Given the rising prevalence of remote working and the ever-changing nature of office life, many businesses are adapting to the challenge of effectively collaborating with remote workers.
This is where Google Workspace comes in. It is a cloud-based service that comes with a wide range of features suitable for businesses with both remote and in-office working requirements. Google Workspace brings various teams together, facilitates effective communication, and streamlines overall productivity.
Google Workspace offers a set of productivity and communication apps for startups, enterprises, people, education, and nonprofits. The productivity toolkit includes Gmail, Calendar, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Meet, and more. With the advanced version of Google Workspace, Google promises better user experience, integration, and a new identity.
An insight into Google Workspace features
When Google renamed G Suite to Google Workspace, it brought new icons for a simplified user interface, a unified identity, and new add-ons for overcoming the limitations of free personal Google accounts.
For example, the recent Gmail redesign brought Spaces, Chat, and Meet in one place. You need not switch between multiple tabs for different tasks like checking file previews, chatting with teammates, or organising video calls.
Another efficient feature is the ability to preview files in Sheets, Docs, and Slides. As compared to a free Gmail account, you’d get an ad-free Gmail experience, noise cancellation in Google Meet, a higher participant limit, meeting recording, and more.
Now, we’ll take you through a few of the many noteworthy features of Google Workspace:
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Gmail
In addition to the standard features of Gmail like email filtering, message scheduling, spam blocking, and a convenient right-click menu, the new Workspace Gmail is ad-free and has the option of email address customisation of employees to match the company’s domain.
Gmail easily integrates with other Workspace tools to enable users to send meeting invitations using Google Calendar or discuss projects directly using Google Meet and Google Chat.
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Drive
Drive, a cloud-based storage option, ensures secure access to Workspace-based files. There are different packages available for users:
- Business Starter package – offers 30 GB of storage space per user
- Business Standard – offers 2 TB storage per user
- Business Plus – offers 5 TB storage per user
In all these cases, storage is pooled across all the users.
For collaborative work, shared drives with a variety of permissions and access options are an ideal option as they help in effectively organising projects and files.
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Docs
Docs is a web-based word processor of Google which is a part of its Editors office suite that includes Slides (for presentations), Sheets (for spreadsheets), and Forms (for surveys).
It allows 10 people to work on the document at the same time and allows 200 people to view it simultaneously.
The version history allows users to track changes, meaning that the edits can be reversed easily. The Share button at the top of the screen helps set permissions on who can view the document and provides a link for anyone to access the document.
Lastly, G suite apps can open and edit file formats from their equivalent Microsoft services or apps.
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Calendar
Calendar is designed to integrate easily with other Workspace tools like Drive, Gmail, and Meet. The calendar gives the employees the ability to stay on top of their own commitments and get an oversight on their colleagues’ availability.
Besides day, week, month, and year view, the calendar also presents the option of displaying the full schedule of a user, listing all the upcoming events on one page.
To add a date in the diary,
- Hit the create button
- Select whether you are adding a task, reminder, or an event
- Fill out the required information
This includes the ability to add location and guests, besides the option to integrate video conferencing.
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Chat
Google Chat, along with the video equivalent Meet, has replaced Hangouts as the main messaging tool of Google.
Giving the users the ability to message contacts directly, Google Chat can be used to send private messages to a single person or a wider group using the room function, which can support external users (up to 8000 members).
The users can access this directly through Gmail or a standalone app.
Additional Features of Google Workspace for Business and Enterprise Users
Besides the above-listed features, it is essential to note a few of the additional features in Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans. If your business relies heavily on emails (regardless of the business size), these two features can help you.
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Cloud search
Take the search capabilities even further with Cloud Search. This feature allows you to search across your company’s content in Google Workspace.
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Vault
No one can have too many backups. Vault allows you to oversee, retain, search, and export the email of your organisation, on-the-record chats, and Google Drive files. You can archive all the data and set retention policies.
Significant benefits of Google Workspace
While all the features mentioned above are great, let’s dive into some of the real benefits of using Google Workspace for your business.
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Compatible and easy to use
One of the significant benefits of choosing Google Workspace for your business is most of your employees are already used to using Google Docs and Gmail. This smoothens the transition and ensures that you do not have to waste time explaining to new hires about how to use these tools.
Moreover, it has the best compatibility on mobile devices as compared to any other email service provider.
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Uptime
When it comes to reliability and uptime, Google is considered one of the best platforms.
Google Workspace offers 99.9% Service Level Arrangement (SLA) for covered services. Also, because email is such a crucial part of every business, Google Workspace has no maintenance windows or scheduled downtime. All their data centers are created with a robust infrastructure.
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Highly secure
Google Workspace is built on the Google Cloud Platform, which offers high security and is trusted by a few of the biggest companies across the world.
Google is leading the market with a “security-first mindset” which means they have industry-leading expertise and knowledge backing every product, including Google Workspace.
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Affordable
Google Workspace is not the cheapest, but it’s affordable. There are many cheaper providers out there, but you should invest in a reliable and robust suite of intelligent applications that has been tested and proven by big companies over time. This gives your employees safety and security as you work every day.
Streamline Your Workspace’s Productivity
When it comes to finding a holistic all-in-one solution for the collaboration and storage of the documents, Google Workspace can be a practical and useful option for any business as it is a powerful and versatile set of apps with excellent collaboration features.
Bigrock makes it affordable for you. The price of our Google Workspace package starts at ₹75 per month per user. Head on to our website now or contact one of our representatives to know more about how you can leverage the benefits of Google Workspace.