Talking Third-Party Tools with Cobry

This week, Damson Cloud concludes its video interview series with Cobry’s Rowan Manson, rounding to a close some fascinating discussions on change management, Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) security, shadow IT and the advent of big data and business intel. Damson Cloud finishes off the series with one final chat with Rowan, with our own CEO Fintan Murphy sitting down with the Technical Lead to talk third party tools. Check out the video above to access the whole interview, and, as ever - don’t forget to like, subscribe and share!

Kicking off our conversation at the Google Cloud NEXT London event, we consider some of the latest third party add-ons for Google users. 2019 saw a raft of newcomers, with the choice on offer now vast. Rowan’s favourite? According to the Technical Lead, all customers need back-up. In this regard, Rowan highlights Hiver - a popular tool which makes shared inboxes both fast and collaborative: “There’s a very specific type of customer that will need it, but it certainly has its uses. It’s a little expensive, but the features are fantastic”.

Third Party Integration

Moving onto his next favourite, Rowan points to Copper: CRM software built specifically for Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). “They are integrated really nicely in Google Workspace, with some really cool features like picking up emails from prospects,” says Rowan. Fintan also loves the feature, highlighting that it is this form of automation which is really helping workforces “get things done”. 

Rowan shares that the team at Cobry often uses Asana for project management purposes. Whilst the tool has its benefits, he does admit that a perfect project management tool has yet to be seen. This comes despite the huge range of choice on offer, with products such as Monday regularly targeting web users online and on social media. 

Happeo, however, is a product that Cobry are keen to learn more about. For Damson Cloud, Happeo has been very useful and fits in with the company’s wider conversations around digital transformation. “You can get away without having an intranet for a short while only. However, when you grow to a certain size, you need a structured approach. You need a portal and a single place that’s also nice to use,” says Fintan.

A One-Stop-Shop for Collaboration

Fintan highlights the appeal of Happeo’s editing function, which is similar to Google Sites. “Customers go into their editing and content creation and are immediately surprised by its simple and familiar interface. Their Channels piece, however, really sets them aside. It’s essentially a social media feed, allowing you to subscribe to certain channels. People can add comments and documents, allowing it to essentially become a digital workspace. There’s a calendar, shared drive, video call functions and more which create that one stop shop for collaboration,” argues Fintan. According to the Damson Cloud CEO, many similar tools tend to remain stagnant.

According to Rowan, the core objective of such tools should be to extend a culture of collaboration: “You need to get users working better together. You need to make it easier for them, and faster”. Fintan suggests that in many cases, working with companies who use archaic systems and processes continue to highlight the need for such products. “Once you introduce some of these tools, you see strange practices and processes simply evaporating away,” adds Rowan. 

Concluding the final conversation in the series, Fintan and Rowan agree that in many cases, digital transformation deals with many obstacles - with many of those being emotional challenges.

More About Damson Cloud

As we wrap up this series, we’d like to offer a huge thank you to Rowan for his insights.  Visit our blog for more discussion on changing the way we work. And, of course – don’t forget to like, subscribe and share!

As a longstanding member of the Google Cloud Partner program, Damson Cloud specialise in bringing people and ideas together through new ways of working. We champion change management and digital transformation using some of the internet’s most trusted solutions, including Google Workspace, Happeo and Jamboard. To find out more about our services, check out our library of tutorial videos or our blog.