Google Workspace vs. Office 365, Zoom, and More: What are the Superior Enterprise Productivity Tools?

Now that we’ve introduced Google Workspace to the world, it’s time to put it to the test. Amid an evolving business landscape, where video, collaboration, and security reign supreme, Google Workspace empowers enterprises with everything they need to get anything done, all in one place. But how does it stack up to other leading productivity tools? 

There’s no question that over the last 10 years, remote work has exploded. As organizations continue to cope with the pandemic’s fallout, the virtual tide will only continue to rise, ultimately changing how companies around the globe work far beyond the immediate future. Google Workspace was launched with this in mind to enable enterprises to scale in an all-digital environment with the right productivity tools. With the proven ability to deliver greater impact, steer cultural shifts within organizations, and more, Google Workspace outperforms its competition across the range of critical factors companies care most about.   

As a Google Premier Partner, we’ve seen firsthand the power Google Workspace delivers as it seamlessly brings together teams, despite their locations, to work, collaborate, and have meaningful conversations while boosting team morale. In case you missed it, check out all of the new Google Workspace features and details in our recent blog here. 

Today, let’s take a deeper dive into what sets Google Workspace apart from other productivity tools. We begin by citing a recent metric highlighted in a study by Quadrant Strategies to examine and compare the effects of Google Workspace and Microsoft Office on the companies that use them. When focusing on innovation, which is most vital to a company’s future success, organizations are 75% more innovative since adopting Google Workspace. Keep scrolling as we take an even closer look into how Google Workspace competes across the board. 

Working On the Move

With the ability to work from anywhere in the world on any device, mobility is now a key consideration when choosing cloud-based productivity tools for your business, and Google Workspace leads the pack.

According to a report by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit, Google Workspace delivers a more seamless and robust mobile working experience than Office 365. Google Workspace users are more frequent mobile workers, and also complete more tasks via mobile than their Office 365 counterparts.

The report goes on to say that, compared to 61% of O365 users, 76% of Google Workspace users work on mobile devices more often. With the result extending across a range of tasks, the study concludes that the “ability to work anywhere at any time” has a strong impact on workers’ productivity and job satisfaction. Google Workspace delivers on mobility, and it’s securely integrated throughout the solution, satisfying the demands of people and businesses on the move.

IT Department Reception

 End users aren’t the only ones to satisfy when it comes to adopting new productivity tools. IT departments across industries play a vital role in migrations, ongoing support, security, and more. Data from a recent study revealed that people in companies using Google Workspace think more highly of their IT departments. Additionally, IT departments find that a more significant percentage of users adapt more quickly to Google Workspace vs. Office 365, freeing up valuable resources to focus on digital transformation and other larger initiatives to scale the organization. What’s more, Google Workspace reduces the number of help desk tickets by 20%.

IT departments also know and trust that Google Workspace is built on a solid foundation that includes industry-leading security, sought after by leading enterprises across all seven continents. The enhanced security features just rolled out are undisputedly outshining the competition. In addition to detecting and removing malicious emails, Google Workspace uses machine learning technology to proactively detect threats ahead of time, makes recommendations to IT on how to keep their environments safe, and proactively helps IT workers identify, triage, and remediate incidents. Moreover, according to a Forrester study, moving to Google Workspace improved security posture and thus reduced the likelihood of a data breach for users. 

Showing ROI

With value-driving decisions throughout leadership, both financial and unquantifiable, Google Workspace increases profitability and delivers a greater ROI than its competitors. In fact, organizations per the Forrester study noted that they have reduced CapEx and OpEx expenses as a result of their Google Workspace investment. Saving in areas such as less company travel, reduced legacy IT software license costs from sunsetting third-party tools and software, and lower costs associated with server hardware maintenance, Google Workspace delivers tangible results. 

Compared to other leading platforms, Google Workspace’s new tiers and offerings translate into more value for customers. Google Workspace adopters are also seeing reduced security incident remediation costs from email malware and exploits. In addition, Google Workspace adds value by lending the ability to hire and retain top talent; it provides a delightful recruiting experience for candidates and delivers a thoughtful working environment where the tools used daily are seamlessly integrated.

Reduced costs associated with mergers and acquisitions have never been greater with collaboration tools. Integration is necessary to start leveraging the true value of most mergers and acquisitions, and Google Workspace speeds this process up, reducing the ultimate cost and accelerating the time-to-value. Organizations also reported in a recent study that with Google Workspace, the painstaking acquisition process was much faster and relatively painless when compared to integrations with their legacy solutions.

Chatting and Collabing

With an astonishing 92% of users saying real-time collaboration has become the standard for document creation for their team, it’s safe to say that Google Workspace leads the way for flexible, fluid, and fast collaboration. Aiming to bring out the best version of your business, Google Workspace provides seamless collaboration with other organizations like customers, partners, and suppliers. 

Saving organizations 5,009,106 total hours over three years, Google Workspace tools designed for collaboration such as Meet, Chat, and Drive allowed teams to shorten meeting durations and focus on active work. Sometimes even eliminating entire meetings that were no longer necessary due to a more active, collaborative environment. Other platforms struggle to deliver results at this level. 

The ability to access and find information securely is of utmost importance now more than ever. Of people who have switched to Google Workspace or O365 in their tenure, 78% of those who’ve added on Google Workspace say it’s easier to find information since they’ve adopted the suite of productivity tools. Intelligent AI features throughout Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides bring productivity and efficiency to whole new heights. Teams that have moved to Google Workspace are showing productivity gains increase YOY as employees become more familiar with Google Workspace and become more proficient with its tools that over 2.6 billion users know and love. 

Meetings Made Easier

One of the key productivity tools for enterprises to enable employees to collaborate away from the office is a good video conferencing solution. Fully integrated with Google Workspace, Google Meet allows teams to jump into a video call from Chat or take document collaboration to the next level by connecting over video, with a meeting link generated instantly.

Other video conferencing platforms lack some key features that take collaboration beyond purely a video call. When looking at Teams, Zoom, Webex, BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, and others, Meet is the only true platform that enterprises can use in tandem with a more extensive collection of applications. During a Meet session, teams can also start a Jamboard, Google’s interactive whiteboard system, in just one click. 

New and exciting features and enhancements such as different layouts, real-time polling, breakout rooms, Q&A channels, and detailed reporting are quickly making Google Meet stand apart from the rest. Meet is also far easier to use than the others and takes the headache out of joining a video call. With Meet, businesses never have to worry about whether teammates, clients, or customers have the right accounts or plug-ins. As opposed to some other platforms, there are never any additional fees for participants to call in, including calls through conferencing equipment. 

In addition, Meet video calls are encrypted in transit and have default anti-abuse measures to keep your discussions safe. The mountains of privacy perplexities other meeting platforms acquired haven’t escaped anyone’s notice. This is particularly important when it comes to using video conferencing in industries with strict data regulations, such as healthcare. Google Meet supports HIPAA compliance to help healthcare organizations hold internal meetings, telehealth visits, and more.

Google Meet also offers the ability to livestream meetings for larger company presentations, such as All-Hands Meetings, for up to 100,000 viewers, whereas other tools like Zoom require a company to use a separate platform for live streaming. Meet also supports live captioning during meetings, powered by Google’s speech recognition technology, and offers noise cancellation to keep a barking dog from interrupting your meeting.

Last but not least, to help organizations prepare to return to the office and make meetings safer, Google Meet recently launched its embedded Google Assistant. Today, anyone can start a meeting with one single tap on a touchscreen with Google Meet hardware. However, with heightened concern over the transmission of COVID-19, the fewer surfaces an employee touches, the better it is for the conference room’s cleanliness. In short, Google voice control for Google Meet hardware allows you to start and end a video meeting with a simple voice command and is available for the ASUS and Logitech meeting room kits. No other platform can deliver all of these benefits and so much more. 

And the Envelope Please

It’s a challenging world out there, with so many timely and costly decisions to be made. When choosing Google Workspace, you are setting your business up for success with the right productivity tools. While other platforms deliver and produce results, Google Workspace is far more bold, robust, and dynamic. It’s the clear winner for enterprises looking to enable their teams to get more done, increase efficiency, and generate value. 

Prepared for today and built for tomorrow, Google Workspace is the top choice for productivity tools among the world’s top businesses. To learn more about what Google Workspace can do for your company, click here to schedule a demo with a Maven Wave collaboration expert.