In October 2020, Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) boasted of having 2.5 billion monthly active users. In fact, there is a pretty good chance the employees of your organization are already using Google Workspace, such as Gmail for communication with people outside of work and Google Drive to share important documents with their friends and co-workers. These apps can be used by consumers for free and solve the purpose of everyday communication.
This sparks one question in the minds of all organizations — “Why should I upgrade my business to Google Workspace when I can avail all these applications for free?”
Short answer: You get more control of your operations and way better security features. You can also leverage artificial intelligence to collaborate faster and make operations more efficient.
To experience true digital transformation, migrating to Google Workspace is the foremost option.
Here are five more reasons why you should invest in Google Workspace.
1. Industry-leading security
Anyone who has maintained a Google Account must be aware of the two-step verification process and other rigorous security checks. With Google Workspace, there is much more than that. Some of them include,
- Context-Aware Access
This helps give only granular access to work apps based on user identity, location, device security status, and IP address.
With Context-Aware Access, you get control over the apps a user can access depending upon their device’s compliance with your IT policy.
2-Step Verification for all members of an organization is still possible.
- Protect Sensitive Information Using DLP
If you want to detect sensitive information about your business, including credit card numbers in emails and important Google Drive files, GW’s data loss prevention (DLP) policies come to the rescue. They allow you to set up policy-based actions. This means that you can block users from sharing email and Drive files when sensitive content is detected.
Email Security Sandbox
Sometimes, there are emails with attachments that have malicious software. Most antivirus programs tend to miss them. Therefore, GW has a feature that allows Gmail to scan and run all attachments through its Security Sandbox. The ones that are identified as threats are sent to the Spam folder.
- Security Center
If you need all information about your security and analytics, head to the security center. You will be able to see the issues affecting your domain and control the problems associated with it.
You can visit the security center by clicking on advanced settings in the Google Admin console. You can then surf through security data through insightful, customizable reports that you can share with colleagues in your organization.
2. More storage on Google Drive
With Google Workspace, each employee of the company gets a Google Drive account, which can be used to store personal tasks, notes, drafts, etc. At the same time, they also get access to Team Drive, where all the resources and documents in the company can be accessed by the employees.
One may argue that you can also share files using the free version. However, it will require giving access to each user manually, which is a time consuming process. Moreover, there is the chance that the document owner might forget to add one of the users to the document, causing that person to request permission to view the document and wait till the owner checks their email.
Team Drive allows access to everyone in a team that you want the document to be floated in. If an employee leaves the company, the manager of the Drive can revoke their access to all the documents.
Also, with Google Workspace, you get unlimited storage in Google Workspace Business. However, in the Google Workspace Basic plan, storage is limited to 30GB only, which is still double what you get in the free version.
3. Gen Z are more acquainted with Google Workspace than Microsoft O365
All around the world, especially in the United States, many colleges and schools have transitioned to Google for Education. In fact, all Ivy League schools now use Google for Education to prepare students for the future with 21st century skills.
Students are so accustomed to using Google Workspace that all their emails are on their Gmail account, they create files on Google Docs and Spreadsheet, and interact with their friends on Google Meet or Duo. Moreover, their schools encourage them to do so.
In 2012, a fourth-grade teacher made it mandatory for her students to collaborate on Google Docs, which allowed them to work simultaneously on the same document.
Another reason for this was the risk Microsoft Word came with — if the computer decided to suddenly shut down while writing on the Word doc, there was no way to recover what was lost if the changes weren’t saved every now and then. With Google Docs, however, all the data is saved in real-time and the older versions of the document can be accessed in the history section.
Today, more than 30 million students and children use Google Workspace in the form of Gmail and Google Docs.
Given all this, it only makes sense for businesses to move to a Google-centric workspace. You would not have to train freshers about how to use the workspace tools. They already come with experience in using Google and its many applications!
4. Leverage Google Sites to create websites
If you’re a startup or a huge business that needs a microsite to share more information about a subject with your customers and teams, you will love this feature.
You can use Google Sites to create high-quality, user-friendly websites and allow your team to work together on creating it. The best part? You don’t need any programming experience to create a website using Google Sites.
It’s quite easy to drag and drop apps and data and add it to grids and templates. Many users can also co-edit projects, add comments, and access from anywhere, just like one would in Google Docs.
5. HIPAA compliance
One of the topmost features of Google Workspace is for the healthcare industry, which has to operate in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Google Workspace and Cloud Identity can support HIPAA compliance.
Under HIPAA, certain information about a person’s health is classified as Protected Health Information (PHI). Companies that wish to take advantage of using Google Workspace with PHI are supposed to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with Google.
One cannot use Google services with PHI without signing a BAA before using Google services with PHI. Ensure that you have checked all GW products that you can use for HIPAA compliance.
It’s best to check out Google Workspace and Cloud Identity HIPAA Implementation Guide to understand how to organize data on Google services when handling PHI.
Bonus: Business insights with Artificial Intelligence
When you get the Google Workspace for Business plan, you get the advantage of letting the AI handle simple tasks and give your team data-based insights so you can make informed business decisions. Google Workspace uses machine learning, natural language processing, and other AI forms to make things easy for its users.
For instance, if you’re booking a virtual Calendar meet, the assistant finds a time and adds rooms for all attendees. You can leverage smart compose in Gmail to let the AI finish your sentences appropriately.
There’s also a feature called Nudge, which sends you reminders when you forget to respond to a message.
With the help of Google Workspace, you can also use BigQuery in Google Sheets to manage, interpret, and analyze large amounts of real-time data and get actionable insights.
Final thoughts
Google Workspace is the answer to making your business operations more seamless and efficient. It is built in the cloud to power flexible, real-time, anywhere creation and equitable collaboration.
Google Workspace’s mission is to enable a hybrid work experience that enhances collaboration, strengthens human connection, and increases wellbeing for people — wherever they are and however they work.
You can now get an exclusive 10% discount on Google Workspace through MediaAgility. Our team will help you with a smooth transition to the cloud and enable you to bring a positive impact across all infrastructure layers.
Get in touch with us today!
