email/collaboration. With a growing user base, the pricing had become a financial burden, and they needed a swift migration to continue operations without disruption.
Solution: Under tight timeline (Friday evening to Monday morning), Rapguru stepped in, procured licenses for Zoho Workplace at discounted rates, migrated all data, and provided user-training — ensuring all 650 users were live by Monday.
Key Takeaways
- Rapid, efficient migration with minimal disruption
- Significant cost savings compared to previous Google licensing
- High adoption rate owing to training & support
Executive Summary
About ICA
The customer — ICA Edu Skills (“ICA”) — is a leading vocational training institute for accounting, taxation, GST, Tally, SAP-FICO, GST compliance and related job-oriented courses.
Serving hundreds of students and staff across its centers in India, ICA relies heavily on cloud-based email, file storage, collaboration, and communication tools to manage operations, training schedules, study materials, administrative correspondence, and more.
With around 650 internal users, including administrators, trainers, coordinators and support staff, ICA had gradually expanded its footprint — and so did its demand for collaboration tools and storage. The increasing recurring cost of Google licensing started affecting their operational budget.
Additionally, with frequent updates to batch schedules, sharing of training materials, internal communications, and accounting of student information — being cloud-dependent was not optional but mission-critical for ICA.
Problem Statement and Key Challenges
Challenges faced by ICA under Google Workspace usage:
- Escalating licensing costs: As user count grew, the fixed-tier subscription model of Google became increasingly expensive, affecting ICA’s margin and budget allocations.
- Budget inflexibility and overpaying for underutilized features/storage: Given diverse roles (some staff only needed email, others heavy storage), a uniform plan meant overpaying for unused storage or features — inefficient cost structure.
- Need for immediate migration with zero downtime: ICA needed their accounts live by Monday morning, including all historical data. Any downtime would disrupt classes, admin communication, and could lead to loss of working hours, impacting business continuity.
- Training & adoption risk: A different ecosystem (Zoho) meant potential user friction; without adequate training, risk of poor adoption, confusion, or productivity loss.
- Data integrity, security, and compliance during migration: All emails, files, calendars had to be migrated safely, without data loss or breach — especially important given accounting/training data.
A senior ICA representative noted , “We cannot afford even half a day of downtime —our next batch, internal coordination, and communications cannot be disrupted.”
Evaluation of the Problem
At Rapguru, we conducted a rapid assessment:
- Number of users: ~650
- Existing Google Workspace plan: enterprise-level (given large count), leading to high monthly/annual cost
- Actual usage per user varied — some only used email/calendar, some heavy file storage, some collaboration docs
- A “one-size-fits-all” plan was economically inefficient for ICA’s mixed usage — underutilized storage but uniform high cost.
Considering these, we evaluated that a shift to Zoho Workplace — with more flexible licensing — could yield substantial savings, while giving all required functionalities (email, storage, document collaboration, chats, etc.).
Proposed Solution
We proposed migration to Zoho Workplace, structured as follows:
- Assign licensing plans based on usage: e.g., Mail-Only for users needing only email, Standard/Professional for those needing full suite — thereby optimizing costs. This aligns with standard practice: Zoho’s flexible subscription model is often significantly less expensive than Google’s rigid tiers.
- Use native migration tools provided by Zoho: migrate Gmail → Zoho Mail, Google Drive → Zoho WorkDrive, Google Docs/Sheets/Slides → Zoho Writer/Sheet/Show, with preservation of folder structure, sharing permissions, mail threads, calendar events, etc.
- Provide user-training and support materials (video tutorials, documentation) to ensure smooth adoption and minimal friction.
- Use Rapguru’s partnership expertise to obtain discounted licensing pricing for ICA, enabling cost savings without compromising on performance or support.
Given the urgency (deadline Monday morning), the timeline was aggressive — but feasible given the right resources and prior experience.
Implementation
- Friday night (post business hours): Rapguru procured required Zoho Workplace licenses for ~650 users at negotiated discounted rates.
- Friday–Saturday: Setup of domain, DNS/ MX records, creation of user accounts, mail routing configured.
- Saturday–Sunday: Data migration — all user emails, Drive files, shared folders, calendars — migrated using Zoho’s migration tools + manual verification for critical user data. Worked in close coordination with Zoho support team to ensure speed and reliability.
- Late Sunday night: Completed migration, tested mail flow, file access, calendar sync, collaboration tools.
- Monday early morning (before work starts): Rolled out access credentials to all users. Circulated training materials: custom-made video tutorials quick-start guides covering Zoho Mail, WorkDrive, Writer/Sheet/Show, basic tasks.
- Monday morning: All 650 users successfully logged in. No reported downtime or loss of working hours. Support team stood by for queries/issues for first 48 hours.
Despite the tight timeline and large data volume, migration was completed without major issues — demonstrating high efficiency and readiness.
Results
- Zero downtime: ICA users were fully operational by Monday morning, with no loss in working hours, no disruption to classes or administrative workflows.
- Cost savings: By switching from Google Workspace to Zoho Workplace with tailored licensing, ICA significantly reduced their recurring subscription costs. Industry-wide comparisons show Zoho can often be 3× more cost-effective than Google for similar functionality.
- Optimized resource usage: With customized licensing per user role — mail-only for some, full-suite for others — ICA avoided paying for unused storage or underutilized features.
- Improved user adoption and satisfaction: Thanks to rapid migration plus comprehensive training support, users embraced Zoho Workplace with minimal friction; internal feedback reported smooth transition, instant access to mails and files.
- Scalable & future-ready infrastructure: With Zoho’s flexible plan structure and integration potential within wider Zoho ecosystem (if ICA chooses to adopt more apps), they now have a cost-efficient, scalable collaboration infrastructure.
A representative from ICA commented (paraphrased):
“Rapguru’s quick turnaround and support meant we didn’t skip a beat — we woke Monday morning with all data intact and everyone ready to work. The cost savings plus zero disruption made the switch more than worthwhile.”
