Google Workspace vs Microsoft O365
Google Workspace vs Office 365 – Which is More Suitable?
Businesses around the world are rapidly adopting cloud technology and many of them start their journey to the cloud with daily use of office tools first. If talk about the office tools that are in the cloud, it is impossible not to talk about Google Workspace and Microsoft Offices O365.
Many of the companies will choose one of them to migrate their business to the cloud. After getting more familiar with cloud technology, the companies will just start to consider migrating the other systems to the cloud. Once the connections of the cloud providers with certain SaaS services are connected, it is hard to change cloud providers. Therefore, choosing the cloud provider, in the beginning, is very important as it will impact the future of a company’s IT environment.
You Can’t Compare Apples and Oranges
Most of our customers already decided to purchase Google Workspace when come to us, so they are less likely comparing both of these products. In fact, if you search the keywords of “Google Workspace” and “Office 365” in Google, you will find tons of related content and some absurd comparison tables made by the supporters of one party to conceal the weakness, exaggerate the strength of one product over the other. In fact, Google Workspace and Office 365 are different by design; comparing the two products is just like comparing apples and oranges, it’s meaningless. Instead of comparing, it is better to decide which product to go for based on the company’s needs and goals. Here, we will share three questions that we always ask our customers for further evaluation.
Q1Age Distribution of Employees in Your Company
Human nature tends to stay in their comfort zone and is hardwired to resist change. If the company is having a larger group of employees who are in their 40s, which is the generation of Windows95~2000, it is unlikely that they will accept Google Workspace. As they might take a longer time on learning the new system and probably they get used to Microsoft Office.
Furthermore, if the majority of the employees in your company are around 20 to 30 years old, they might be happy to see and even support the company’s decision to use Google Workspace. This is due to most people have been exposed to Google Workspace Education Edition during their school days as Google has deeply involved in education for many years. So, they tend to choose Google Workspace as they are more familiar with it.
Q2Do You Still Need the Window-Office Combo to Get Things Done?
- Most of the companies are using Microsoft Office as their daily office tools.
- Files that need to share externally have to be Microsoft Office.
The statements above are the main reasons the companies will choose to continue using Microsoft Office other than changing to Google Workspace.
Starting from 2019, Google Workspace users can open and edit Microsoft Office files directly in the Google Workspace interface which significantly eliminates the company’s need to use only Microsoft Office. Since Google Workspace is cloud software that you could access through the web browser of any device at any time and anywhere. This becomes a popular BYOD in the workplace. For example, in our company, every employee is using the ThinkPad X Series (Windows). This can avoid the compatibility issues that might occur among the employees and create a peaceful work environment. However, if the employees are more familiar with MacBook, they can still BYOD.
This shows that even the company wishes to maintain a Windows environment, they still can use and enjoy all the benefits of Google Workspace without any problems. Nevertheless, having more choices is never a bad thing for users. From the standpoint of the company, the consideration of either using Google Workspace or Microsoft Office will be a good opportunity for them to re-examine the status quo of the working environment.
Q3Maintain Status Quo or Embrace a New Way of Working?
Both Google Workspace and Office 365 are suites that consist of collaboration tools to enhance work productivity through cloud technology. However, choosing the most suitable product for your company is the most important. If you are satisfied with Microsoft Office, you may maintain it by upgrading to Microsoft O365 as your employees already familiar with and it is entitled to the benefit of the cloud too. On the other hand, Google has always advocated the ideas of “Work Transformation” which represents the innovation of the current way of working that does not have hardware and software lock-in. This could also let employees work in more collaborative ways. The new way of working as Google described, is fundamentally different from the ‘Microsoft-Office’ system which has dominated the business world for many decades. If you are not satisfied with your current work model, Google Workspace will be the best choice for you.
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