Google workspace

Google Workspace is for anyone who wants to take control of their digital workspace. SMB owners can add up to 300 people to Google Workspace plans, while larger companies benefit from enhanced administrative controls with the Enterprise package.

While solopreneurs and freelancers may be content with Google's free apps, paid plans provide an integrated experience and help improve productivity.

Additionally, educational institutions and non-profit organizations can take advantage of free or low-cost versions to better serve students, donors, and volunteers.

Business users get more than a dozen different productivity apps. With built-in video conferencing, calendar and content management, and real-time editing capabilities, teams can easily collaborate on projects.

Productivity apps include:

• Gmail: Manage email, chat, rooms and meetings in one app;
• Manage your schedules using Calendar: Add tasks or create appointments;
• Drive: Store content on personal and shared drives;
• Documents: Create and edit documents or collaborate in real time with your team and clients;
• Spreadsheets: Develop spreadsheets and invite people to collaborate;
• Slides: Create and share moving slideshows in Google Workspace;
• Meet: Host a video conference with a maximum of 100 - 250 participants$
• Chat: Have conversations or go on a video call;
• Keep: Sync notes across all devices;
• Websites: Create a website to keep employees and clients up to date;
• Forms: Create surveys or event registration pages;
• Trending Questions: Use this digital bulletin board to motivate and connect teams.

Pros:

• Reliability - the chance that Google will fall is equal to the fact that the Internet will disappear all over the world, that is, only if the apocalypse comes;
• Teamwork - working together on projects? Easily!;
• Services - there are not only office solutions like Google Docs and Gmail, but also quite decent Hangouts, Google Calendar and other goodies;
• Security - finely tuned security policies. True, they are not very good friends with employees’ smartphones, since there is a conflict between personal and work accounts.

Cons:

For Russia, subscription is expensive, especially if it is a “business” tariff.

Getting started highly depends on the number of employees in the team and whether it is necessary to transfer data from the solutions/services currently used. It is quite possible for a small team without a large amount of data to start working on their own without involving a partner with the competence to implement Google Workspace.
Difficulties can arise only at the stage of setting up a domain and sets of rights if you have never dealt with these issues before. A competent system administrator or technical support of the hosting or registrar where your domain is located can help you. It's important to say that Google has extensive documentation with step-by-step steps for both small and large businesses. It contains not only technical settings and recommendations for organizing the transition to Google Workspace, but even templates for letters informing employees about the planned use of Google Workspace. Most of the documentation is presented in Russian. Thus, armed with help information from Google, you can easily cope with any typical task, and if difficulties arise, you can contact technical support (TS), where you can choose the option of answering by mail or by phone. In this case, a Russian-speaking Google TP employee will contact you, and the call may be, for example, from Ireland.