<p>White goods maker Whirlpool has moved its 68,000-strong workforce to Google Apps in order to "break down geographical barriers" and speed up innovation within the company.</p><p>Mike Heim, Whirlpool's chief information officer, said the cloud-based productivity suite would enable the company to "unleash the talent in the company, without a lot of IT support" across its 66 manufacturing and research centres dotted about the globe.</p><p>In an interview published on the Google Enterprise blog, Heim said the move to Google Apps didn't just represent a change in IT strategy but a shift in company culture.</p><p>"Google Apps is a simple solution in many ways, but the features are actually very sophisticated, enabling us to surround our business processes with the right tools to connect people," he said.</p><p><a href="http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/saas/3383/whirlpool-deploys-google-apps-for-business-to-68000-staff">Keep reading...</a></p>