In preparation for a post-pandemic reality, Google has upgraded its platform Google Workspace tools to better serve a remote working environment.
The main mission of this enhanced Workspace targets frontline workers, helping corporate users focus and save time while also supporting frontline, customer-facing workers via improved collaboration with their corporate contacts during the pandemic and beyond.
As one of many cloud-based collaboration and productivity tools, Google Meet Series One hardware kits offer Google AI-assisted, touch-free meetings and live captions in multiple languages for better inclusion among employees across a vast array of locations worldwide.
As 90% of organizations polled in a Gartner survey report planning to continue letting employees work remotely even after vaccines have rolled out, equipping technology to suit virtual workstations remains paramount. Already, the Google Meet tool has allowed companies such as Sony Pictures Imageworks to work around the remote office aspect by building and maintaining trusting relationships both internally and with prospective new talent.
The company Airbus further commends Google Meet and Google Workspace at large for enabling that hybrid onsite-remote work environment for those organizations that plan to adopt a limited return-to-work approach.
As remote work and data sharing understandably involve addressing the issue of secure communication and transfer, Google Workspace has expanded to include a new set of tools surrounding Assured Controls and Expanded Data Regions coverage. These tools allow for both controlled provider access as well as protection of data at rest regardless of geographic location.
For example, the Assured Controls add-on will emerge within the first weeks of March 2021 and ensures heightened asset management, granting data access only to U.S. persons within Google Support teams. Such control allows users to navigate issues of information governance without needing to manage a distinct cloud environment.
Google Workspace Frontline is another such tool, enabling frontline workers to smoothly communicate with corporate teams using collaboration applications such as Chat, Docs, Drive and Gmail, along with endpoint management for enhanced data security. These tools aim to streamline communication for frontline workers handling field data collections, customer requests and safety risk reporting.
In terms of attention and time management, Google Workspace now allows users to use Google Assistant, currently available on mobile devices and in beta for smart speakers and smart displays such as Nest Hub Max. Google Assistant provides meeting reminders and join capabilities as well as a messaging platform. Deemed “flexibility in the face of change,” Google Workspace tools operate with the additional goal of easing time management for partially or fully remote employees, many of whom have begun blocking off several hours at a time for work-related activities to achieve a better work-life balance.
Greg Sly, senior vice president of infrastructure and platform services at Verizon, has stated, “With Assured Controls, Verizon ensures that we comply with requirements around data that must remain located and accessible solely within the U.S.”
Such developments show Google Workspace’s attention to both data compliance and security as well as accommodation for a global, hybrid remote work environment.
Google delays return to office until at least September
More information:
Chilakapati, G., and Lakshinarayanan, K.. “Assured Controls and Expanded Data Regions for Google Workspace | Google Cloud Blog.” Google, Google, 1 Mar. 2021, cloud.google.com/blog/products … for-google-workspace
Soltero, J. “The Future of Work with Google Workspace | Google Cloud Blog.” Google, Google, 1 Mar. 2021, cloud.google.com/blog/products … ith-google-workspace
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Adapting to hybrid remote-office work with Google Workspace (2021, March 2)
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