COMPARING DIGITAL WORKPLACE SOLUTIONS: OFFICE 365 VS G SUITE

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1 COMPARING DIGITAL WORKPLACE SOLUTIONS: OFFICE 365 VS G SUITE THE DIGITAL WORKPLACE CONCEPT IS CURRENTLY A HOT TOPIC FOR MANY BUSINESSES. USERS EXPECT TO HAVE ACCESS TO THE LATEST SOFTWARE, SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT TO BECOME MORE EFFICIENT THROUGH THE USE OF MORE COLLABORATIVE AND FAMILIAR TECHNOLOGIES. USERS ALSO WANT TO BE ABLE TO USE THEIR OWN PERSONAL DEVICES IN THE WORKPLACE AND TO HAVE ACCESS TO THE SAME CONSUMER TOOLS SUCH AS DROPBOX, GOOGLE DRIVE, ICLOUD, ETC. THAT SUPPORT THEIR DAY-TO-DAY PERSONAL ACTIVITIES. We have written before on the various scenarios businesses face when looking to embrace the Digital Workplace concept, and some of the lessons that can be learned from organisations who have already started this journey (see Wavestone Insight: In this Insight we will explore in detail two of the most popular productivity solutions for enabling a Digital Workplace: Microsoft s Office 365 and Google s G Suite. We have reviewed both solutions from functionality, usability and implementation perspectives. The output of this analysis can be seen below. INSIGHT 1

2 Figure 1: The Digital Workplace 1 OFFICE 365 Microsoft has been working to push SME and enterprise businesses towards a subscription based route for a number of years now. The traditional model of userbased or machine-based licensing for Microsoft software has been placed on the back-burner and the alternative per seat licensing model for the Office 365 suite of applications and communication tools has been heavily marketed. Office 365 wraps up the most commonly used office productivity suite into a cloudenabled service; promoting collaboration and communication both internally within the organisation and with external parties. Microsoft has worked hard to integrate messaging, voice and video into the core of the toolset, and a fairly seamless singlesign-on approach has been taken so that once inside the Office 365 walled garden, there is little need to re-authenticate. From a business perspective, the pay-asyou-use model offers flexibility to scale up or down based on business need; and end users benefit from always having (automatic) access to the latest versions of software they are familiar with using. Of course, Microsoft is promoting this approach as it drives regular/recurring revenue with monthly or annual subscription fees, smoothing out the bumps of the more traditional 2 or 3 yearly software upgrade cycles. 1.1 INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SharePoint in Office 365 allows users to create and edit web pages and team sites for the purpose of sharing information and communications to wider teams. Content can be arranged by project, team or topic of interest, however there is no real intelligent content management system. This means that the updating of pages or sites is essentially a manual process. (4/5) 1.2 PRODUCTIVITY SharePoint and OneDrive can be used for storing and sharing of all common office files (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.). Basic document management is included, allowing version control and file permissions to be handled within the tools themselves. Online versions of the main office tools are included with all subscriptions. This allows basic edits and updates to be made from any web browser. Additionally, full versions of the MS Office suite can be included for more demanding users. , calendar and task management is handled via Outlook Online, this includes basic instant messaging functionality. The popular Outlook and Skype for Business (for audio and video calling) can also be installed to give a fuller, offline sync-able experience if needed. (5/5) COLLABORATION Office 365 includes advanced collaboration functionality; multiple collaborators can work on documents simultaneously with version control handled automatically in both the full Office client and the online version. Furthermore, when working in Office Online, edits are visible to all collaborators in real-time. Additional features for co-working and team communications such as forums, wikis, shared task lists and surveys are also available. (4/5) 1.4 MOBILITY Office 365 has been built for mobility. All data is stored in the cloud and can therefore be made available from any web browser. Microsoft has invested heavily in the Office mobile apps to enable rich document authoring on the go from a smartphone or tablet. (4/5) 1.5 SOCIAL NETWORKING Microsoft has built social networking features into the Office 365 suite. The single sign-on nature of the applications means that user profiles are linked to the content they create, and recent updates from colleagues can be seen when logging into the SharePoint portal. Integration with Yammer for microblogging and communications further adds to the social element. (4/5)

3 1.6 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT With SharePoint and OneDrive becoming the repositories for all personal and shared documents, Microsoft has built in powerful search functionality to enable content to be located across Office 365. Documents may be classified and tagged and the search is powerful enough to search the actual contents rather than just meta-data. This is particularly important because the configuration of OneDrive necessitates a less organised approach to document management. (3/5) 1.7 EXTERNAL ACCESS It is possible to allow basic external access to documents and shared folders. Access can be shared with anyone with a Microsoft account. This functionality can also be locked down when necessary from an information security perspective. (3/5) 1.8 SYSTEM INTEGRATION Overall the integration between applications seems to be lacking. Microsoft have bolted-on multiple applications rather than creating a fully integrated workflow. However, existing users of MS Office will be used to the siloed approach taken and will therefore be familiar with the way of working. (3/5) 1.9 USER EXPERIENCE Overall, the user experience will be very familiar to existing users of Office. Due to the highly configurable nature of SharePoint and the Office applications the overall user experience will be primarily dictated by the configuration applied. This can lead to a rich but potentially complex experience. (3/5) 1.10 EASE OF ADOPTION There is a large amount of documentation and tutorials available online to guide users with the newer functionality, so user adoption tends to be swift and relatively easy to manage. However, much of the value of Office 365 comes in the form of the more advanced functionality, which users may neglect to adopt unless specific training is given. (3/5) 1.11 COST Office 365 is competitively priced, especially when bundled with Office client licenses. At around 4 per user per month excluding office licenses, users can take advantage of the collaboration and communication features while maintaining use of their existing client licenses. An upgrade to the new version of Office can be made (around 10 per user, per month) at a later stage depending on current license expiry or business desire to maintain the latest version. (3/5) Figure 2: Office 365 Analysis Summary 2 G SUITE Google s G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps for Business) is a fully cloud based office productivity, collaboration toolset largely based on the consumer Gmail and Google Drive interface. Google recently rebranded the toolset to bring it more in line with the other Google Cloud enterprise solutions. Being completely cloud based, there are no client applications or associated licenses to pay for or manage. Applications are accessed primarily through a web browser interface and as a result G Suite is essentially platform agnostic. 2.1 INFORMATION MANAGEMENT G Suite includes access to Google Sites, which is essentially a basic website creation application which allows team or project sites to be published for internal or external access. A developed set of templates is available to cover most purposes from project management to team calendars. Google Drive handles all areas of personal 3 and shared file storage and management, easily allowing the sharing of documents with colleagues or external parties when required. The My Drive approach to file organisation can become somewhat messy as it is not always clear where the original file is held and there is no intelligent content management system built in. (3/5) 2.2 PRODUCTIVITY G Suite incorporates a full featured productivity suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides) for the creation of business documents. Unlike

4 Office 365, there are no locally installable clients. All work is done live in the cloud with automatic version control and change tracking built in. is handled in Gmail, and will be familiar to personal users of the highly popular service. Users are encouraged to use the browser to access and manage their inbox and calendar, however it is possible (and supported by Google) to synchronise with major clients such as Outlook or Apple Mail. Instant messaging, voice and video chat are all built in and accessible directly from the browser through Google Hangouts. This offers multiparty voice and HD video calling with internal and (when enabled) external parties. (4/5) 2.3 COLLABORATION Due to the fully cloud based nature of G Suite, real time collaboration is built right in. Multiple collaborators can simultaneously work on the same document with edits visible in real-time to all participants. File sharing is handled by Google Drive. Additionally, Google Sites allows the creation of wikis, forms and surveys. (4/5) 2.4 MOBILITY Due to the fully cloud based nature of G Suite, real time collaboration is built right in. Multiple collaborators can simultaneously work on the same document with edits visible in real-time to all participants. File sharing is handled by Google Drive. Additionally, Google Sites allows the creation of wikis, forms and surveys. (4/5) 2.5 SOCIAL NETWORKING Google+ is built in to G Suite to allow collaboration and communication across the enterprise. This is a basic social networking solution incorporating discussion, microblogging, content sharing and team or group interaction. (2/5) 2.6 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Google Drive handles large volumes of data well. The built-in search functionality is powerful and can allow a large pool of unorganised content to be searched quickly. However, Google Drive is not an intelligent content management system; document tagging is not possible so can become a sprawling mess if not managed carefully. (2/5) 2.7 EXTERNAL ACCESS Much of G Suite is essentially limited to access from within the organisation. Documents and Sites can be made public but the mechanism for doing so is basic and does not feel particularly secure. (1/5) 2.8 SYSTEM INTEGRATION The G Suite applications themselves are fairly well integrated; moving from one application to the next as part of a document workflow is relatively straightforward. Google has also opened integration with G Suite to external developers. This has led to a market place of add-ons and third party applications (e.g. project management, financial management, etc.) which can plug directly into an organisation s G Suite instantly. (4/5) 2.9 USER EXPERIENCE The overall user experience is based on the consumer Gmail and Google Drive interface and works very well on mobile and desktop devices. This is very familiar to many users due to Google s dominance in consumer provision. There is however, little opportunity for customisation other than basic visual branding. (4/5) 2.10 EASE OF ADOPTION Due to the familiarity of the interface, users will likely find G Suite intuitive and extremely similar to what they use in their lives outside of the office, so adoption is quite straightforward. Google provides online tutorials and help information. (4/5) 2.11 COST Google has priced G Suite very competitively at around 7 per user per month. It is common for organisations to remove Microsoft Office licensing from all but the most demanding of users. This gives opportunity for considerable savings. (4/5 Figure 3: G Suite Analysis Summary 4

5 3 CONCLUSION Our analysis shows that of the two solutions reviewed, Office 365 is the most developed digital workplace solution and is most suitable to enterprise organisations. Microsoft s approach provides more powerful external access features and maintains a familiar set of productivity tools. G Suite is also a very powerful set of applications and while it may involve a little more training to familiarise users with a new suite of tools the lower licensing costs and enhanced mobility features mean it is a close contender. Figure 4: G Suite and Office 365 Analysis Summary Our analysis shows that of the two solutions reviewed, Office 365 is the most developed digital workplace solution and is most suitable to enterprise organisations. Microsoft s approach provides more powerful external access features and maintains a familiar set of productivity tools. G Suite is also a very powerful set of applications and while it may involve a little more training to familiarise users with a new suite of tools the lower licensing costs and enhanced mobility features mean it is a close contender. Digital workplace solutions in general have significantly improved over the last couple of years in terms of functionality and user experience. For first-time adopters, the process is not simple and there are many factors that need to be considered. In our experience, every organisation has different needs and objectives. Whilst this insight provides an overall analysis of the two most popular solutions, the marketplace is constantly changing and the right approach for a particular organisation will vary on a case-by-case basis. There is no one size fits all. Both of the solutions reviewed have their benefits and constraints, so it really depends on the priorities of the business as to which way to implement a digital workplace. This requires a detailed understanding of the current systems landscape and the businesses digital workplace objectives to develop a tailored solution which can be securely integrated into the organisation. ABOUT US Wavestone is an international consultancy that provides connected thinking, insight and capability to industry leading organisations. We work collaboratively with our clients to plan strategic business transformation and seamlessly turn strategy into action. FIND OUT MORE If you d like to find out more, please contact us by calling at , or via at enquiries@wavestone.com or visit our website at 5