Interoperability: The Ultimate Game-changer for Real-Time Team Collaboration

Real-Time Collaboration Made Easy: How Virtuous Assistant - a Google Cloud Partner, can Help You Solve Key Challenges with Google Workspace

The current state of affairs is that organizations are facing real-time collaboration challenges in the post-COVID, hybrid work environment and are being forced to find solutions quickly. 

Many companies have a diverse tool landscape that includes both approved and unapproved tools, leading to the emergence of shadow IT. Alternatively, companies that restrict users from using their preferred tools may experience low employee satisfaction and decreased productivity.

Impact of Using Productivity Tools of Choice

Interoperability with Google Workspace - Maintaining a Great User Experience

4 Key User Journeys That are Important for a Great User Experience

So what Does a Great User Experience Mean?

Google Workspace allows for seamless collaboration between users, even if they are using different products. 

For example, a user can easily share a document and invite a colleague or partner who uses Microsoft to work on it. 

Additionally, scheduling meetings and referencing files across different platforms, such as Zoom and Google Calendar, or Outlook and Google Docs, can be done with ease. 

Google is continuously working to improve these experiences and ensure interoperability with other products, including competitors.

Compatible Collaboration Scenarios

Virtuous Assistant, a Google Cloud Partner, is assisting numerous customers in securely, collaboratively, efficiently, and cost-effectively navigating their interoperability journey through the utilization of Google Workspace solutions.

When focusing on interoperability scenarios with Microsoft, there are three main deployment types commonly seen in the field:

Limited implementation: in this scenario, users within the organization use a mix of tools based on their individual preferences. For example, they may use Google Workspace for document storage and collaboration, but keep using Microsoft Outlook for email and calendar.

Partial Implementation: here, only a specific section of the organization (such as a line of business) uses Google Workspace for all productivity needs, while the rest of the company continues to use Microsoft tools.

External Collaboration: regardless of a company's internal deployment, they will always need to communicate with external partners and vendors who may use different productivity tools. It's essential to ensure that the tools used for internal collaboration also work well with those external stakeholders.

Companies such as Airbus exemplify this, even though they aim to be all-in on Google Workspace, they still need support for interoperability with other ecosystems due to their contractors and vendors using Microsoft. This also applies to M&A cases where the parent company uses Microsoft but the acquired company continues to use Google Workspace.