Getting started with Google Workspace

The Microsoft Office suite holds a special place in our hearts. For over three decades it was the go-to for all your document tasks. 

Remember those 2 a.m. college assignments on Word, last-minute PowerPoint presentations and showing your boss the data you deciphered in Excel?

The Microsoft suite played a huge part in our lives. But it's time to move on.

If you’re not using Google Workspace today, you might be missing out.

Google Workspace is a bundle of cloud-based tools for computing, productivity, and collaboration giving Microsoft a run for their money. You may be familiar with them:

• Gmail
• Calendar
• Drive
• Meet
• Docs
• Sheets

Google’s range of tools are shaking up the marketplace with their great user experience and useful features. Google Apps currently have a 50% share of the office productivity software market while Microsoft Office 365 has around 45%. 

The golden age of Microsoft Office may well be over. The good news is that switching over to Google Workspace doesn’t need to be difficult. Its digital transformation services are easy as A-B-C.

How to set up your Google Workspace email account

First things first: you’ll need an email account. You’ve probably heard of Gmail – here’s how you get it: 

1. Firstly, create a Google Workspace account by starting a free trial.
   
   
2. Enter your details and select which plan you want to sign up for. You’ll get a 14-day free trial but will be charged after this trial is over.
   
   
3. Next, you’ll be asked if you have a business domain ready. A domain is an internet address, like you’d see in a URL or at the tail end of your email address, e.g.: yourname@luminpdf.com. If you already have a domain, this can be linked to your account here. If not, click “No, I need one” and create one.
   
   
4. Enter payment details and your account will be created.
   
   
5. Once registered, you’ll be directed to a page where you can protect your domain, add users and activate your Gmail. 

Voilà! You now have an activated Gmail account, ready to fire off emails to your favorite clients. 

If you don’t want to buy an email domain through Google, these can be purchased through other providers such as GoDaddy.

How to use the Google Workspace admin dashboard

The Workspace admin dashboard is super customizable and easy to use, even for non-IT folk. Digital transformation: pre-strategized.

The admin dashboard is where you go to update your settings and preferences for your Google Workspace account. You can do the following here:

Manage your team

Add accounts for your employees and make some of them administrators. You can also manage your employees’ access to different Google products – for example, you might want to turn on Google Ads access for your marketing team, or turn off Google Chat access for everyone.

Set up your organization's account

Add your company’s logo, set up 2-step verification and manage billing and payments.

Migrate your data

Move your old emails, contacts and calendars over to Workspace using Google’s easy migration options.

Set up your calendar

Create a team calendar, schedule out-of-office days, set up recurring meetings and manage who gets access to your very busy calendar. Add local public holidays to your calendar with a few quick clicks, so you can factor them into your plans.

How to use Google Drive

The nexus of Google Workspace’s office suite is Google Drive. This is where you store your files, either in shared team folders or in your personal folder; and any categories you create within it. Once you've completed your digital migration (outlined in the section above), Drive is your gateway to a world of potential.

Files in Drive can be almost anything: MP3, WAV, HTML, MOV, JPEG, ZIP, DOCX - you name it, Google Drive probably stores it.

You can edit these files from Google Drive, too. Meet the team, next to Microsoft counterparts you might recognise: 

• Docs = Word
• Sheets = Excel
• Slides = PowerPoint

The Workspace equivalents have a familiar feel to what you’ve used before but allow real-time collaboration and are entirely cloud-based, meaning you can work from any device, anywhere in the world; as long as you have an internet connection.

Do you remember the chaos caused by multiple Microsoft document versions circulating the office? This is no longer an issue with Google’s products.  

Google Workspace offers competitive pricing plans and provides a free option for basic users. Most are aware of Microsoft Office’s steep subscription fee just to get up and running.

Does Google Workspace integrate with my stack?

Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty. 

Google Workspace integrates with hundreds of your favorite business and productivity applications, such as:

• Asana
• Salesforce
• Slack
• Hubspot
• Zoom
• Lumin

Google Workspace’s integrations let files seamlessly flow between products. You and your team’s lives become easier and productivity skyrockets. 

A prime example of this seamless integration in action is between the Lumin suite and Google Drive; edit PDFs in Lumin and sync changes back to Google Drive, so your files stay up-to-date without ever moving. And yes, Lumin works on Chromebooks.

Making the move to Google Workspace

We know Microsoft Office has seen your highest highs and your lowest lows, but the journey can’t last forever. 

It’s time to try a solution that aligns with your digital transformation strategy.

Google Workspace is becoming the preferred choice for businesses everywhere. Don’t get left behind because of Office nostalgia.