Google Collaboration Platform gives you the tools to create and succeed with Google Apps. This powerful platform helps you collaborate better. It’s a blend of tools and services that help you focus, stay in control, and ensure access to information from anywhere. Setup is fast and easy. And it’s designed to make your business processes flow more smoothly—from sign-in to sign-off. We manage the complexity so you don’t have to. And we’re always here for support.
The Google Collaboration Platform delivers real-time, simultaneous translation in 8 voices over an HD wideband connection. Cloud processing delivers the highest level of accuracy and flexibility to match your needs. You can upgrade to even more simultaneous voices or regional languages.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a great way to visually organize your busy life. The tool also supports sharing. Make some or all of your calendars public, so people can see when you’re free.
Want to share a calendar with just one person? It’s easy!
- Click the options button (three dots) to the right of the relevant calendar in the main list and select Settings and Sharing.
- On the next page, scroll down to the Share with specific people
- Click Add people and then enter the person’s email address.
- Choose the Permissions dropdown box and pick the privilege you want to allow. You can also change this afterward in the same section of the settings.
- Click Send.
You can also share your using a link. On the same calendar Settings page, scroll down to Integrate calendar.
You’ll see different URL options for your calendar as a public URL, public URL in iCal format, and secret URL in iCal format.
Copy the generated URL and send it to colleagues, friends, or other people you know. Be aware, anyone who gets the link can access the calendar.
The sharing capability of Google Calendar is fantastic for planning meetings, study sessions, or other collaborative activities.
Google Docs
Google Docs works perfectly for putting your head together with teammates. Use it while writing to-do lists, brainstorming for projects, or anything else that’s better with input from others.
Share a document with people via the same process you use for Google Sheets (above). You can also use the shareable link option in the corner of the sharing box.
Another option you have when sharing Google Docs or Google Sheets are some advanced settings.
- Click the Share button on the top right.
- In the popup window, click Advanced.
- Here you’ll see the link to share, those who have access, and an option to invite more people.
- Under Owner settings, you can check the boxes for those additional options. So you can prevent editors from changing access or adding others and disable options for commenters and viewers to download, print, or copy it.
While looking at the document, pay attention to the colorful, flag-like icons with people’s names. They tell you who’s responsible for making changes.
Google Keep
Think of Google Keep as a beautifully basic project management tool. You can depend on it as a place for notes, drawings, lists, pictures, and audio clips.
- Start sharing by clicking the Collaborator icon at the bottom of the note.
- Enter the person’s name or type in their email address.
- Click Save.
When you open Google Keep, you’ll see the last person who edited the note along with when.
Google Meet
Google Meet is very similar to Google Hangouts as both offer a video call service. However, Google Meet is intended for professionals and is a paid service, although currently free due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Google Hangouts, on the other hand, is more for consumers.
It can accommodate up to 250 participants per call for G Suite users (see below) and 100 with a personal Google account. Plus, you can check out the live streaming and recording features.
Starting or joining a meeting with Google Meet is simple. Just head to the website, hit Start a meeting or Enter meeting code, and you’re on your way.
Google Slides
Getting ready for a group presentation? Avoid endless phone calls and emails about how to proceed, and collaborate with Google Slides instead. Select an appealing template to save design time and make your words pop with hundreds of font possibilities.
Like Google Docs and Sheets, this collaboration facilitator allows in-the-moment editing by any authorized individual. Simply follow the now-familiar process for granting privileges with the Share button on the upper right of the window.
Dapulse
Dapulse is a collaboration tool that helps you communicate, set objectives and assign tasks. Its big advantage: it has a great visual design so it’s easy to understand and work with.
Redbooth
Redbooth is an easy-to-use project management tool. Its platform allows users to plan and collaborate through many functions from video conferencing to creating Gantt charts.
G Suite
If you’re collaborating for business reasons, checking out for G Suite may be a good idea. G Suite is Google’s packaged solution for organizations of all types. It offers all the tools above, plus several others. Essentially, it lets you access every tool from one location.
The G Suite version of Google Drive has a central administration panel with data loss prevention features. It also boasts a machine-learning-powered search feature that helps people find files faster.
Google Hangouts (Chat)
Google Hangouts, to be renamed Google Chat, is a messaging app. Use it to talk to one person at a time through text or up to 150 individuals.
You can also launch a video chat with as many as 10 people. Start a new conversation by clicking the plus sign. Then, add people by name, email address, or phone number. Finally, choose whether you want a message-based conversation, phone call, or video call.
Let more people join by clicking the person icon and clicking the Invite People icon on the top. Then, follow the same process you initially did when creating the chat.
Flock
Flock is another application very similar to Slack but is arguably a little less daunting to use and offers more comprehensive communication tools.
Flock supports channels for different teams as well as 1:1 or group conversations. Users can search through messages, files and links and Flock will find it no matter who sent it and where.
There are audio and video calls and screen sharing as well as productivity tools such as polls, note sharing and reminders, while users can assign tasks to certain members of the group.
There’s also integrations with third party applications like Google Drive and Twitter, with notifications appearing directly in channels.
Flock has a free tier, but searches are limited to 10,000 messages, there is a 5GB storage limit and only five third party integrations are permitted. A Pro plan adds unlimited search, 10GB of storage per user, and admin controls, while the Enterprise plan ads 20GB of storage per user, more admin controls and dedicated support.
Taskworld
An interesting thing about G-Suite is that although it has a collection of utility-based collaboration tools, it doesn’t offer a project/task management tool (Google Tasks is a simple to-do list). In fact, it also doesn’t offer an enterprise chat solution (the equivalent of Teams in MS 365).
Most MS 365 users use Planner/Teams integration to get a team collaboration tool (project management + chat). Some teams use a Trello (task management) and Slack (chat) integration. There are two common problems with it:
- Third-party integrations are never as seamless or secure as built-in features.
- They can get exponentially expensive as teams scale.
Taskworld is a great alternative because it combines both project management and messaging. It’s like Slack, Asana, Trello, and Dropbox in one clean tool. This allows your team to track work from start to finish, communicate, and get reports in real-time.
Kanban based task management forms the backbone of Taskworld’s experience. That’s why it is highly optimized. You can create your own templates, sync tasks across multiple boards, create subtasks, and allocate task points.
Taskworld is one of the few SaaS tools that’s available on both public cloud and VPC (Virtual Private Cloud). This makes it easy to adopt for both small teams and enterprises in regulated industries.
Smartsheet
Although Kanban is widely considered to be the most effective approach to task management, many teams like to use spreadsheets out of habit. For such teams, Smartsheet is an effective collaboration tool.
Smartsheet provides project/task management features such as Gantt charts, request/budget management, and work tracking along with a host of add-ons. Although it can be a bit intimidating for those new to project management, it’s useful for teams that have established PM processes.
Another advantage of Smartsheet is that it supports Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory that allows you to log in to Smartsheet and products like Excel with the same login. You can make changes to Smartsheet directly from Microsoft Outlook.
Conclusion
Collaboration is fundamentally changing the way organizations work, bringing teams together in new ways, across borders or time zones. Now, with Google for Work you can use G Suite to collaborate more effectively with the right tools for every team.