There are very few people (especially of the younger generation) today who can actually remember a world without Google Inc. in it. The name itself has become a word that, as each day passes, is set to replace “search” or “research” online in the near future. Google.com is by far the leading search engine with an approximate average of 60% of the market share.
And yet, while it is the most widely used one, the company’s search engine isn’t the only popular service it has to offer. Rather, a simple collection of Google’s productivity tools were packed together and released as “Google Apps” in 2006. The free beta version of the suite of tools included Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and Google Page Creator (later renamed Google Sites) and became an instant hit.
The concept behind the project was to allow businesses that owned websites to have online productivity and collaboration capabilities – a precursor to what we now call “working in the cloud.” Fast forward to today, and we have a suite that has been renamed “Google Apps for Work” that holds 8 apps: Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Calendar, Google Hangouts, Google+ and Google Apps Vault.
At present, Google claims that about 60% of Fortune 500 companies are active clients that are happy to pay for the suite of apps. So, what can you, as a business-website owner, gain from installing Google for Work apps on your domain?
Let’s see what you get once you sign up:
Gmail: your site will have a custom email address with your own domain name instead of someone@gmail.com. This is critical to building customer confidence. In addition to emails, you can communicate and even hold video conferences with your clients using your account – from your laptop, PDA or smart phone.
Drive: as a business owner you will want to store your data safely and securely. You will also want to be able to access it at a moment’s notice, wherever you may be and at whatever time. How do you do that without investing in an IT department, setting up a fail-proof intra- and internet network and hiring the knowhow to keep it up and running 24/7? The answer is by using Google Drive. With disk space starting at 30GB per user and going up to unlimited storage for a nominal fee, your business can be the owner of a data storage system that could compare to any of that found in, well, a Fortune 500 company. With added advantages of being able to automatically sync data between your device and Drive, while also being able to access and view most of the popular file formats without having to buy extra software, you actually save money.
Docs: there was a time, not too long ago, when a team of professionals that needed to work on a document or spreadsheet, had to take turns applying their changes on it. With Google Docs people can work on the same file, using their browsers, and have all changes applied to the same document automatically. To avoid mistakes and misunderstandings teammates can comment, chat and watch as the file (Microsoft files, PDF, txt, html etc.) is being edited.
Sites: do you need a new webpage added? How about a forum or even a portal, perhaps? Don’t know any coding? Well then Sites is for you. You don’t need to spend money and time on web developers or administrators. You can create sites that have everything – relevant content drawn from your own projects, search engines, gadgets and the capability to share it all (internally or on the internet) with ease.
Calendar: come collaboration and planning time, you will need a tool every one of your colleagues can access and put them on the same page. That tool is Calendar – you will know who is available and if not, what they are scheduled to be doing. You will be able to plan ahead and integrate your plan to seamlessly merge in with the rest of the team.
Hangouts: when you need to be away from work you don’t have to actually be non-productive. You can hold video meetings (in HD quality nonetheless) with up to 15 of your colleagues – from any smart device. With noise reduction, intelligent muting and screen sharing, it will be like you never left your office.
Google+: your business will never survive without social media marketing. Google+ will allow you to share news and achievements with your intended audience while at the same time keeping you on top of what is going on within your community.
Vault: when everything is said and done, you will need to keep your email conversations and on-the-records chats stored in a secure location – in case you need it for future reference. With vault you can have relevant data across your domain archived automatically and retained for a specifiable amount of time. When you need it, you will find the exact data using Google-powered search – even if your account has been closed. You just won’t be able to lose data.
Apart from productivity, Google Apps for Work will give you the assurance that your data is held in a safe and secure place – on Google’s own servers. You won’t have to spend sleepless nights worrying about how to protect your servers and data from malicious attacks.
