We get asked this question a lot by IT and Executives from the over 300 companies we support. That if they can edit MS Office files such as Word, Excel and even PDF inside Google Drive and its Editors, and that the same files can work offline on the web, is there truly a need for maintaining MS Office licenses and the patches that come with it? Could MS Office with Google Workspace Editors be used and help save money? If you’re an Office user, before you next splash out to renew your subscription, it might be worth thinking about whether you really need Office at all.

Fossil Group’s big Google move to Google Workspace is a story all enterprises go through. Its enterprise agreement (EA) with Microsoft was almost up. Fossil Group’s IT department knew that it wanted to go to the cloud so that the company would no longer have to operate its own email servers. That left Fossil Group with two options, says Fossil Group VP of IT Infrastructure Jorgen Scheuer- Larsen: Renew its EA with Microsoft and go to Office 365, or take a chance and move the company to its upstart competitor, Google’s G Suite. Fossil did a study of all its 15,000 employees to see/test the myth that we all need MS Office to work and found that:

A three-month pilot program of both showed only 3% of Fossil’s 15,000 employees actually used Microsoft PowerPoint, and 2% used Excel. That undermined most of the arguments that Fossil needed Microsoft Office, specifically, so employees could do their job. And, because 70% of Fossil’s workforce was less than 30 years old at the time, Google was a familiar and easy interface for most employees.”

Jorgen Scheuer – Larsen | Fossil Group VP of IT Infrastructure| Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/fossil-google-g-suite-microsoft-office-365-2018-7?IR=T

The complexity of installing, maintaining, and patching MS Office Applications, along with the high costs of memory and compute, can lead to expensive and powerful computers for organizations. Additionally, the need for Word and other desktop apps can be overwhelming, even with Google Chrome being a memory hog. However, many people use Google Workspace without installing Microsoft Office, potentially saving money and IT person-hours.

But don’t take our word and verdict for it, here are some reports and testimony from customers around the world say:

Statista: Google Workspace is Leading in Office Technologies

A report from Statista points out;

As of October 2020, Google’s G Suite controlled around 50.6 percent of the market share for major office suite technologies worldwide. Microsoft’s widely known Office 365 suite is the other major competitor in the market, but Google’s early adoption of web-based online collaboration has allowed it to outpace Microsoft in recent years.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/983299/worldwide-market-share-of-office-productivity-software/

Larger Enterprise Like Colgate Swear by Google Workspace

Colgate leverages many cross-functional, geographically dispersed teams to get work done. The company needed the flexibility that only cloud-based collaboration could provide. It also wanted a productivity suite that current and future employees would embrace, and that would regularly offer new features without requiring IT involvement to upgrade. Don’t take our word for it, Mitch Cohen Senior Manager, Collaboration Services, Colgate-Palmolive said

Google Workspace stood out because it’s truly an integrated toolset, with single sign-on and one directory. Google Workspace is built for cloud, with no on-premises legacy. We felt that Google would continue to be the biggest innovator in cloud collaboration and a partner we could grow with.

Mitch Cohen Senior Manager, Collaboration Services, Colgate-Palmolive | Source: https://workspace.google.com/customers/colgate-palmolive.html

Sensitive Industries like Airbus know Google Workspace Delivers collaboration like no other

Airbus CIO: We dumped Microsoft Office, not over cost but because Google G Suite – Now Google Workspace looks sweet. Collaboration rather than cost is the reason Airbus has given Microsoft’s old-world Office app bundle the heave-ho and is migrating 130,000 staff – the entire workforce to Google’s G Suite – Now Google Workspace. Of course, Airbus could have made the decision to shift to Office 365 but didn’t. Airbus, which designs, builds, and sells civil and military aeronautical stuff, including commercial drones, embarked on the first phase of the “digital transformation” project – you at the back, stop yawning – a year ago.

Everything we do depends on people and people working together, we have incredibly complex products that require people from very diverse backgrounds and specialisms to work together very closely and that is exactly what we are trying to do here. The driver, he said, was “better collaboration and higher agility rather than some short-term cost savings.”

Luc Hennekens, Airbus CIO | Source: https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/15/airbus_cio_interview/

Aberdair Aviation Group did away with Spam and increased Productivity by going to Google Workspace

With headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, and affiliated operations in Ghana and DRC, Aberdair Aviation relied on a legacy mail platform to communicate with the different teams and its clients. This platform came with its challenges with frequent spamming and email delay issues which, in turn, caused a lot of downtimes and lost business opportunities.

We no longer receive spam emails and our emails and communication are now synchronized across different devices, this has increased productivity as we are able to work effectively across the different teams.

Jared Ateka, IT Manager, Aberdair Aviation Group

Q. Do we still need to buy/license Microsoft Office with our move to Google Workspace? Will it mean that we won’t be able to work with their existing Microsoft files, what are we to do?

Google Workspace offers full viewing and editing capabilities on Microsoft Office files, even without converting to Google formats. And you can edit and collaborate with users across different devices, OS on both MS Office file formats and Google office versions without the need for any installation. You could still use your MS Office to manage user adoption for high dependency organizations but it is not a major necessity, especially as Google Docs support both offline editing. The seamless collaboration is one of the reasons why both global and African industries are making the switch to Google workspace that includes: Carrefour,Airbus, Colgate Palmolive, SKLD Integrated Nigeria, Cytonn PLC- Kenya, Uganda Cancer Institute- Uganda, and many more.

Tips and Tools to Win you off Microsoft Office

A. Work/Edit with MS Files in Drive

With Google Drive, you can store and share over 100 different file types and formats, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, as well as PDFs, images, and videos. And by using intelligent features like Priority and Quick Access in Drive, you can find files nearly 50% faster. With Office Editing, users can also easily edit Microsoft Office files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides without converting them, with the added benefit of layering on Google Workspace’s enhanced collaborative and assistive features. Office editing brings Google Workspace functionality to your Office files. And we recently extended Office editing to the Docs, Sheets, and Slides mobile apps as well, so you can easily work on Office files on the go. 

B. These 4 Google Workspace changes may reduce your need for Microsoft Office apps: link

C. 7 Tasks You Need to Relearn When Switching From Word to Google Docs: link

D. Do you really need to buy Microsoft Office?: link

E. Learn and Install Google Drive on your Machine: link