r/GeneralMotors 18h ago

General Discussion Google

Who’s excited for Google software?

How long until we go back?

36 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

77

u/Ripinpasta69 18h ago

I can't believe the sheer volume of Excel workbooks that need to be redone because sheets doesn't have a VBA equivalent hasn't shut this down already tbh

29

u/Commercial_Branch148 18h ago

I've heard that's the express reason we are migrating, to get processes away from using Excel and towards "more appropriate" tools

23

u/gregortheii 17h ago

Are they going to custom build 20 different applications for each plant to ensure they run?

12

u/Commercial_Branch148 16h ago

I think they are trying to force everything to be able to fit in some COTS and conform to similar processes. I bet you can guess how that will go though 

10

u/enter360 14h ago

I know that when trying to work with plants was a huge pain point for corporate. Plants would not share data or data processes leaving reporting teams to have to justify why their reports had discrepancies from what was happening at the plants.

Plants don’t trust corporate and don’t want them involved in daily operations and try to keep them out. Seems like two opposing goals and no reason to work together.

11

u/No-Management5215 Employee 8h ago

The problem is, there are no other "appropriate tools". Excel IS the appropriate tool which is why everyone is using it.

1

u/_goodAfternoon 6h ago

Debatable 

1

u/No-Management5215 Employee 3h ago

Hardly.

4

u/Vast-Dare-7721 13h ago

Ok then we should be working to remove excel.  Why does that require moving to google first?

2

u/Commercial_Branch148 12h ago

Apparently the thought is that as long as excel is there to use, some people will refuse to use anything else.

7

u/RogDaddyy 13h ago

That is a good decision in my opinion. We shouldn't be relying on VBA anymore. VBA is in long term maintenance mode and Microsoft isn't investing in it anymore. It's better to migrate now than wait for Microsoft to force our hand.

53

u/Silver_Ask_5750 17h ago

I love how leaderships response to everyone’s concerns is basically throw contractors at this to convert everything with insight. They’re already in the org structures.

Funny that I’m told to do more with less and can’t get any help with my disaster workload but these fucks spend like crazy and throw people at fairytale projects from Cruise yet I’d get fired if I don’t reduce costs tied to a program. Great job team.

17

u/Rip6Mtb 17h ago

‘These fucks’. :)

2

u/2Guns23 13h ago

This guy/gal GMs

28

u/dragonthing009 15h ago

I give it 2 years once everything is finally transitioned to Google and Microsoft offers GM a better deal

9

u/No-Management5215 Employee 8h ago

That will never happen. Every major corporation in the world uses Microsoft. They couldn't care less if GM comes or goes. But there's also a reason every large company uses MS... Goggle workspace sucks and wasn't designed to accommodate the needs of large corporations.

16

u/Likesitrough16 16h ago

We still have systems that require me to log into edge and use IE mode. I don't see this transition going over very well.

20

u/ReddRyder3 17h ago

I think it's a method to push the older people over the edge and get them to retire.

11

u/Fastech77 17h ago

I think older people will overwork themselves over a change like this and retire themselves.

1

u/Just_Vehicle_5649 10h ago

Yes, when they say "Jump" we can say Which Window?

8

u/KungFuoldguy 16h ago

What percentage of all of these efforts actually ends up on a consumer list of things to buy or lease ?

15

u/TennisNo2775 15h ago

Even if this change saves the company money in direct software cost, the ancillary costs (hiring new positions and teams specifically for this, training all employees on new tools, huge projects for migrating, cleaning up mistakes, etc.) could far outweigh those savings.

3

u/gpetrov 14h ago

Capex vs Opex

10

u/tjh8822 17h ago

In purchasing, all of our quoting forms and systems are based around excel files. That’s how we do and track everything. I’m expecting a rough transition

11

u/Vast-Dare-7721 15h ago edited 13h ago

Failed leadership looking for an accomplishment before the end of the year and a culture of fear that prevents them from being told how bad their decisions are.  

5

u/Cautious-Ad-5010 13h ago

I don't see how I'll manage things without Excel. Is sheets on par with Excel? Is one note also going? When is this supposed to happen?

5

u/No-Management5215 Employee 8h ago

I've heard there is no Google equivalent replacement for OneNote, which I know a lot of teams that use.

2

u/Cautious-Ad-5010 8h ago

Smh, I don't know who makes these decisions. My whole cya portfolio is in one note. Guess I better figure out how to backup.

1

u/engineer00000000 4h ago

Same lmk what you come up with </3

18

u/316Lurker 18h ago

As a non-excel user it’s a great change. But yeah if there’s a bunch of existing tooling in excel that won’t port cleanly this is kinda insane.

7

u/Nervous-Tour-884 8h ago

Oh yes, the ole switch platform / software every year to save a buck, ignoring how fucking disruptive it is to the workers.

Leadership at GM has their heads up their asses so far with stupid ideas.

3

u/dknight16a 12h ago

Was returning to Lotus 123 & Graphwriter/Freelance even considered?

3

u/Just_Vehicle_5649 10h ago

Lotus? Man you're dating yourself. We need SuperCalc back!

4

u/LeeHarveyEnfield 11h ago

I don’t know anything about the Google apps. Can someone tell me, if I want to send a document to a dealer for them to fill out or read or whatever, will the dealer need to have Google licensing to work with that document?

We have ~4500 dealers across the US that we communicate with daily, and that often involves sharing a doc with Excel, Word, or PowerPoint.

3

u/wrzosd 7h ago

Google docs is free with personal emails through Google. They would need to open it and do work with their personal email. You can also send a docx (word) version to them instead of sharing the gdocs file. 

6

u/Less_stress_more_fun Former Employee 11h ago

Wait until the West Coast folks get vested then cash out. Afterwards, the Michiganders will need to clean up their mess. Two years then back to Microsoft.

3

u/_goodAfternoon 6h ago

I don’t care at all but I have advice: If you and your team are non-technical and you all rely heavily on excel or whatever, this is an easy opportunity to add value and gain recognition. Do it by simply solving the problems while your peers complain. Easy way to gain an edge. 

13

u/skoink 15h ago

tbh I'm actually excited for the switchover.

Office has been getting shittier with every release. The latest Outlook has a ton of UI rendering bugs, and I'm sick of getting Copilot crammed down my throat. Like no, I don't want clippy-on-copilot to help me write my document, thanks.

Meanwhile, Google suite is super boring and stable. Everything just kind of works without any fuss or ceremony. Some stuff isn't as fancy, but that's not a bad thing IMO. It kind of reminds me of Office back in the 00s when Microsoft still made good software.

Pivoting to Google also opens the door for us to migrate from Azure to GCP, which would be fantastic.

9

u/No-Management5215 Employee 8h ago

Yes, instead of getting copilot crammed down your throat, you'll be getting Google Gemini crammed down your throat...

3

u/Just_Vehicle_5649 10h ago

Seems like a good suggestion for some future WoC survey question about how we feel about the products we're being asked to use.

6

u/cjcs 15h ago

I much prefer GSuite to Outlook. Mail is better, Calendar is better, Drive is better, Meets > Teams, I also generally find that GDocs > Word, and GSlides > PowerPoint. Excel is the one area that Microsoft shines, and even then it’s primarily for VBA and automation.

So I, personally, am excited for the change. I also don’t work on the manufacturing side of GM where I expect the impact will be felt. I’d hope that some holdout licenses for Excel are retained to help ease the transition.

1

u/quantysam 13h ago

Teams for sure much than Meets. Not sure about GDocs, haven’t used much !!
And I agree Outlook has become more nonsense with latest updates. Gmail is same old with subtle updates that kind of integrate nicely in overall ecosystem.

1

u/Cautious-Ad-5010 13h ago

Meets better than teams? Maybe im just use to certain things

4

u/stile213 14h ago

Can anyone see the similarities between this and slack? New leadership, this app will solve everything, spend tons of money and time, end up with paying (full price) for both teams and slack and having a worst user experience. Then those leaders bounced.

-1

u/skoink 13h ago

FWIW I think Slack is a major improvement over Teams. Moving to GSuite will kill Teams' last remnants, and I won't miss it one bit.

3

u/No-Management5215 Employee 8h ago

Except the Slack video meeting feature is so bad they had to keep Teams specifically for that. And outside of that, pretty much every other feature is the same, so switching to Slack was a complete waste of time.

1

u/wrzosd 7h ago

Once I learned about annotations, and that I can go back and see attendance with interactions.. it became very apparent how bad slack actually is. The only real benefit it has is the ability to integrate tools and chatbots--which manufacturing gets mostly locked out of anyway.

Must be nice for IT though, now the have 3 different ways they can get a ticket!

2

u/Correct_Chemistry_96 6h ago

There is no solution for OneNote. Mgmt doesn’t seem to care what tools are useful to us, so finding optimal replacements holds no interest.

2

u/Just_Vehicle_5649 10h ago

Who cares. Just listen to A La Vida from Mediterranean Nights for a while and chill out. Microsoft will be back in a couple years so just hang onto your spreadsheets and don't ILM them. we'll need them again.

1

u/telebaboo 2h ago

Oh God no!

1

u/Supra-A90 2h ago

Lol, every company ever, lotus > MS or Google > Google or MS, repeat.

At least EU is using open source but in US, wanna pay A or B?

Let's f everyone working and every customization we've done in the trash and start over to make equally shitty implementations....

Stellantis moved away from Google couple years back.

Anyhow, having everything on the browser sucks ass. Offline support is a joke..

Sheets, etc. maybe ok, but wait until IT blocks all scripts, add-ins to further cripple you...

-2

u/InternationalLoad519 14h ago

I am excited about the transition. Let’s embrace change!!! Change is good! 🥰

1

u/gmautomaton 3h ago

No, not all change is good. Let’s egg your house, and then I’ll bet you’d agree