New ways Google Workspace works with tools you already use
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Looking back on 2020, it’s clear that the ways we work have rapidly transformed—from the rise of remote work and increasingly digitized processes, to balancing time across work and personal responsibilities. But one thing hasn’t changed—businesses still rely on a staggering number of applications to get work done. Working from home and the associated pressures on productivity have only emphasized the need for fewer tools that do more, are easy to use from anywhere, and seamlessly integrate with other software.
Google Workspace helps you get more done—with communication and collaboration tools known and loved by billions of users, thoughtfully connected together. And while billions of users choose our apps, we recognize that they also need to effectively collaborate with partners, customers, and even teammates that might use other tools. In particular, we know that many people work with a mix of Google Workspace and Microsoft applications—for example, while migrating to Google Workspace or collaborating with external vendors or clients. That’s why we make it easy for you to use Google Workspace with Microsoft Office and Office 365, helping you collaborate productively from any device with anyone, regardless of what tools you use.
Save time with helpful intelligence and faster workflows in Google Workspace
Creating and collaborating on content is at the heart of getting work done. When working with content received from customers, partners, or teammates, employees shouldn’t lose time converting files or working in unfamiliar tools.
With Google Drive, you can store and share over 100 different file types and formats, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, as well as PDFs, images, and videos. And by using intelligent features like Priority and Quick Access in Drive, you can find files nearly 50% faster.
With Office editing, users can also easily edit Microsoft Office files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides without converting them, with the added benefit of layering on Google Workspace’s enhanced collaborative and assistive features. From assigning action items via comment, to writing faster with Smart Compose, to accelerating data entry with Sheets Smart Fill, Office editing brings Google Workspace functionality to your Office files. And we recently extended Office editing to the Docs, Sheets, and Slides mobile apps as well, so you can easily work on Office files on the go.
Starting today, you can also open Office files for editing directly from a Gmail attachment, further simplifying your workflows. For example, when you receive a Word document as an email attachment, you can open it and start editing in Docs with a single click while still preserving the Word file format. Then you can respond to the original email thread and include the updated file, right from Docs—saving you time by eliminating steps like downloading the file to edit, or searching for the relevant email to reattach it to.
We also know it’s important that your Office files look consistent when opened in Docs, Sheets, and Slides, so we continue to support additional formatting options used in Office files. Today, we’re announcing mixed page orientation support in Docs, so you can create Docs or edit Word files with mixed landscape and portrait pages. And next year, we’ll add support for inserting images behind text and watermarks, to give you further flexibility.
Finally, when it comes to spreadsheets, we know that many organizations maintain both Excel and Sheets, especially when relying heavily on macros that have been built over time to automate processes. In Sheets, it’s easy for anyone to record macros, without having to write any code. And to make it easier for teams to transition from Excel to Sheets or support co-existence of these tools, we have also launched a new Macro Conversion add-on that helps users migrate macros from Excel to Sheets. This way, teams can save time through automation, without having to start from scratch.https://www.youtube.com/embed/CUKAUFoa86M
Stay connected with others, wherever you are
Business growth is fueled by people connecting and generating ideas together, whether they are working from the same office or dispersed around the globe. Google Workspace makes it easy to schedule time and meet with others, helping you maintain a connection with your collaborators and accomplish more together, from any device, anywhere.
To make and maintain these connections, people need an easy way to schedule time with others, regardless of which calendaring system they are using. Some organizations run mixed calendaring environments, for example, during a migration to Google Workspace or merger, where one company is not on Google Workspace. To help in such scenarios, the Google Calendar Interop tool makes it easy for people to schedule and book resources regardless of which system they’re on. With Calendar Interop, teams across systems can see each other’s free/busy status, event details, and book shared resources, so that they don’t need an endless exchange of chats or emails to land on a time that works for both parties.
Google Meet is another powerful tool for keeping employees connected, wherever they are. With Meet, it’s easy for teams to connect via secure, enterprise-grade video conferencing from any device—laptop, mobile, or even dial-in via phone. Google Workspace customers can invite anyone to join a Meet call, including people using Outlook who don’t have a Google Account. Or if using Outlook to schedule events, users can easily add Meet video conferencing details using the Google Meet add-in for Microsoft Outlook. With a simple tap of the meeting link in your email or calendar, you can easily connect face-to-face with your collaborators, helping maintain that human connection that drives work forward.
Be productive from anywhere with custom solutions
Often, certain tasks and processes require employees to develop custom applications to manage them. Understanding how to code can be a huge barrier for employees faced with this challenge, but Google Cloud’s AppSheet enables anyone to build applications without having to write code. AppSheet is available to all Google Workspace users and has a number of tight integrations that make it easy to build custom apps on top of Google Workspace apps, like Google Sheets.
AppSheet is designed to work on any device and can connect to your data and spreadsheets, wherever they live. While AppSheet and Google Workspace are tightly integrated, AppSheet also easily connects to O365 data sources such as Excel spreadsheets stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. AppSheet creates a bridge between environments—custom apps and automations can connect to Google Workspace and Microsoft Office apps simultaneously, so that teams and processes split between environments can be managed more seamlessly. Plus, with AppSheet, even Microsoft users can easily incorporate Google’s leading AI and machine learning capabilities, like optical character recognition and sentiment analysis, into their apps.
Flexibility is important when it comes to effective collaboration, and we’ll continue to invest in the many ways Google Workspace can work seamlessly with the rest of the tools you use—helping you accomplish more, faster. Visit our learning center for more info on topics like working with Office files in our apps, or check out these helpful switching guides if your organization is currently transitioning from Microsoft Office to Google Workspace.
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How You Can Collaborate in Real Time to Build Pitch Proposals Overnight
It’s no secret that marketing and sales teams have a love-hate relationship. But there’s one thing that binds them like no other: The pressure of creating pitch decks overnight.
The struggle is real.
Be it for a new marketing campaign or a sales idea, pitch decks need multiple teams in different parts of the world to collaborate towards a single goal—and race with the clock.
That’s why, more often than not, marketing and sales teams watch deadlines fly past and risk losing potential customers, fail to beat the competition, and adversely impact revenue.
But with G Suite, marketing teams can now collaborate in real time, tweak proposals, add missing data, and write and edit the same file—all together. In fact, 74 percent of all time spent in Docs, Sheets, and Slides is on collaborative work—that is, multiple people creating and editing content together. That means they can create pitch decks overnight.
With AI and machine learning powering, and protecting, the G Suite, today’s marketing and sales teams have a smarter, quicker and more secure platform to ensure their ideas get to market faster and also remain within the organization.
That’s probably why companies like Whirlpool, Nielsen, BBVA, and Broadcom are among the many who chose G Suite to move faster, better connect their teams, and advance their competitive edge.
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Equip Your Frontline Workers for Success with Android
As more teams are working remotely, it’s more important than ever to have the right tools in the hands of all of your employees. More than ever, the customer is at the center. And their expectations are rising.
The hurdle to keep customers happy continues to rise as everyone becomes accustomed to having everything at their fingertips whenever they want it.
Over 30% of customers said a single bad experience would cause them to stop doing business with a brand that they love. Over 40% would stop supporting a brand if they had a bad experience with either poorly informed employees or if they had just an inefficient experience at all.
For many customer experiences, the front-line worker is the worker that’s actually in contact with the customer. Frontline workers are at the heart of an organization, performing critical behind-the-scenes operations, or working directly with customers in client-facing engagements. They perform task- and time-sensitive activities that often differ greatly from knowledge workers.
Gartner predicts that 70 percent of mobile and endpoint investments will be aimed at enabling frontline workers over the next five years.
In this video, hear from Walmart and Australia Post about how they’re using Android, with its diverse form factors and innovative app development tools, to address the needs of their frontline workers, unlocking the potential for improved collaboration, customer engagement, process efficiencies, and insights for better decision-making.
A Year of Connecting Brand and Consumers with Google’s Business Messages
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Last June, in the early months of the pandemic, we expanded Business Messages to support all kinds of businesses, from pharmacies and grocery stores to airlines and luxury brands. Then, in December, we announced the ability for small businesses to use the Google Maps app to message with their customers. We knew people would find messaging directly with businesses from Google Search and Maps helpful, but we didn’t know just how valuable it would turn out to be.
Consumers are increasingly eager to use messaging to connect with brands, and businesses across all industries are now building innovative messaging experiences to address that growing need. The demand from consumers is reflected in recent data:
- 45% of users have spent more time on messaging services because of the pandemic
- 85% of consumers would like to message brands directly, up from 65% in 2019
Being able to message a business directly has never been more important. For me personally, there’s nothing more fulfilling than using technology to help people in the moments that matter. After the release of initial COVID-19 vaccines in late 2020, online searches for vaccines reached an all-time high. To help people searching for vaccine eligibility, availability, and appointment booking, Albertsons Companies’ banner pharmacies—like Albertsons, Safeway, and Vons—made this information easily accessible through Google Search and Maps via the “chat” button. This gave people the information they needed, when they needed it.
To be more helpful in moments like these, over the last year, we’ve made Business Messages available globally, in more than 70 languages, and we’ve seen more than 30,000 brands and 200 partners come on board. Major brands like Carrefour, Walmart, and Woolworths have invested in Business Messages to help serve their consumers in new and meaningful ways.
Expanding the conversation between consumers and brands
The retail sector has undergone a transformation since the start of the pandemic. As a result, we know it is critical for digital services to integrate with physical stores. We were able to do just that with Google’s Business Messages, which has been instrumental in helping better serve our customers across 1200+ stores in Europe.
Thomas Rudelle
Global Digital Marketing Director, Carrefour
There were major shifts in consumer behavior during the pandemic, from the way people found and purchased products to the ways they interacted with businesses. Not only did we see higher demand for direct contact with brands, but retail searches also surged. At the end of 2020, retail searches grew at a rate that was more than three times higher than the same period in 2019 (based on Google internal data).
As Business Messages has become more widespread, brands are able to boost both responsiveness and customer satisfaction using the service. Levi’s, for example, surpassed 85% customer satisfaction scores using Business Messages and they discovered that the service drove 30x more store-related questions than web chat.
Many brands have also digitized what were traditionally in-store experiences, especially in high-consideration categories like jewelry. For example, Signet brought its virtual jewelry consultant to Business Messages, offering customers advice and answering queries in a way that’s convenient but still feels personal.We started using Google’s Business Messages pretty early on, and continue to transform and improve our experience. The ability to let customers know whether a product is in stock, and its precise location, is critical to offering a connected and frictionless shopper experience. Of course it also helps reduce the workload on our store and customer hub teams.
Nick Eshkenazi
Chief Digital Technology Officer, Woolworths
As a working mother, these sorts of innovations have made a direct impact in my own life. I find it very helpful to be able to ask—and get real-time answers to—everyday questions using Business Messages, ranging from store hours and product availability to order status and how to make returns. One of my favorite features is the ability to know, in real time, what store wait times are like, and the exact location of the product I’m looking for, saving me precious time when I visit the store.
Business Messages helps people do more with their time in other ways as well. Earlier this year I’d been meaning to change my insurance plan, but kept pushing it off because I didn’t want to get on a phone call. I can now message Geico to update my policy through the agent pretty effortlessly. Similarly, in India, Vi customers can use 24×7 real-time customer service to chat with their AI powered virtual assistant VIC, integrated with Google’s Business Messages, to check billing information, activate packs, add recharges and payments, check balances, and much more—and it all happens seamlessly.
Building a full suite of messaging products
We’re investing in building a full suite of messaging products that enable seamless conversational commerce to drive business results. As Business Messages continues to support brands in establishing their messaging presence on Google, we’re also experimenting with other ways to help them increase their reach and engagement on Search and Display. To accelerate on the digital front, we recently integrated AdLingo, a project built within Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator. This will enable brands to easily transform ads into AI powered, personalized conversations at scale.
For more information on how you can activate Business Messages, please reach us via the contact form on the Business Messages website. Merchants can also read and respond to messages via Google My Business or on the Google Maps app.
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How a Furniture Retailer Found a Cool Way to Innovate Every Day and Beat Competition
MADE.COM is a London-based company that designs and retails homewares and furniture online, and across a network of experiential showrooms in Europe.
Founded by serial entrepreneur Ning Li and Brent Hoberman, with Julien Callède and Chloe Macintosh in 2010, the company works with independent designers to create world-class furniture for its customers at affordable prices.
With a team of over 150 people, spread across four countries, collaboration was beginning to be a huge challenge and would eventually slow them down. In a competitive market, that’s something it couldn’t afford.
“For a company that was built online, it’s in our culture to do things fast. That’s the big part of our culture: moving fast and keep innovating every day,” says Li.
In order to make that possible, MADE.COM turned to G Suite. Watch the video to find out how G Suite makes that happen.
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Securing Remote Workers with Google and Chrome Enterprise
With the proliferation of COVID-19 across the globe, the need for a remote working strategy has become paramount to keep businesses running.
A Gartner survey found that 88% of organizations have asked their employees to work remotely. And 97% of the organizations canceled work-related travel. However, only 10% of the organizations planned to reduce working hours. For us, this shows that despite the prevalence of coronavirus across the world, business demands require that work must go on.
Technologies such as Chromebooks, Chrome Browser, and SaaS applications have helped make this strategy a reality, providing access to critical data wherever employees may be working from during this challenging time.
However, this way of working has created new security challenges for IT departments, who may not be equipped to address these issues.
This session provides a walkthrough of many of Google’s solutions, such as Chrome devices, Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, BeyondCorp Remote Access, and Chrome Browser Cloud Management to ensure your business can keep secure, even in a remote working environment.
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