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New Delhi: Google is expanding its suite of Workforce office products to anyone with a Google account in an effort to increase its market presence and face rivals like Microsoft.
The search giant also announced a new individual subscription offering, improvements to Google Meet, as well as security and privacy features to support hybrid workspaces.
The world is moving towards a hybrid workspace. People in some parts of the world, such as the United States, are returning to offices, while others, such as India, continue to work remotely. But the same technology tools should be made available to everyone to make sure no one is at a disadvantage, Javier Soltero, vice president and general manager of Google Workspace, told ET in an interview.
In the United States and other parts of the world, video remains an essential ingredient in workplace communications and collaboration, Soltero said. As soon as some people become remote and others return to the office, this imbalance and potential inequity occurs.
Soltero said the company decided to make the product available to all users and improved it to meet the needs of the hybrid workplace because the user experience should be the same regardless of the workplace.
In India, Google Meet has grown approximately 45 times in terms of time users spend on the video conferencing tool in the first quarter of 2021 compared to last year. The company recently added ICICI Prudential, NPCI, Voltas and Muthoot Groups to its client portfolio.
Google has nearly 3 billion users across consumers, businesses and education. They will now have access to the full Google Workspace stack, including Gmail, Chat, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Meet.
The pandemic proved to be a boon to the tech sector and accelerated the digitization journey of all organizations, said Bikram Singh Bedi, region chief executive of Google Cloud India, in a separate interview.
Over the past year, all productivity apps have been significantly accelerated and are getting faster and faster. Basic businesses are also going digital, Bedi said. The company is focused on growing its partner network resellers, software vendors, and systems integrators to meet increased demand and increase its presence, he added.
Google said on Monday that it will replace Rooms in Google Chat with Spaces in the coming months, providing more features for team collaboration.
It is also rolling out a new individual subscription offer, called Google Workspace Individual, initially in some countries and improving on Google Meet. Users can enable an integrated experience in Google Workspace by turning on Google Chat in Gmail.
The expanded free offering won’t hurt the company’s revenue, Soltero said. It is in no way seen as an activity at the expense of our subscription business or revenue. Indeed, it is accelerating our revenue, he said.
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