Welcome to the age of Business 2.0, a whole new paradigm for doing business made possible by cloud computing, Web 2.0 technologies and blistering fast internet connections. Embracing this new paradigm leads to such enormous gains in business efficiencies and cost savings that you will quickly outpace your competitors.
Hermes Technologies Ltd. is proud to be the first Irish company to embrace the Business 2.0 model fully and over a five part series we are going to share how we do things. Today’s feature explains how we use Google Docs to collaboratively work on and store documents in the cloud.
1) No need to e-mail documents back and forth between employees
With Google Docs you can access your work from home (or anywhere else there’s an Internet connection) without having to haul around a laptop or keep track of tiny flash drives. All documents exist in the cloud – to access them all you need do is visit the Google docs website and everything is there waiting for you. All editing is done centrally on the Google Docs website – there are no files to pass around, just a centralized database of up to date documents. This way every single employee has access to the latest document, and there is no need to waste precious time sending e-mails of new versions back and forth.
2) Built in search means you can find documents effortlessly
Say I’m looking for a document I wrote about using the Patrick Swayze’s movie ‘Red Dawn’ to market website but I can’t remember the name of the document. In the olden days I would have to waste time looking through lots of possibly related documents hoping to find the right one. Now, with Google docks all I need to do is type the word “dawn” into the search box and the right document pops up straight away. Now we’re dancing.
Searching for a documents containing the word dawn
Found 1 second later.
3) Automatically save documents without doing anything
Google Docs saves your work in real-time. Every couple of minutes your changes are saved to the cloud. That way you don’t have to worry about hitting the save button or, worse yet, a power outage which could destroy an entire evenings work. One less worry which allows you to get along with your core business activities.
4) Many people can work on the same document at the same time
Many people can work on a single document at the same time using Google Docs. Here you see three coloured boxes , one blue one green and one yellow. Each box represents a different person, myself, John and Will. As I work I see my co-workers boxes move around the screen and text being filled in all over the place, in real time.
Working this way we can get a crucial document finished extremely quickly since, effectively, all hands are on deck. Working like this would not really have been possible with Business 1.0 software. With Microsoft Office only one person can edit a document at a time would have to e-mail it to the other one so they can put in changes. If Business 1.0 workers wanted to try and work together at the same time, they will be doing so blind, and would likely repeat each others work or fail to follow the document’s conventions, thus requiring additional editing later. Again, Google Docs gives a business enormous advantages.
5) No need for backup systems — version control is an automatic feature
What if a malicious ex-employee still had access to my system and wanted to sabotage my business by deleting important information from a document. In the old days, unless we had set up an expensive backup system, the important information would be lost forever and there was nothing we could do to get back. With Google Docs, however, this isn’t a problem. Automatically whenever you modify document, Google Docs remembers what the previous version looks like. If you ever want to see that all version again all you need to do is click on revision history and everything is there safely backed up,waiting to be restored.
An evil ex employee deleted my ingenious plan.
Just click revision history and choose the one you want then….
There it is – Google saves the day
6) Manage employees effectively
With Google Docs I can communicate in real-time with the other people working on the same document as myself, using the built-in chat feature. That way any comments, feedback or questions can be quickly dealt with without the need for a phone call or e-mail. This saves us time and makes management far far more effective.
Using Google Docs chat to share love
Another bonus, is that seeing other people work on a document at the same time as you provides a strong motivation to work harder. It is well known that students study harder when they see other students around them studying hard too. This idea also carries over to the workplace – when you can see your co-worker adding text to a document in real time you feel an atmosphere of hard work and it helps you to concentrate and stay motivated. There can even be a sense of healthy competition. Everyone wants to be the fastest one.
It’s also a very effective way to train staff as you can correct mistakes in real time and offer immediate feedback.
7 ) No need to install any software on any PCs or hire people who know how to
With Google docks, no installation is required. All you need to do is log on to the global docks website & up and account. That’s it. An enormous amount of time and money is saved, as compared to Business 1.0 alternatives such as Microsoft Office where copies would need to be installed on every single PC in the company, and then upgraded as new versions came out. As an added bonus, hard drive space is saved since Google docks operates in the cloud and so does not require a new view PCs resources.
Google Docs installation is easy
8 ) It’s free (for company’s with less than 50 employees)
If your business has less than 50 employees it’s completely free to use Google Docs. This can result in dramatic cost savings when compared to needing to buy Microsoft Office for every single employee which, at a cost of €300 / copy, could total over €10,000. This is a significant cost saving and companies using Google Docs can spend this money by in other ways, enhancing their ability to compete.
For businesses with over 50 employees, Google Docs only costs $50 a head and this still represents a far cheaper alternative to Business 1.0 desktop software packages such as Microsoft Office.
Jack Kinsella is available for consultancy to show you and your employees how to upgrade your work practices to the business 2.0 standard and start making dramatic cost savings.
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