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Uncover the business value of Google Workspace

Nick Treurnicht: Customer Engineer, Digicloud Africa

Johannesburg, 03 Nov 2020

Let’s start with a seemingly audacious statement. Google is no longer competing with the best. Google is the best. Google has redefined collaboration with Google Workspace. Leading companies from around the world are tapping into Google Workspace to transform how they work – and it is delivering measurable results. This may be a bold opinion, but here are some facts to support it.

Today, Google is helping over 6 million businesses move towards a modern way of working, knowing that now more than ever, remote teams need tools that work even harder to make life a little easier. That’s why Google is introducing Google Workspace: everything you need to get work done, now, in one place. It brings together the communication and collaboration tools that users are already familiar with from G Suite – messaging, meetings, docs and more – in a thoughtfully connected way.

The way we work today is so far removed from how we worked at the beginning of this millennium. Attaching files to e-mails and running our own e-mail server infrastructure. Using our mailboxes to find files that were attached to e-mails. Trying to identify which version of a document is the right/current version.

Google first started revolutionising the technology industry with Gmail. If there is one thing that we have all come to know and love about Gmail, it is that it’s always up and running, never failing you when you need it. Since then, Google has built an entire productivity suite on top of Gmail with product releases and incremental changes to those products. Add to that Google’s ability to consistently push feature updates to its suite of cloud collaboration tools, which has made even competitors rethink their collaboration strategies.

Organisations that were using G Suite would have seen the consistent pace of feature updates over the last year or two, culminating in the launch of Google Workspace last month.A complete interface overhaul of Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Groups to name a few. A retirement of Google Hangouts, which has been replaced with Google Meet for video calling and Google Chat for everything else. The new version of Google Chat virtually makes competitive messaging platforms redundant, especially with the latest addition of Rooms in Chat. This new feature gives users one space to discuss and collaborate on projects, all without having to leave Gmail. Advanced Rooms in e-mail enables employees to assign tasks related to projects, share project files and folders and collaborate on Docs without having to switch between tabs.

It’s not just the rich features available to consumers, but also the deep integration of Google’s products into other third-party apps like Salesforce, Draw.io or Zoho, to name a few.

G Suite started off as a variety of separate productivity tools, whereas now, Google Workspace has morphed into one single workspace where you can get everything done. It made sense for Google to redefine the platform.

Add to that how work has changed in 2020. Version control for documents and collaboration from anywhere in the world has become paramount. We simply cannot keep doing the same things in the same ways and expect a digitised workforce. We cannot expect our colleagues to work smart without smart tools.

Google commissioned Forrester Consulting to quantify the business benefits and cost savings of moving to Google Workspace. This report (“The Total Economic Impact Of Google Workspace”, February 2020) revealed that Google Workspace delivers value in four key areas:

  • Revenue growth
  • Employee efficiency
  • Risk mitigation
  • IT cost savings

For users who want all their e-mails and documents backed up to the Google Cloud – all the time; with nothing but a browser and login details; with no need to install software for video conferencing (unlike where someone has to be the host, using their laptop hardware to try and host an online video call on other platforms); with just one single link with access to everything you need – Google Workspace is your answer.

Digicloud’s vote for 2021 is a vote for change and continual progress, it’s a vote for Google Workspace.

To learn more about Google Workspace, register now for one of Digicloud’s webinars: Google Workspace in Africa, all you need to know.

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Editorial contacts

Lauren Wood
Distribution Programme Manager
(083) 276 1932
woodlauren@google.com