Client story LAFC Cuts Collaboration Silos With Google Workspace Migration

Elevating sports entertainment workflows through modern teamwork

The Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) constantly seeks new ways to improve how their staff connects and shares information. Since their first season in 2018, the organization has grown rapidly, requiring a digital workplace for the fast-paced operational needs of a modern organization.

LAFC operates out of three separate facilities, each with different functions. The downtown headquarters handles finance, human resources, marketing, and ticket sales. The performance center hosts players and scouting teams, while BMO Stadium, where the team plays on match days, manages guest experiences and turf grounds. To bring these diverse functions together and capitalize on emerging tech trends, leadership decided to overhaul their entire corporate software stack.

The challenge: Overcoming collaboration silos and hard license expirations

LAFC hit major operational roadblocks with their productivity and collaboration platform. Cross-departmental communication suffered because team members worked in disconnected software silos. Documents and emails didn’t integrate well, which slowed down critical everyday workflows. Furthermore, the executive team wanted to bring a generative AI platform into their daily routines.

A larger issue loomed on the horizon. LAFC faced a hard license expiration deadline. This left the club with a compressed 16-week timeline to execute a complete platform shift. If they missed the deadline, the team would have to pay a substantial renewal fee for software they didn’t intend to use. More importantly, the migration had to occur in the middle of the Major League Soccer season. Any delay would cause severe operational disruptions for match day stadium workflows.

The team had to safely move approximately 28 TB of data sitting in legacy libraries and complex shared mailboxes. LAFC staff lacked the time to manage a large-scale technical transition because they were entirely focused on complex match day operations. The club needed an external partner with deep technical knowledge to move all files smoothly without corrupting critical data.

The solution: Deploying a cloud-native framework and tailored change management

LAFC reached out to Insight based on a strong recommendation from Google Cloud. To give the client complete confidence, Insight designed a cloud-native infrastructure using the CloudM tool hosted on a scalable cluster of dedicated Google Cloud virtual machines (VMs). This setup guaranteed that the 28 TB of data would transfer rapidly and securely.

During the migration, the technical team ran into severe API throttling. To protect the client's hard deadline, Insight shifted the data strategy. Engineers mapped the legacy libraries directly into Google Workspace shared drives. This clever workaround bypassed the throttling and kept the deployment on track.

“Mapping our legacy files into Google Workspace shared drives sped things up and was highly efficient,” says Christian Lau, CTO at LAFC. “Everything migrated over with no issues. Insight made the right call.”

For email security, the club transitioned to Cloudflare as the primary email gateway and configured Okta for centralized identity management. This dual-layered approach kept identity control seamless during the cutover phases. Insight also turned legacy shared mailboxes into Google Groups collaborative email inboxes, maintaining functional parity for the staff.

“The Insight team absolutely made the email transition and the overall Google Workspace migration the easiest it could have possibly been, and we’re very happy,” says Lau.

Ensuring high user acceptance

To ensure high user acceptance, Insight change management consultants built customized communication plans. They launched a custom learning center featuring five-minute microlearning videos. This short-form training format proved highly effective for a busy sports workforce.

Insight also ran specialized VIP white-glove sessions for executives and their assistants to smooth the transition. Throughout the multiphase execution, the implementation team maintained constant communication via video conferences and emails, ensuring that stadium operations went off without a hitch.

The outcome: Achieving total workforce transformation ahead of schedule

Insight stabilized the new platform 15 days before the final deadline, letting LAFC completely avoid the renewal costs. Today, LAFC enjoys smooth operations with their 425 active Google Workspace accounts. User surveys show that satisfaction and positive sentiment sit at an impressive 96%, with zero inbound complaints.

The move to Google Workspace acted as a force multiplier for organizational culture. Cross-departmental communication is much faster now. Teams use Google Chat to collaborate on live files, which dramatically cuts the time required to make business decisions.

Quantifiable benefits

• Migrated 100% of user accounts 15 days before the deadline
• Transferred 28 TB of data with zero file corruption
• Avoided a substantial licensing renewal cost
• Achieved an immediate 96% user satisfaction rating

Qualitative improvements

• Eliminated organizational silos with Google Workspace’s integrated chat, email, and file-sharing features
• Accelerated contract review speeds via real-time editing in Google Docs
• Boosted security posture through the security-first design of Google Workspace
• Uplifted the employee experience with short, engaging microlearning training videos

Future outlook

With a modern cloud-native platform in place, LAFC is well-positioned for long-term digital growth. The club now uses built-in automation rules to manage high-volume mailboxes, saving staff hours of manual effort. Teammates actively use Google Workspace with Gemini and NotebookLM on a daily basis to build presentations, design infographics, and automate remedial tasks.

This success frees up critical employee time to focus on strategic projects that give a higher return on investment. LAFC also plans to extend this cloud-native migration to their international sister clubs in the future, creating a unified global collaboration network.

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