Looking for a Google Workspace intranet?

Guide to Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) and recommended Google-based intranets

Google Workspace has revolutionized the world of employee collaboration, and your grandma’s intranet won’t cut it anymore. Today’s best intranet solutions are cloud-hosted, dynamic, and suited to the needs of the modern workplace — which means tight integration with Google Workspace tools.

Introduction

Do you remember when your company intranet was just a place for static news updates and stilted top-down communications? Improvements to technology over the past decade — and seismic changes to the workplace brought about by the pandemic — mean that the humble intranet of old is no more. Modern intranet solutions have transformed the way employees communicate, collaborate, and get their jobs done.

At the same time, the rise of the Google Workspace has given employees the tools they need to effectively collaborate — even from a distance. The Google Workspace (then G Suite) surpassed 6 million paying businesses back in early 2020 — and for good reason. This set of simple tools has had a huge impact on employee productivity and efficiency while catering to the needs of an increasingly Millenial and Gen Z workforce.

The rise of the digital workplace

The COVID-19 pandemic shifted a huge proportion of the world’s workforce to remote work overnight — but many organizations were already moving in this direction. Companies have been increasing their reliance on cloud-based tools for at least a decade. In fact, Forbes predicted back in 2018 that 83% of enterprise workloads would be in the cloud by 2020. And COVID has certainly accelerated things: a McKinsey report from April 2021 found that 52% of employees would prefer a more flexible work model once the pandemic is over.

As a result of these changes to the workplace, the last few years have seen a huge boom in SaaS-based products designed to streamline remote collaboration. In 2021, organizations across the world had an average of 110 SaaS applications in their tech stack — a number that has consistently increased since 2015.

What is cloud computing?

Remember the old server rooms? Those hidden doors, usually in the basement or some dark corner of the office, from which weird flashing lights and whirring noises emanated. It used to be that a workplace’s digital storage and intranet were housed on-site, in those server rooms. The stacks of drives powered the entire office’s systems, letting you get online to access shared folders and get the company news from a clunky old intranet.

Many traditional Heads of IT still like these on-premises rooms filled with computer equipment because they think they are more secure, less prone to attack, than their counterparts outside the door (or in the cloud). And when it comes to your intranet, the tools you deploy for your employees to collaborate and stay informed, security is important. That system houses:

Securing an on-premises intranet is something IT bods feel comfortable with. They know how to invest in firewalls, anti-virus, privacy controls. They know how to spot hacking attempts and fraud actors. They know the on-premises system lets them oversee testing and rollout of upgrades. They know they are in control of how it all goes down.

Cloud vs. Server

But on-premises intranets are expensive – and the cost is mainly up-front. Even if you get the budget to invest in, say, the most recent Microsoft Office suite including SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, you’ll likely be relying on that same technology for the next decade; there are no automatic updates.

It also takes a long time to roll-out a new on-premises custom intranet, and you’ll need someone to own it and build out your intranet site, staying on hand for additions, new pages, and improvements. That bumps up the cost significantly – both in terms of technical and human resources – which is why many businesses today are moving to cloud storage, collaboration and communication tools.

According to studies conducted this year, 93 percent of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy; 87 percent have a hybrid cloud strategy.

Advantages of cloud computing

One of the real benefits to businesses using the cloud, though, and tools like a G Suite intranet, comes from the ability to integrate. Those old on-premises systems were the very definition of “silo”; to get systems to talk to each other often involved a developer scratching their head and writing reams of code just so you could move between tools. Cloud integration revolutionized the way businesses can get multiple systems to talk to each other. By implementing Cloud integration you are able to:

In short, cloud integration joins the dots and breaks down the silo walls. It became crucial to optimising business processes with the growth of SaaS solutions; by integrating systems, you improve connectivity and visibility. Importantly, though, integrating systems and processes in the cloud leads to better internal communication and collaboration.

Must-have intranet features

“I think there are other ways we can segment our audiences that will be far more impactful. However, if you are introducing digital communication tools, I would always advise that you provide training, appoint champions who are enthusiastic about technology, and provide ongoing support.”

“If implemented in the right way, social collaboration tools can be a great addition to the internal communication channel suite. But the challenge many internal comms teams face is keeping employees interested after the initial launch.”

What is Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)?

If you’ve ever edited a Google Doc, used Gmail, or chatted with a colleague on Google Meet, you’re already familiar with at least some of the tools offered as part of Google Workspace. This product suite has gone through numerous iterations throughout its existence, starting life in 2006 under the name Google Apps, and becoming G Suite in 2016.

In October 2020, Google announced another rebrand — and Google Workspace was born. This rebrand came with an emphasis on interconnectivity between the various apps included. For example, you can now start a Google Meet call directly from Google Docs, Slides, or Sheets, and create Docs from within a Chat. Through these innovations, Google Workspace allows for more efficient and productive collaboration.

The benefits of using Google Workspace

Who should use G Suite?

G Suite for small businesses

“Google’s ecosystem of apps and collaboration tools was a big deciding factor for us when choosing how to work,” says Lee Dobson Head of Strategy at Bulldog Digital Media.“Google Workspace was a no brainer for us as a business, especially as we were growing so fast we needed a system that scales as quickly as we are.

What impact has Google Workspace (G-Suite) had on modern businesses?

In 2019, Google commissioned the research company Forrester to conduct a Total Economic Impact (TEI) analysis of Google Workspace, examining the value that the product brings to organizations. Forrester interviewed eight enterprise Google Workspace customers who had been using the product for years. They then used the data gathered to develop a composite organization that was representative of the companies they interviewed: an enterprise with 20,000 employees, an annual revenue of $3 billion, and 3% year-on-year growth.

The idea was to assess the total financial impact that using Google Workspace could have on an organization — and the results were impressive. Here are some of the key benefits that the study found:

What is an intranet?

A company intranet is a private portal that employees can access to collaborate, communicate, find information, and even connect on a social level. Modern intranets are powerful tools, which can improve employee experience and boost productivity and engagement — when they’re used right.

At Happeo, we like to break down the employee intranet experience into four key factors: collaboration, communication, community, and information.

And the best intranets integrate seamlessly with the tools that organizations are already using — like Google Workspace.

To be clear, Google does not offer its own intranet functionality. When we talk about a “Google intranet”, we’re talking about a third-party intranet solution that works side-by-side with Google’s suite of tools. Using a Google intranet can help you to increase intranet adoption since your team will already be familiar with the core tools they’ll be using. It can also help to increase productivity and make your employees’ lives easier since they’ll be able to access everything they need in one easy location.

Google intranets increase employee productivity

Productivity doesn’t just mean getting more done — it also means optimizing the way tasks are completed. After all, any company can demand more of its workers, but unless it improves operational efficiency, that “more” is likely to mean long hours and employees who are increasingly tired and frustrated.

A well-planned intranet, on the other hand, can help connect workers to the right colleague to solve a problem, the right document for a particular job, and the right training module to help them upskill. Employees will be able to get their work done more efficiently, leading to greater productivity and a happier workforce. Of course, decent search functionality and a cohesive content management strategy are key here, as is ensuring all documentation and articles have strong metadata to feed that search.

Conclusion

As more and more businesses shift from on-premises infrastructure to cloud-based technology, the number of intranet solutions available will continue to grow. When you’re choosing a solution, be sure to choose a tool that will work well for your business and its unique needs. Don’t forget to ask your employees for their input too — they’re the ones who’ll be using it every day, after all. Make sure you consider aspects such as:

If you still need some help determining what’s right for your needs, our intranet comparison guide is a good place to start.