By: Jaime McMahon, VP Sales & Marketing, ProServeIT Corporation
Google Workspace? Or Microsoft Office 365? Which one is better?
At ProServeIT, we’ve heard both sides of the debate. But a question we get asked a lot is the most obvious – which one is better?
In this blog, we’ll be explaining why we feel that, while both Office 365 and Google Workspace are powerful solutions with strengths and weaknesses that could make either one a viable option for organizations, Office 365 emerges as the clear victor.
For a full comparison between these two platforms, check out this previous blog:
Office 365 vs Google Workspace
Google has come a long way, especially in the past few years. They have their own Cloud platform, device, and advertising businesses, so they’re able to specialize their offered bundles. They’ve also got the financial means to invest in new technology, and offer large discounts to people who choose their products.
However, we feel that Office 365 still has a very substantial competitive advantage over Google Workspace. Case in point, here are nine things that Microsoft Office 365 can do, which you won’t be able to do if you’re using Google Workspace.
1. A Full Office Experience – on Multiple Devices – With Just One Subscription
Microsoft Office 365 offers a robust productivity application that is currently used by over a billion users worldwide. With just one license, you can install and use Microsoft Office on up to 5 PCs/Macs, PLUS up to 5 tablets and 5 phones! This enables you to become more productive, no matter where you are.
2. Modernized Communication Services – Cost Savings You Can Rely On
Skype for Business capabilities, including Skype Meeting Broadcast, PSTN Conferencing, Cloud PBX, and PSTN Calling, allows you to combine voice, video and web meetings into one connected user platform. This saves you substantial costs in your communication infrastructure.
3. Advanced Security & Compliance Capabilities – Sleep Better at Night
Office 365 delivers advanced security and compliance capabilities that enable you to protect your sensitive data, gather intelligence on potential threats, and protects your organization against even unknown security threats, while also making sure that you have best-in-class control over data access and compliance.
4. End User and Organizational Analytics – Easy to Interpret Data and Dashboards to Improve Your Business Decisions
Imagine being able to have analytics at your fingertips, enabling you to make better business decisions. With Office 365, your organization will get personalized intelligence tools that allow you to do just that. Power BI Pro, a business analytics service, can allow users within your organization to analyze data with greater speed and efficiency. Those results can be visualized through rich dashboards, which provides you with insights on time and relationships within your organization.
5. Privacy by Design – Know Your Data Isn’t Being Used for Advertising Purposes
Unlike other Cloud solutions providers, Microsoft contractually commits to not mining your organization’s data for advertising purposes. With over 10 years of providing privacy experience to their Office 365 customers, Microsoft is unique from those other Cloud providers by offering a Cloud-specific privacy policy that shows strong commitment to safeguarding your data and protecting your privacy.
6. Robust Offline Experience – No Need to Worry About Internet or Data Bandwidth
Used by over a billion people worldwide, Microsoft Office 365 allows you device-agnostic editing and saving capabilities, even when you’re offline. Regardless of whether you’re working on a phone, tablet or desktop computer, you’ll always be able to access, work on, and save your documents.
7. Hybrid Cloud – You Choose: Cloud-Only, On-Premises Only, or Hybrid Deployment
Not quite ready to go fully Cloud? Microsoft offers flexible options, including hybrid solutions. You can share your organization’s information through Cloud, entirely on-premises, or a combination of both. Conversely, Google Apps only offers online Cloud solutions, so if you choose them, your organization will need to make a full migration to Cloud.
8. Data Location Transparency – Know Where Your Data is at All Times
Via the Office 365 Trust Centre website, you will have access to data location information, giving you the ability to see where your data is stored, who has access to it, and when. Microsoft offers full transparency, and you always retain ownership of your data. If you decide to leave the service, it’s easy to take your data with you. Google, on the other hand, stores their data in several data centres, making it harder to track where it is.
9. Modern Collaboration & Enterprise Social – Work Together, Anywhere, Anytime!
You want your team to work better together. Thanks to Office 365’s powerful suite of intelligent collaboration apps (Yammer, Teams, Skype for Business, OneDrive, Delve and Outlook), your organization can have a frictionless way to work together anywhere, anytime, using whatever tools you’re most comfortable with.
Still Debating Office 365 vs. Google Workspace?
Whether you choose to go with Office 365 or Google Workspace, the important thing is that you select products that are going to work for you now and in the future and that you are going to get the most out of. There’s nothing worse than investing in an IT solution, only to have your employees not engage with it.
At ProServeIT, we’re committed to ensuring that you use the technology that you purchase. We’re all about eliminating any “IT debt” that our customers might have, so we won’t recommend a product you don’t need or won’t use.
If you’re still unsure about what’s best for your organization, talk to us before making your decision. We will share with you our customers’ stories who were at some point in your shoes to decide between the two platforms: what they considered and how they arrived at the decision that they made.
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