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We speak to many companies on a weekly basis who use Microsoft 365, but are interested in deploying Google Workspace to parts of their organization. The common examples that we see are acquisitions, upstart divisions, marketing departments, and agile product development teams.
The typical questions or concerns that we hear are:
Let’s examine each of these questions in more detail.
There are no changes required to your organization’s existing IT infrastructure to support Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 coexistence. Gmail can be routed through your current mail platform, and users can be provisioned through your existing identity management system.
Google and Microsoft support a calendar interop tool that allows users on both platforms to see calendar availability and book resources such as meeting rooms.
Google Workspace supports native Microsoft file formats. Teams on the Microsoft platform will be able to collaborate with teams on Google Workspace. In fact working on a Microsoft document in Google Workspace is more user friendly, and easier to collaborate on than in Microsoft Office.
Google Workspace has its own robust and industry leading compliance and eDiscovery tools. If an organization prefers to leverage its existing investments in compliance infrastructure, this is possible using built in connectors or APIs.
There is no need to double up on licensing costs. Since Google Workspace document editors support native Microsoft files, you won’t need to license a separate copy of Office. Coexistence mail routing does not require any additional Microsoft licensing.
There are 1.5 billion users of consumer Gmail and Google Drive. We find that the vast majority of employees already know how to use Google Workspace. Since Google Workspace only requires a browser, and that’s already included in your PC image, there are very little to no additional support costs. Once user provisioning and mailflow is configured for coexistence, there is very little maintenance required. Google Workspace users can be provisioned in your current IAM with existing onboarding and offboarding processes.
There is a strong business case for organization’s to explore using Google Workspace in a coexistence environment with Microsoft. Google Workspace is simply a better solution for employee collaboration than the incumbent product. Companies that switch even some groups to Google Workspace see a big improvement in productivity within those teams. Additionally, if cost take-out is a bigger driver than productivity, then having a deployment of Google Workspace will put tremendous competitive pressure on Microsoft, improving your negotiating position.
Contact us to learn more about Google Workspace and whether your organization qualifies for a no cost or obligation Proof of Concept implementation.
