Google Plus is a social media network that is either fantastic or a ghost town depending on who you ask. Google has long stood behind its social network and is now looking to bring it — in an officially supported capacity — to the enterprise market. Starting today, Google+ is a “core” service packaged alongside other officially supported Google Apps for Work services…
Mobile first is a frequent buzz phrase for newly minted startups and for the most part it is easy for them to achieve. However, for legacy companies with products designed for the web, it is often harder to cram functionality and information on a smaller screen. With that in mind, the Google for Work Admin app for Android has been updated with mobile device management features previously restricted to the full web app.
Google is making some announcements for its Google for Work platform today at the Web Summit in Dublin, including the introduction of a new program dubbed “Recommended for Google Apps for Work” and an update on paid user numbers.
In addition to announcing the new app recommendations, Google’s Amit Singh unveiled that the company has now hit over 2 million businesses with paid Google Apps for Work accounts:
Expand
Expanding
Close
Back in 2010 Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace to feature third-party software that enhances Google Apps for Work, and today that website is seeing a major update.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The UK tax body, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has completed a successful trial of Google Apps and will be rolling out the service to more of its staff throughout the year, reports The Register.
HMRC has 70,000 staff, and as such will be Whitehall’s first mass deployment of Google’s cloud services […]
David Fitton, head of public sector sales for Google UK, wrote on Linkedin: “The acceptance by HMRC that they can store official information offshore in Google data-centres represents a major change and endorsement of Google’s approach to managing sensitive information.”
HMRC said that it had “carefully considered the protection of customer information” when making the decision …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Just days after Google’s Sundar Pichai announced the company’s new Inbox email app would arrive for Google Apps customers soon, today an invite system is launching to allow for exactly that.
Like the invite system that is currently being used to allow new users to download the Inbox email app, Google is today allowing Google Apps for Work admins to request service access for their users. Google said it will let in only select users that request access as it works to get feedback from early adopters and improve the experience:
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google is planning to offer higher commissions to resellers who sign up enterprise customers for its Google Apps for Work packages, reports the WSJ.
Google plans to boost the commissions it pays some outside firms to sell its workplace software, signaling a more serious challenge to Microsoft’s dominance at larger companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
Google currently pays a 20% commission, typically earning resellers $10 per user per year, but is planning to offer a bigger cut to its most successful resellers in order to encourage companies to further boost sales. The exact details of the new commission structure are not yet known.
The company recently announced that Sprint had become a reseller for mobile-focused business apps. High-profile companies that have adopted the Apps for Work suite include auditors PwC, Squarespace and WordPress.
While Microsoft remains the dominant player in office productivity software, the two companies have been on a converging path for some time, Google expanding its apps suite while Microsoft focuses more on the cloud.
Google announced on Tuesday that professional services company PwC is the latest business to adopt the Apps for Work suite and Google Cloud Platform. The news comes less than one day after Google tabbed Squarespace and WordPress as two other new Google for Work partners, greatly expanding its business portfolio as competition increases.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google announced on Monday that Squarespace and WordPress.com are the latest businesses to join the Google for Work Partner Program, meaning that both content management systems now provide integration with the Google Apps for Work suite: Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, Google+, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Forms, Slides, Sites, Admin and Vault.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Today, Google announced some new support changes to its Google for Work services that are designed to improve how the company interacts with its customers when they need help with a product or service. After testing a chat support feature with a limited group of Google Apps administrators, Mountain View is now making this service option available to English language app admins globally.
Today, Sprint announced that it’s now offering a mobile-focused variant of Google Apps for Work that will feature cloud-based single sign-on powered by Ping Industries. This collaboration will help give the carrier’s enterprise customers the ability to sign on to all of their business applications with a single username and password while maintaining high security standards.
A group of ex-Googlers led by former Google Voice product manager Craig Walker have teamed up to create Switch.co, a cloud-based business phone system that stretches across multiple platforms such as desktop, mobile and landlines. Built with Google Apps for Work in mind, users can also view messages from Gmail, access their Calendar, Drive documents and even start a Hangout directly from a phone call.