Changing from Office to G Suite: a path that Google makes very easy

Putting to one side the discourse of the savings and the improvements in collaboration which G Suite provides (which is a subject for a separate article), when an organisation makes the decision to change, a premise which we are clear about is that migrating from Office 365 to G Suite cannot interrupt business.

This is what we know as interoperability and which takes the form of the capacity to be able to work closely together. In this sense G Suite has precisely been designed to work with Office. How does it do this?

Evolving from Office 365 to G Suite: three possible scenarios

In the first place we may find the scenario of the migration of some documents to others. Secondly it is necessary to make coexistence possible in such a way that Office 365 or G Suite tools can be used without distinction. This is because independently of the business strategy focussed on the adoption of G Suite there are always transition periods which must of necessity be understood either as part of the same department or of several. Thirdly and finally, we naturally cannot overlook collaboration with third parties whether from our own organisation, clients, suppliers, or business partners.

If we concentrate on the last two cases (the most complex at first sight) we begin by clarifying not only that it works, thus avoiding frustration and obstacles to adoption, but also that it saves time and money at the pace desired by each organisation.

All this at a minimal charge for configuration, administration, and management, which is precisely what may be a concern for any TI department.

A real compatibility that simply works

If we consider certain specific cases we can begin by saying that the Google Calendar operates perfectly with Exchange, that documents can be stored in Google Drive while we continue working with Office tools, or that Google Docs greatly facilitates the collaborative editing of documents in real time. The best of all this is that users have no need to worry about how all this happens. It simply works.

This is possible thanks to services such as Calendar Interop, which is capable of translating the messages between the Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange (either on-premise or Office 365), allowing them to work together and in real time. We are not simply referring to the capacity of making a calendar appointment. It is also a case of being able to see the availability of the members of the meeting when seeking the best opening.

In the event of collaborative edition, it is possible to work by keeping the various versions of a document under control without worrying about locking the files or editing them in parallel as was done in the past. What is truly useful is what Google calls Real-time Presence, without having to worry about the versioning.

As all this may seem difficult to believe, the best thing is to see it for yourself. Are you interested in a demonstration without obligation? Contact us!