5 G Suite updates and improvements in 2017

Google’s cloud platform G Suite has been getting a lot of attention from businesses recently. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that enhances collaboration, boosts productivity, and cuts IT costs. And just when you thought it couldn’t any better, Google releases monthly updates for their cloud software. To save you the trouble of looking through pages of patch notes, here are some of the most useful upgrades in 2017 so far.

Shared file storage for teams The Team Drives feature, publicly released in March, is Google’s take on team file sharing. Like many cloud platforms, users can store documents, photos, and other files in the cloud and share them with colleagues. The big difference, however, is that content ownership and file permissions are managed at the team level. This makes it easy to give access to team documents for new members and allow teams to retain important files should the original creator of the document leave the company.

Mobile management for iOS For those who access G Suite via iPhones and iPads, Google has developed Mobile Device Management services. This feature enables companies to secure personal iOS devices without intruding on an employee’s private information. When the “Basic” security option is enabled, for instance, administrators can prompt users to implement a lock screen, wipe data from compromised devices remotely, and keep track of device inventory.

Form templates G Suite’s Forms function helps you quickly create professional-looking online forms and surveys by giving you access to 100 different file templates to work with. And once you load any of them, you can simply customize the form by dragging and dropping new design elements or removing any unneeded sections.

Centralized search In February, Google launched Google Cloud Search, a tool that allows employees to search across all G Suite products such as Drive, Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Contacts, and Sites. The feature takes into account file-sharing permissions, meaning users can access only documents they’re allowed to see.

In addition to retrieving documents, Cloud Search can function as a digital phone book, displaying employee contact information and team schedules with a simple search query. And when viewing a contact’s information in the search results, G Suite gives you the option to start an email, phone call, or Hangout session.

Instant references and citations The Explore function, found at the bottom-right corner of every G Suite document, suggests relevant research material -- like journals, articles, and published papers -- for your reports or essays. A few months ago, Google further enhanced this feature by adding the ability to automatically create footnotes and bibliographies -- in any citation style -- when you use content from a recommended source.

We’ve merely scratched the surface of G Suites updates. And with more powerful upgrades set to be released in the coming months, you need to stay abreast of Google developments to make sure you don’t miss out on time-saving features. If you want to be the first to know what new improvements G Suite has to offer, contact us today.

Microsoft Teams is updated and ready

Prior to the release of Microsoft’s version of Slack -- a popular cloud-based team collaboration tool --, Microsoft Teams received a major update that might have given it the competitive edge. Enhanced communications aren't the only way productivity will be driven; take your business to greater heights with these new features.

Smarter meetings The latest addition to Microsoft Teams is Scheduling Assistant, responsible for finding the ideal time to schedule a meeting. It takes into consideration the schedules of all members, and suggests the best possible time for all attendees. Needless to say, whereas Teams allowed users to schedule only intra-team meetings, Microsoft now supports one-on-one meetings. If you want to steer clear of Skype, read on.

Bots, bots, and more bots With the latest update, bots are now capable of tapping into conversations happening in a team as opposed to a separate chat. To activate team bots, simply type “@” and begin interacting with the bot from there. Microsoft is also working on adding a Bots tab to Teams. This allows you to keep track of all the bots that have been added to a certain team while allowing you to discover new tabs as well. Other bot-related improvements include:

• New bot gallery - the gallery displays a complete list of all the available bots on Microsoft Teams. Alongside the gallery is where you can add bots to one of your teams.
• Discover bots via search - simply click on the search bar at the top and select “Discover bots”. From there click on a bot to start chatting, or click “Add” to add it to a team.
• Add a bot with an @mention - to add a bot to a channel, simply type “@” in your compose box, then select “Add a bot”

Public teams With public teams, anyone from your organization can join the team, unlike the private teams which are open only to specific members. Public teams will show up when a user is trying to join a new team, and you can also turn your existing private team into a public team (and vice-versa).

When it was launched in November 2016, Teams was a relatively minimal service. But in just four months, it’s become a lot more powerful and stable. Microsoft Teams has been available to Office 365 Business Essentials, Business Premium, and Enterprise E1, E3 and E5 users since March 14th. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call!

Docs.com shares users’ sensitive files

Have you recently created and uploaded a Microsoft file on Microsoft’s free document-sharing platform, docs.com? Did you know that other than yourself and the small group of people you wish to share documents with, your uploaded documents can be publicly viewed and searched via Google or Bing? Regardless of your reasons for using docs.com, your files should never be made available to complete strangers.

What’s the damage?

Usernames and passwords for various devices and applications; personal information such as home and email addresses, bank account details, social security numbers, and phone numbers; and medical info comprising patient treatment data and health insurance numbers -- all these were some of the supposedly leaked documents, which were clearly meant to be private. But, a security researcher discovered that these sensitive files were accessible using docs.com’s search function.

After being alerted to the ‘leak,’ Microsoft responded by removing the search bar. However, most of the documents were already indexed by search engines, Google and Bing, which is how these docs remained available to the public despite disabling the search function.

Recent updates

To alleviate the damage, Microsoft launched an update that limited what users can do to uploaded files, such as restricting files to a read-only status. Although buttons to ‘like,’ download, add to collections, and share in social media are enabled, only users who enter an email address, phone number, or sign in using their Office or Microsoft account can perform any of these functions. Since anyone can easily create a Microsoft account, docs.com users may not feel at ease.

Microsoft’s final word

Docs.com is easy-to-use and is valuable to those eager to publish their documents. The site’s user-friendliness also makes it a popular choice for Office 365 users who wish to ‘spread their work to the world.’ Office 365 users can easily upload from their own computer, OneDrive, or Sway account, and share away. Being a free service also adds a lot of incentive for users to upload their Word, Excel, or any other file onto the site.

In an effort to solve glaring privacy issues, Microsoft has issued some key updates, such as a warning message reminding users that the document to be uploaded will be publicly available on the web. While it may seem like Microsoft committed a blunder, a stricter privacy setting and a few stronger, more visible warnings to users can help make docs.com a useful productivity tool rather than a hacker’s hunting ground.

Discerning Office 365 users can make the most out of docs.com, but they should use the service with caution. If you’ve uploaded documents with sensitive information on docs.com, now is the best time to remove them from the site, or review your privacy settings here and in other document-sharing services.

If you’re not sure how to proceed, or want to learn more about this and other Microsoft products and services, call us now for advice.