Google has become the primary online search engine in the world. The word “google” has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb meaning to use the Google search engine. This company has also developed numerous applications, many of which can be used with a Gmail account. These apps possess a wide range of capabilities that are essential for every business to function in an efficient manner. One great thing Google offers is access. Anywhere you have internet, you can access your files. Every company must have efficient communication, collaboration, storage, and administration. Google’s applications cover all of these bases and they do it very well.
Communication
- Gmail – Google’s personal email service, Gmail allows you to establish an account with Google for email as well as the ability to create a company email address. This allows you to keep in contact with co-workers/team members on a more formal basis. Gmail also keeps track of your contacts and has the option to place contacts into groups such as family, friends, co-workers, etc.
- Hangouts – Google’s instant messenger, Hangouts is a way to send informal messages to individuals or groups. It enables you to stay connected and keeps a constant flow of communication when needed. It also has video calling capabilities for conference calls.
- Calendar – Calendar enables you to keep a personal timetable for events such as meetings, birthdays, etc., and can also connect to various other sites such as Facebook. It can also be used to keep a collaborative calendar for you and your co-workers to see. It is a simple way to keep your time managed and ensure that others are doing the same.
- Google Plus – Google Plus is a social network from Google. It’s a place where people engage around their shared interests, with the content and people who inspire them.
Collaboration and Storage
Google covers collaboration and covers it well. Google has recreated its own versions of Microsoft Office tools with Google Drive. Drive is a cloud-based storage application. Like Gmail, this is free to use. You can upload any type of file to Google Drive and convert certain types of files to a web-based Google document format: Docs, Sheets, or Slides. You can also share files with others, so that you can all work on the document, even at the same time if necessary.
- Docs – This application allows you to create documents that would be very similar to those you could create in Microsoft Word, but the documents are saved in the cloud, are accessible anywhere you can log into your Gmail account, and can be shared between co-workers and colleagues. It does almost everything that Microsoft Word can do, and you can download these documents in multiple formats to send to others.
- Slides – You can draw charts and diagrams, insert objects and shapes, format text and images, and enable animations, similar to Powerpoint. Multiple people can work at the same time, so everyone always has the latest version.
- Sheets – Google sheets can handle everything from simple task lists to data analysis with charts, filters, and pivot tables. You can import and convert existing spreadsheets to make them instantly editable. It is free to use.
- Forms – Forms allows you to create professional surveys and forms to share. It makes information much easier to analyze as it automatically summarizes all survey responses.
- Sites – Sites gives you the ability to create a company intranet and your very own company website. It creates a place for your whole company to stay connected.
Administration
For businesses that need to stay connected and want the ability to manage more closely, Google has applications for them, too.
- Admin – Google Admin allows you to easily add users, manage devices, and configure your settings and security to keep your data secure. This is a one-stop shop for managing your company intranet through Google.
- Vault – This is the first and only application on this list that requires an upfront fee. Vault gives you the ability to “manage, retain, search and export your organization’s email and on-the-record chats.”
All these various applications that Google has created can be tremendous assets to your company and help you run your organizations effectively and efficiently. Most of these apps offer a free basic service. For example, the first 15GB of storage are free but after that Google has affordable plans to purchase more storage for your company. From Docs to presentations, from storage to communications, Google has everything you need to get your business off the ground and keep it running.