The RSPCA on how going cloud-first helped it rescue and rehome animals throughout the pandemic

Google Apps for Business is now known as Workspace, but it is worth noting that Google was still a relative newcomer to the enterprise market back in 2011, which made the RSPCA’s decision to select it as its preferred cloud productivity software provider a rather bold choice, said George.

“Google was our first kind of step into the world of cloud, and it was quite radical, really. We felt quite brave in 2012/2011 when we started out on the migration,” said George. “And we then had to convince our board of trustees that this radical move was going to be the right move. And we were successful in doing that.”

The team pressed ahead with the migration, which would go on to see Workspace and its collaboration capabilities rolled out to all of the RSPCA’s frontline staff, which today includes 270 inspectors and 100 animal rescue officers.

“That was a bit of a game changer because it really connected the organisation and it connected chief inspectors with their teams, who are all remote because they’re dispersed around the country. Just having access to email was a big deal for them,” said George.

Aside from email, migrating over to Workspace also gave the RSPCA access to cloud-based file sync, share and storage capabilities, as well as word processing and other business productivity offerings too, and access to video calling functionality. This, in turn, resulted in some other big changes emerging in how the RSPCA functions, said George.

“We started digitising case file work using Google Docs, and we were always pushing for more use of video conferencing through the use of Google Hangouts, or Google Meet as it’s now known,” he said.

“We had a further stage [in the migration] where we picked up the remainder of the workforce, which includes the animal centre workers, so every single member of staff [across the organisation] is now connected and it’s now the norm that they have an account as soon as they join the organisation.

“That’s was quite a big breakthrough because it democratised it so every single member of staff now has the same access, and messages come direct to everybody, and within the organisation anyone can chat to anyone. It’s really opened up the organisation at hardly any cost,” he said.

With the organisation comprising 150 branches across England and Wales, plus a further 56 regional and branch animal hospitals, clinics and wildlife centres, this work has helped bring its staff closer together by making it easier for them to collaborate regardless of where they are in the country.

“I was talking to one of our chief inspectors recently, and they were discussing how they work with their team. They said they now have much more regular touchpoints with their team members than they ever had before because they used to have to wait a month and then all drive to their local RSPCA headquarters for a face-to-face meeting,” said George.

“We all like to do face-to-face meetings still, but now they’re able to be in touch with their staff on a weekly basis or daily basis or whenever they need to. And that’s enabled more of a support network, greater pastoral care, and more collaboration to occur among the staff.”

 “[The Google Cloud push] really opened up the organisation at hardly any cost”

Nick George, RSPCA

Its move to the cloud has also paved the way for the organisation to reduce the amount of physical IT hardware it has running at its sites, which brings other benefits.

“We now have a secure and robust solution across the whole organisation that is very light touch in terms of our maintenance and operation and cost of running, and we don’t have to send engineers out to animal centres to rebuild servers,” said George.

The organisation has also embarked on a laptop refresh by opting to roll out Chromebooks to its staff, which – when paired with Google Workspace – has brought about productivity benefits for its IT department.

“We can deploy client equipment really quickly. Chromebooks have been a great entry point and are really good value, and the configuration is almost zero touch compared to a laptop,” said George.

“From an IT perspective, [the Google partnership] has really enabled us to focus on other areas and not worry so much about the baseline productivity tools that we give people.”

The fact that the RSPCA team was used to working in this way meant the organisation was able to rapidly adapt to the social distancing and remote-working mandates that occurred in spring 2020 during the start of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

While the UK may have spent much of 2020 in lockdown, the RSPCA continued its animal rescue and rehoming work largely unabated. According to the organisation’s own data, it fielded a total of 1.2 million calls, investigated more than 140,000 suspected incidents of animal cruelty, and secured more than 1,400 convictions for animal abuse last year.

Over the course of 2020, it also found forever homes for 29,000 animals in its care, despite the social distancing regulations making it harder for it to home-check the properties of potential adoptees, thanks to its use of Google Meet.

“We have been using video conferencing to connect potential rehomers with animals, and we’ve been using it to allow our inspectors to work with vets without having to go there too,” continued George.

In total, the organisation estimates that around 500 video meetings are taking place across the organisation via Google Meet each day, although George predicts this number might start to level off in time.

If there is one positive to come from the pandemic, George said it is the fact that it has made its team member more accepting and willing to engage with newer technologies. It has also cut down the amount of driving its staff do between centres, which is better for the environment, he added.

“Even with social distancing being less stringent, we’re still using those digital methods to be more effective and bring services forward in a more timely manner, without lots of driving. So there’s a sustainability benefit there, because – as an organisation – we do spend a lot of time on the road,” said George.

“We’re probably over-reliant on video conferencing technology now, which I think will balance out in time, but the benefits have been clear. And as more organisations strive towards sustainability as a target, then I think it’s going to feature. Video conferencing is not going away – it’s proven its value.”