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Today’s business and personal world is going increasingly online. With the advent of smart phones, email, and websites, the ability of being connected at all times has gone from a convenience to a necessity.
Many companies, small and large, are finding out that they need to transition a lot of traditional methods of communication and organization to the web. This can be especially difficult for some of the smaller ‘mom-and-pop’ businesses that aren’t very tech-savvy. Only a few years ago, systems that allowed businesses to share information online and collaborate among teams were far too expensive and complex for the average user. Nowadays, there are so many open source online platforms that any business has the option to be ‘online’ for little to no cost.
Google, which has revolutionized the way people search and advertise online has done a great job of creating online tools that are very useful for businesses and individuals. Here are a three of the tools that could, and probably should, be implemented by your business:
Gmail has become one of the most popular email platforms online. Available to the general public since 2007, this free web platform became an instant success when it started offering 1GB mail space per user and attachments over 25MB. It’s clean layout, excellent spam filter, and method of searching and organization has made it a perfect tool for businesses and individuals. Simple to access and implement, there’s no reason why businesses should not implement it. With some more advanced configuration, you can also use your domain with the Gmail (allowing you to use gmail for your email@yourbusiness.com accounts).
Docs is Google’s answer to an online version of Microsoft Office. This collection of office tools contains a word processor, a spreadsheet editor, a form creator, and a basic drawing application. The really nice thing this tool has is the ability to collaborate simultaneously with multiple people. So far example, if you’re editing a contract with a colleague, you can both add to, delete, or modify the document at the same time. This makes document revisions, edits, and creation much more efficient (in contrast to sending back and forth via email or in person). In addition, it makes sharing documents with others a snap, since it’s completely online based (all you need to do is grant a person access to the document).
Google Docs allows you to have your documents wherever you have an internet connection. It works the same way as email, if you create the document at home, you can still check it at your office with your smart phone or computer, or even in another country since it’s all online.
Learn more about this solid tool at Google Docs Homepage.
Google Calendar is exactly what it sounds like, an online calendar hosted by Google. It looks much like a digital calendar on your desktop or a printed calendar on your wall. It reminds you of important appointments and dates coming up via your email, and allows you to set appointments with others. In addition, you have the ability to share your calendar with colleagues so they can see your availability (and vice versa) and you can coordinate accordingly. Since it integrates flawlessly with Google Docs and Gmail, you have coherent and consistent communication among your team.
These are three of the best tools Google has to offer. Although they have plenty of others such as Google Talk, Google Pages, Google Buzz and others, for anyone wanting to transition their business online, this is a good place to start.
