G Suite - everything you need to know (Part 1: Introduction)
G Suite has been rebranded as Google Workspace. Check out our new blog to find our what has changed and how it will impact your existing accounts: What Is Google Workspace And How Does It Impact Your G Suite Account?
An ever growing number of businesses are switching over to cloud based applications. Small and medium sized businesses have recognized the numerous benefits of SaaS platforms such as G Suite. As with any other change, the adoption of G Suite also brings with it a number of questions. In this and subsequent posts, we bring you a comprehensive study of G Suite and its most commonly used applications. In this particular post, we will cover the following topics:
At Jones IT, we have helped hundreds of businesses migrate to Google Workspace / G Suite and seamlessly adopt the new applications. Migrating data from or to Google requires careful planning that may not be explicitly addressed in Google’s Onboarding Guides. To ensure your data isn’t lost in translation, you need to create an extensive plan and have contingencies for various scenarios.
We draw upon our extensive experience in similar migrations and have created a set of best practices for managing the migration to or from G Suite. No matter the size of your company or extent of your data, we will guide you to avoid the common pitfalls and problems associated with G Suite migrations. All of the common problems and questions are also addressed in our training material for G Suite and Office 365.
G Suite is a collection of communication, productivity, collaboration, and cloud computing tools offered by Google. G Suite is comprised of Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Meet (formerly Hangout), Google+, Sites, Contacts, Groups, Chat, Keep. Depending on the G Suite plan, it also offers Admin, Vault, and Mobile panels used for managing users and services. As it is a cloud-based platform, G Suite is rapidly gaining popularity among small and medium businesses because of the following reasons:
Easy access to emails, calendars, and contacts from anywhere and any device
Increased control over your organization’s communications
Rapid scalability - your company can grow without the fear of outgrowing your IT infrastructure
Availability of many add-on tools, extensions that improve efficiency
Cloud-based file sync and storage
Improved security for your data
Easy file sharing and live document collaboration
G Suite offers a one-stop shop for email hosting, storage, and file collaboration that is perfect for any modern-day business. As a business owner, using G suite for your company brings the following immediate advantages:
Google Workspace offers a 99.9% SLA but usually exceeds it.
The Admin console for G Suite allows you to manage everything from one place- from adding new users and groups, configuring security settings (2-factor authentication), adding new custom domains, to enabling features such as Inbox by Google for your employees.
G Suite is built on Google Cloud Platform that boasts the highest security on the market.
G Suite provides email encryption in transit.
Gmail offers excellent integration with third-party apps.
Here is a table comparing the features of the G Suite editions- Basic, Business, and Enterprise:
As you can see, the premium G Suite Business and Enterprise editions offer all of the applications in Basic as well as features offering greater security, compliance, and enterprise controls. These additional features are essential when auditing, reporting, and compliance are integral to your business.
Here is a quick overview of the most commonly used G Suite apps:
Gmail
Gmail is arguably the most widely used email service today. Ever since Google launched Gmail in April 2004, it has revolutionized the way we use emails. Frankly, all other providers have been playing catch-up ever since. If you are not using Gmail, it is likely that people will judge you ;)
Collaboration became a whole lot easier with Contacts, Calendar, and Hangouts. They seamlessly integrate with Gmail making planning meetings so much easier. Labeling, sorting, and filtering incoming messages was never this simple and the innovation has continued with the introduction of tabbed inbox, priority inbox, tasks, snooze, etc.
Google Drive
Google Drive is a cloud-based file storage and sync service. It allows you to store files, synchronize them across devices, share, and most importantly collaborate with others, simultaneously editing the files. Google Drive encompasses Docs, Sheets, and Slides that can be created and edited online without the need for downloading any software. Moreover, it also offers offline features across devices.
Features that allow you to keep track of changes made to files, commenting, assigning tasks within the files, as well as restricting access makes collaborating a whole lot easier. There is nothing that comes close when talking about cloud collaboration, G Drive is the best!
Calendar
The best part about Google Calendar is that as part of the Suite of apps, it is integrated with everything else. Therefore, it allows you to keep track of important events, share your schedule, plan meetings, as well as create multiple team calendars.
Whether it is keeping track of your daily to-do list, organizing meetings or events, or tracking important deadlines, Calendar makes it all very easy. More importantly, any event created and updated on your Calendar will sync across your devices as well as other G Suite apps such as Gmail and Tasks, keeping your schedule up-to-date and with you, wherever you are.
Hangouts Meet
Hangouts Meet is Google’s tool that allows you to hold video meetings with people within as well as outside your organization. Google Hangout stands out since it is part of G Suite and it is deeply integrated with other G Suite apps such as Calendar, Drive and Docs. Therefore, for anyone using Google Calendar, Hangouts makes meeting logistics much less complicated.
Hangouts Meet lets you join meetings via a web link that is automatically generated when you create meetings using Calendar. This link can then be shared directly via the Calendar invite or through email. Offline attendees can join the video conferencing using a dedicated dial-in phone number. Meet supports HD video and allows up to 30 participants.
Most of your employees probably already use Gmail and many of the other tools in the suite such as Drive, Calendar, and Keep. Therefore, it is highly likely that they are already well versed with the G Suite basics. Hence, the time taken for your employees to learn G Suite will be quite little. Even if they are not familiar, there are plenty of G suite tutorials available online. At Jones IT, we use G Suite internally and have prepared extensive training material for our Clients as well as our new hires. You can access these learning materials here:
There is a whole lot more we can share about G Suite and that is exactly what we are planning to do. Sign up for our newsletter if you haven’t done so already because in our next blog, we will continue with more information about G Suite, FAQs, Tips and Tricks that will enable you to use G Suite like a pro.
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