Editors note: Today we are happy to announce that the Spanish Leroy Merlin stores are moving to Google Apps for Business. Our guest blogger, Luis Herrero, CIO at Leroy Merlin Spain, tells us about the move.

Leroy Merlin Spain employees over 8,000 people in 50 stores throughout the country. Our large retail spaces provide self service and sales assisted services across four areas - DIY, building, gardening, and decoration. We’re the leading chain in this sector in Spain offering products, services and solutions to over 27 million customers.

Earlier this year we identified the need to modernize our IT systems, and we were seeking a system that would allow the business to become more efficient. We wanted a unified technology solution that is easy to use and would enable our teams across multiple stores to communicate and collaborate together.

After considering various options in the market, we decided to implement Google’s technology solutions for business. The primary reasons for choosing Google Apps were the speed, simplicity, ease of implementation and the quality of the service offered, together with Google’s wide experience with many other clients.

The adoption of Google Apps for Business is part of our strategy to position our business as a dynamic and innovative company, able to merge the business with one of the most advanced technologies in the market. We see our move as an opportunity for our employees to have powerful and easy collaboration and communication tools, and we look forward to seeing what we can achieve with these tools as we complete the roll out.