Google Workspace is a package of cloud applications and includes all the important software tools that a company needs for collaboration. All you need to use it is a web browser. Read this blog post to find out why your company's employees work better together with Workspace and why you can reduce IT costs in the process.

Which computer is the presentation saved on that you really wanted to work on for tomorrow's business meeting? Is it perhaps only on the USB stick that your part-time colleague always takes home with him? With Google Workspace, you no longer have to deal with these or similar problems that are commonplace in many companies. Because you can store all your documents, presentations, photos, logos, videos, etc. in Drive. You can quickly find everything again with the help of Cloud Search. This tool not only searches Drive, but all content stored in other applications such as Gmail, Docs, spreadsheets, presentations or calendars. A separate filing or keyword system is not necessary.

Your IT department will also contact you at regular intervals to ask you to delete some of the emails as the mail server is reaching its capacity limit. Apart from the fact that we all dread this work, mistakes happen and important emails end up in the trash. With Gmail, not a single message has to be deleted, because even the basic version has a huge amount of storage space. It is possible to read and write messages without an Internet connection. Chats and video conferences can be started directly from Gmail.

Mobile and flexible working is becoming increasingly important. Digital natives in particular no longer want to sit in front of a desk and struggle with company PCs. They prefer to work with a laptop, tablet and smartphone and these devices should preferably be their own - keyword: Bring Your Own Device. Google Workspace makes it easy to fulfill this wish. As the software and data you need to work are stored in the cloud, you automatically always have them with you. Even when there is no internet connection.

With Google Docs, you can work on a document together with several colleagues or external partners - in real time. The comment function helps to clarify open questions. The integrated Google Chat application allows you to discuss changes with your team without having to incorporate them into the actual document. These collaboration functions can also be used in the Spreadsheets, Forms, Presentations, Sites, App Maker and Notes applications.
Google Chat can be used as an independent communication platform for projects, where direct messages and group conversations are possible. You can hold video conferences with Google Meet. The application can be used from any device. Participants can also dial in by telephone. You can share the screen with the other conference partners. The shareable calendar can be integrated into other applications such as Gmail, Drive, Sites, Contacts and Chat, making collaboration even easier.
 

Google Workspace is a software-as-a-service offering that Google provides at a defined service level and charges different rates for. Although the free versions of the applications have the same names, Workspace has absolutely nothing to do with Google's advertising business. Google Workspace is ad-free and your data is neither collected nor used by the services for advertising purposes. Both Google Workspace and the Google Cloud Platform are GDPR-compliant. Google supports its customers in implementing the GDPR themselves.

If your employees work on computers that have exactly the software installed that they need for their work, Google Workspace offers you huge savings potential for several reasons: The computing capacity you need comes from the cloud. Your hardware does not have to cope with this alone. You can therefore work with incomparably less powerful servers, PCs and laptops than you have done so far. Chromebooks costing just a few hundred euros are enough to use Workspace in everyday business. In addition, software licenses are completely superfluous. You pay a fixed amount per month for Google Workspace. If your number of employees changes, you can react more flexibly. In short: you only ever pay for the resources you actually use.

Things simply have to work in order to be used. This also applies to business use. All Google Workspace applications can be learned quickly. Some programs and functions will be familiar to your employees anyway because they use Google products privately. Google itself offers online training courses. This allows your employees to train themselves easily and free of charge.

If you run your company's IT yourself, the loss of some or all of your company data is a scenario that you should not completely rule out: Your server room is suddenly under water, the power went out over the weekend and the automatic backup didn't work, the laptop with important data is stolen or one of your employees suddenly can't find the company smartphone they were using to take important photos at a meeting for a project. Losing data is always expensive and can even mean the end of a company. With Google Workspace, you can entrust your data to professionals.

Who likes carrying around two smartphones or using two tablets? Nobody does. You should therefore not require your employees to use a different device for work than for their private affairs - unless they want to do so themselves. Google Workspace offers its own sophisticated mobile device management. This allows you to manage smartphones, tablets and smartwatches with different operating systems. It is also possible to set up one profile for work and one for private use on a device. The solution allows you to manage and monitor all mobile devices and roll out apps centrally to your employees' devices.

Many employees tend to use applications for their work that have not been approved by their own IT department for security reasons. The reason why this shadow IT is so popular is simple: the supposedly insecure applications are often better and easier to use than those provided by the company itself. Or the company does not offer its employees any software tools for certain tasks. With Workspace, you can solve the problem very easily: the software suite meets the requirements of your IT department. What's more, all Google Workspace applications are so easy to use that your employees will automatically stay away from non-approved software alternatives.

Especially in the IT sector, it is important to work with reliable partners. After all, you don't buy software or hardware once and then use it for years. Customization, updates and services are an important part. If a company that has supplied you with IT solutions disappears from the market, you have a problem, unless they are standard solutions. Google, or rather its parent company Alphabet Inc. is one of the most valuable companies in the world. The company and its products will almost certainly not disappear from the market any time soon. So you can be sure that with Google Workspace you are investing in a solution that is constantly being developed and supported.

IT is increasingly becoming the backbone of every company. No matter what industry it comes from. The purpose of IT is to enable you to work together better and more efficiently in your company and to make your company more competitive. In some companies, however, IT has become a drag on ideas and innovation. This is simply because new things are difficult to map in the software used to date, because there is a lack of IT resources overall or because the security guidelines are simply too strict. With Google Workspace, you can give IT the role it deserves again: It should function smoothly, be easy to use and help users achieve their goals faster.