Google’s offering is much greater than that of a simple search engine. It is hard to even imagine a time when the extent of the services offered by Alphabet, Inc. were just the search functionality that introduced a new verb into the public lexicon. Now, the applications that make up what is known as the G Suite are used by businesses everywhere. Here, we’ll go over some of the included features, and how your business can benefit from them.
What is G Suite?
G Suite is what the collection of applications once known as “Google Apps for Your Domain” developed into after years of additions being made, finally being rebranded as G Suite in September of 2016. Today’s G Suite users don’t have to tolerate any advertisements, and as a extra-special benefit, all of the data contained in G Suite is kept away from advertisers.
What Does G Suite Include?
There are quite a few solutions lumped in as part of the G Suite offering, so for the sake of concision, we will not be reviewing all of what is included. What we will do is to focus on the solutions that you are most likely to use most often, as these will be the ones that are almost assured to provide your business with the most value.
Gmail
First released in 2004, Gmail is Google’s email platform. When included with the rest of the G Suite, each user is granted 30GB of storage space, as well as other useful email options. These additional options include unlimited Google Group email addresses - which allow you to (rather than typing in each employee’s specific email) assign addresses to particular groups and allow that entire list to receive a given email. Furthermore, you can brand your email addresses to match your company’s name… a much more professional-looking option than “@gmail.”
Drive
First appearing in 2012, Google Drive is Google’s cloud collaboration and storage platform that is also included in G Suite. Your users can use this platform to work together on a variety of documents to ensure that everyone’s responsibilities are fulfilled with little hassle. Compatible with multiple file formats, the need for additional software or plugins is eliminated. Different plans are offered with Drive, allowing a business to pick the storage option that works best for its needs.
Docs, Sheets, and Slides
With these solutions’ debut in 2006, Google offered an alternative to the other word processing, presentation generating, and spreadsheet building software solutions available at the time. With the option of complete collaboration built in, these solutions make it much easier for your employees to work as a team as something is produced. The automatic saving of progress with a complete revision history makes collaboration much simpler to accomplish.
Calendar
Google Calendar makes it much simpler for your employees to manage their responsibilities and keep schedules organized - this simplicity only boosted by its cooperativity with Gmail. Google Calendar provides the ability to view and work around the schedules of an entire group, rather than struggling to find a time to meet otherwise.
Additional Capabilities of G Suite
Using a Business account with G Suite also allows you the capability of managing your G Suite settings through your very own Admin Panel. This Admin Panel gives you access to quite a few options, which only include the following capabilities.
Company Profile
This is where you can set up the particular details to make your G Suite solution better match your business. For instance, this is where you would introduce G Suite to your company logo, and brand the URLs for your Drive, Gmail, and Calendar accounts.
Users
This is where you can add additional users to your G Suite account, and keep track of various details concerning their employment - such as their start date, where they work, what their official job title is, and other details. This also allows you to view when they last signed in.
Admin Roles
These settings allow you to adjust the roles of your employees and grant particular permissions to these for different user groups, devices, and services. You can also assign additional admins and grant them certain admin permissions here.
Groups
Speaking of groups, this is where you can sort your employees into different groups and mailing lists. Doing so makes scheduling based on roles much simpler, as well as makes communicating with your users much more convenient.
Billing
This is where you can review the licenses that are assigned to your G Suite account and any changes that have been made. This is also where you would check which G Suite plan you had subscribed to.
Reports
Reports allow you to track how your users are utilizing your G Suite solution. Here, you can find a general overview of your associated applications under Highlights, while Reports allow you to automatically audit any of your devices, services, or users.
Of course, G Suite offers you access to many more capabilities, like managing the permissions for assorted devices, controlling various security features, and a variety of others.
Ready to get started using G Suite to the fullest extent? Reach out to ClearView IT at 866-326-7214 for more assistance!
