google apps vs office 365 an independent guide - tech trust · pdf filegoogle apps vs office...

“Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best. A monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity.”

Nancy Pearcey

Google Apps vs Office 365An Independent Guide

Created for : Senior Executives in charities who understand the benefits of cloud software but are not sure which platform to use yet.

Created by : Unleashing Potential, a charity helping other charities achieve more through technology.

Some of the information herein will be out of date by the time it’s published. This is the nature

of cloud technology - products change constantly, often at an eye-watering rate. This is a living

document.

We test everything ourselves. This means our opinions are our own (we take no money from

Google or Microsoft), and we won’t hold back. We will gladly change our position faced with new

evidence, but we use these systems ourselves and know first hand that what is promised and what

is delivered are not always the same thing.

2 www.unleashingpotential.org.uk @UnleashingP

Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Contents

An Introduction : Why it matters 6

Cost and features for nonprofits 7

What do they both do well? 9

Advantages of Google Apps and Office 365 9

Google Mail vs Outlook Online 9

Google Mail 10

Outlook Online 11

Google Calendar vs Outlook Calendar 12

Google Calendar 12

Outlook Calendar 13

Google Hangouts vs Skype for Business 14

Google Hangouts 14

Skype for Business/ Lync 2013 15

Google Drive vs OneDrive & Sharepoint 15

Google Drive 16

OneDrive & Sharepoint 18

Mobile Apps 21

Google Apps 21

Office 365 22

What are they like to manage? 23

Google Apps 24

Office 365 25

Backups/ retention of data 26

Google Apps 26

Office 365 27

Quality of support 28

Google Apps 28

Office 365 28

Summary 29

www.unleashingpotential.org.uk @UnleashingP 3

You might choose Google if...

• ...you don’t have IT staff, and would like to save money by managing the system yourself, perhaps with a

little training.

• ...you are happy to adapt to Google’s way of doing things, instead of spending time customising the

system.

• ...your internal office documents are not particularly complex, and...

• ...you occasionally put together external documents using more advanced Microsoft Office features, but

don’t mind working on documents in Google collaboratively first, and then changing to Office format later.

• ...your staff prefer to use Microsoft Office over Google Drive docs/sheets/slides, but you rarely work on

the same document simultaneously, and are happy to sync what you need to PCs instead of editing in the

browser.

• ...you want to move to the cloud quickly. You want to move your data to a place where it’s easily

accessible from anywhere, and to hit the ground running. You don’t have time to adapt to something more

complex.

• ...strict folder and file structures are not that important to you, as long as you can find what you need

quickly and folders that certain staff shouldn’t see can be locked down easily.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

You might choose 365 if...

• ...you have IT staff and can dedicate part of their role to managing the system, or can afford to

outsource this to an IT support provider.

• ...you have the time to customise the system to work exactly the way you want it to.

• ...you often produce complex or heavily formatted Office documents which are circulated widely

outside the organisation. Your staff are happy to deal with the occasional locked document.

• ...you have many different folders and files which have to be hidden from different groups of staff in the

organisation.

• ...you would like the option to create document workflows. e.g. documents need to be signed off or

approved by several members of staff through a strict process, after which they are locked as final copies.

• ...you understand that Office 365 tends to be less reliable than Google in places (e.g. if using the

Chrome browser or an Apple device), but know that it is improving quickly, will get more stable over time,

and the increased granularity and range of features is more important to you.


An Introduction : Why it mattersSome of the UP staffers are young enough to have only ever used Google Apps and Office 365. They have no

memory of email servers breaking down for days, documents being unavailable while out of the office, or

attachments labelled things like ‘v2.1a) final JD edit FINAL v1’.

Those starting charities today use cloud-based email and document management by default. Only in the

rarest circumstances would they think of installing a server in their office.

Of course, technology has always been this way - whatever you buy is out-of-date as soon as you’ve bought it,

and so newer companies get newer tech. Right?

That no longer has to be true.

Google Apps and Office 365 are free for charities, so the upgrade cycle is no longer asking you to pay more, it’s

helping you to pay less. More importantly, this software gets faster, adds more features and increases storage

over time - no upgrades necessary. That’s a break with 50 years of IT tradition.

In fact, we don’t like the term ‘IT’ much at Unleashing Potential. IT departments are increasingly the

people that say ‘no’; that try to guard outmoded, command-and-control systems; that get defensive and

territorial when faced with new technology. This is understandable behaviour - cloud services undermine

the justification for in-house IT resource - but the forward-thinking ones see that there will always be digital

opportunities to improve their charities, be it in comms, operations, or service delivery.

Google Apps and Office 365 are just the beginning of the journey - a highly affordable, modest step towards a

new way of thinking about technology. A way that sees employees using cutting edge technology all the time

via their smartphones, and realises they don’t want to be shackled to restrictive systems when they go to

work.

These platforms are not created equal. One will be more suitable for some organisations than the other. UP

exists - in part - to help charities weigh up the options and make the move to the cloud. This document is

here to help you do that yourself.

Over the following pages, we pit Office 365 and Google Apps against each other in the areas we feel are most

important to charities - and we promise to do all we can to keep it interesting.

We sincerely hope you find this useful, and if you have any questions or feedback please get in touch.

- The UP Team


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Cost and features for nonprofits

Email and document management for free? Pretty much. If your organisation holds a registered charity

number in the UK, you can register for Google Apps and some Microsoft Office 365 plans for free.

Core Features

• Emails accessible seamlessly from anywhere,

including mobile devices, your browser, or the

email clients you may already be using, e.g.

Outlook, Apple Mail. Moving to Google or 365

doesn’t preclude you from working in Outlook!

• Shareable Calendars that sync across all your

devices.

• Documents shared between staff which can be

synced to your PCs for access offline, and edited

inside your browser collaboratively in real-time

(this is revolutionary for team productivity!)

• Phone, video and instant messaging using your

work email addresses

• Integrations with many third party programs,

like databases (e.g. log an email to your CRM), and

other add-ons to supplement the out-of-the-box

features.

The tables below provide a brief overview of how the two platforms compare.

Google Apps

Google have one subscription plan for non-profits.

Upfront Cost Free.

Number of Users Unlimited. (Imagine trying to get unlimited users on your own server.)

Support 24/7 telephone and email support, for administrators only.

Storage Space30GB of storage per person, for emails and documents.

This is upgradeable per person. e.g. 100GB for $1.99pm and 1TB for $9.99pm.

There’s a strong rumour that nonprofits will get unlimited storage for all users in 2016.

Office SoftwareGoogle has its own versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. If your staff need to

continue using Microsoft Office, licenses for those desktop applications will need to be purchased

separately.

Mobiles Edit Google documents on Android and iOS.

RegistrationRegister for a Technology Trust Exchange account, verify your nonprofit status and then enrol in

the “Google for Non-profits” programme.


Office 365 E1 for Non-Profits E3 for Non-Profits

Licensing for Office 365 is not as simple, and only some of the plans are free. If you are not a non-profit (e.g. a social enterprise, without a

charity number), there are six business plans to choose from. It’s confusing.

Upfront Cost Free. £3.30/user/month

Number of Users Unlimited. Unlimited

Support Free telephone and email support

Storage Space1TB storage for OneDrive (used for personal documents, like “My Documents” on a PC).

10GB of shared document storage (Sharepoint Sites) + an extra £1.56 per GB, per year

Office Software

Edit Microsoft Office documents in your

browser. These are slimmer versions of the full

desktop applications, which if needed, must

be purchased separately.

Edit documents in browser AND

Get the latest versions of the Microsoft Office

desktop applications for Windows and OSX;

the applications you would install locally.

You’re renting these applications as part of the

cost.

Windows/OSX:

Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Outlook

Windows only:

Access, Publisher

Mobiles Read-only access to documents on mobiles. Edit documents on mobiles.

Added FeatureseDiscovery for auditing/searching the emails and documents owned by everyone in the

organisation (legal compliance), and placing legal holds on accounts so that the users cannot

permanently delete their data.

RegistrationRegister for a Technology Trust Exchange account, verify your nonprofit status and then sign up for a

nonprofit free trial. Microsoft will walk you through the rest.

Staff can switch between the two plans, and E3 licenses can be purchased at any time.

Nonprofit Business Essentials & Premium plans are similar to the Enterprise subscriptions, but with corporate video hosting and the

eDiscovery/legal compliance functionality removed. If you don’t need these, but would like to give some of your staff desktop Microsoft

Office licenses and/or the ability to edit documents on mobiles and tablets, the Business Premium plan includes these at a cheaper rate of

£1.30 per person, per month - but these plans only support a maximum of 300 users. As we said, it’s confusing.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

What do they both do well?

Over the past four years, we have met many organisations using dated email and document systems.

They include: having a large server sat in the corner of the room (sometimes covered in drapes and plants

to ‘dress them up’ a bit!); email accounts that came free with other services but didn’t include shared

calendars; and hosted desktops, where you log into a complete Windows PC environment for emails and

documents, but which requires a strong internet connection at all times.

People have an amazing capacity for getting by, even in the face of such systems - but technology

shouldn’t be something your staff have to battle with, especially given the scale and affordability of recent

advances.

Advantages of Google Apps and Office 365

• They store your emails and documents where

they can be accessed from anywhere with an

internet connection, across PCs, laptops, tablets

and mobile devices.

• The availability (“uptime”) is incredibly high,

with data only inaccessible a few hours out of

every year. These companies dedicate more

resources to ensuring this than any charity could

have as a budget. Even paying someone to sit by

your server all day in case something goes wrong

wouldn’t compete.

• A whole industry now exists around creating

add-on applications and services that directly

integrate with Google Apps and Office 365,

often with a few button clicks. Increasingly, new

software releases (e.g. fundraising platforms,

databases, etc) will look to integrate with these

systems rather than maintain compatibility with

in-house servers.

• They let staff work on the same document

simultaneously, so that each person can see what

the others are working on. This is a fantastic tool

for increasing productivity across teams, and it

beats trying to reconcile thirty different versions

of the same document, because Jim in finance

locked a document off and Sally didn’t have time

to wait for it to be available again.

• They’re more accessible, and you can start to

manage the systems yourselves, instead of paying

for a support company to manage it for you.

inclusive 24/7 telephone and email support from

Google and Microsoft helps.

• They take security more seriously than local

IT companies supporting older systems in the

office or in a hosted environment. Microsoft and

Google have security experts on the payroll, and

the livelihood of those companies depends on

protecting the data of millions of charities and

corporate clients.

Google Mail vs Outlook Online

Both systems do email very well. While we can compare user experience and proximity to current usage

patterns, the truth is that with a little change management, all staff can adapt to either one. Both work


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65 :

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

with your existing company email addresses (you don’t have to have a gmail.com address!) and neither

requires you to manage your emails in a browser (a common misconception). Staff can continue to use

their existing Outlook or Apple Mail software if they prefer.

Google Mail

Mailbox Size:

• 30GB for free (Shared with Google Drive), and

upgradeable

• Send attachments up to 25MB

Pros

• Simple to use. Intuitive.

• Use labels to categorise emails (equivalent to

Outlook folders), and assign multiple labels to

each one.

• Learns as you use it. It will gradually guess

which emails are more important to you, and

which are spam. Alerts when attachments are not

added, but mentioned in the email.

• Enable labs (beta features) which can be used

to enhance the experience, such as undoing an

email within 30 seconds of sending it.

• Easily install marketplace apps to extend the

functionality, like adding a button to send an

email to your CRM.

• Staff can continue to use Outlook and other

email clients locally - having to access your emails

in a browser is a myth.

• Unlike Office 365, which has a maximum

mailbox size of 50Gb (still very large), storage

space can be upgraded in Google Apps; the email

accounts will not hit a limit provided you pay for

extra storage.

• You can sign into more than one Google

account in the same browser. e.g. you may have

a personal Gmail account that you want to keep

open.

Cons

• By default, accounts give permission for Google

to use the data in the account to customise

advertising for the user. The data is not shared

with third parties, but regardless, it’s intrusive. You

can turn this off.

• Offline email inside the browser is limited

- it only supports up to a month of emails -

and is only available for Google Chrome. For

working offline regularly, a client like Outlook/

Thunderbird/Apple Mail might be better.

• Group email addresses and delegated accounts

(e.g. being given access to a colleague’s emails)

don’t appear in the same browser tab; this is more

of an individual preference, but may take a little

getting used to.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

• There are no public folders and shared

mailboxes, which you might be accustomed to

coming from a Microsoft email system.

» Public Folders: If you wish to share emails, you

must forward them to a CRM database or the person

who wishes to see it.

» Shared Mailboxes: the equivalent to a shared

mailbox in Google is a group, which looks like a

forum. You can either visit this private ‘forum’ and

manage the emails collectively with other staff,

or receive emails sent to that group (e.g. info@

yourorganisation.com) to your personal inbox,

where ‘replying to all’ will update the original

sender, and everyone else in your group. If you

would like to keep these group emails neatly

separated, they can be filtered automatically under

a label/folder of its own.

Outlook Online

Mailbox Size

• 50GB maximum • Send attachments up to 25MB

Pros

• Flagged emails will appear in a “Tasks” to-do

list, with dates and reminders.

• Create groups, shared mailboxes and public

folders for team communications; there are more

options than Google Apps gives you.

• View a staff member’s delegated email account,

or groups (e.g. info@ and hr@) within the same

browser tab. In practice, this is marginally quicker

than switching to a different tab, as you would do

in Google Apps.

• More powerful rules (email automation) than

Google’s filters.

• For those with Outlook experience, Outlook

Online will feel more familiar.

Cons

• Slightly buggy and unstable in browsers that are

not Microsoft’s. Google Chrome seems to be worse

off than the others. Google is far more reliable in

this respect.

• Steeper learning curve than Google Mail, for

new users - the number of options, and overlap

between features to cover all working styles can

be daunting.

• Offline email in a browser is limited - it only

supports three days of emails - but is available

in more browsers, including Chrome, Firefox and

Internet Explorer. For working offline regularly a

client like Outlook/Thunderbird/Apple Mail might

be better.

• You cannot sign into more than one Office 365

account in a browser. You must either use an

email client like Outlook to manage both, or two

different browsers.


• Email storage is limited to a maximum of 50Gb.

You can enable archives for staff accounts which

move emails out of the primary mailbox

and into a second location which has

a further 50Gb of storage. The user can

still access emails in both these places,

and search each of them, but it adds to

the complexity of “where your emails

are”.

• By default, Microsoft sets up a

retention policy which automatically

moves all emails older than 2 years

into the archive mailbox, when you

enable the feature. (Make sure you let staff know

to prevent confusion!)

Google Calendar vs Outlook Calendar

Being able to see and manage colleagues’ calendars from any device, reliably, is something we now take

for granted - but many charities still don’t have this luxury. Differences between Google and Microsoft

calendar applications are subtle and unlikely to impact your choice of platform.

Google Calendar

Pros

• Intuitive. (You may notice a theme here...)

• Staff can view each other’s calendars by default

(or you can restrict that), and overlay calendar

events to see the availability of several staff at

once.

• To help find available time slots, there is

a scheduler to line up each event attendee’s

calendar side-by-side. (Google will suggest times,

but we find Saturdays and Sundays aren’t the

most helpful suggestions. We work hard, but there

is a limit!)

• Calendars can be made public, and shared

with people outside the organisation (e.g. an

events calendar on a website; although it isn’t the

prettiest way of doing this).

• Create a calendar event in other staff member’s

calendars, without making yourself an attendee

(e.g. PAs arranging meetings for other staff).

• Staff who have personal Gmail accounts can

share their personal calendar with the work

account and manage both in the same place.

• View availability of attendees and resources

(e.g. meeting rooms) when scheduling meetings,

and book accordingly.

• Google Calendar can be used offline in Google

This is a recurring theme with both Office 365 and Google: each company’s

browser offers the best experience for their

software.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Chrome by installing an app.

• Importing calendars/invites is straightforward.

• Can add sports team calendars (go Yankees!),

which are maintained by Google, if you’re into that

kind of thing…

Cons

• Cannot categorise events (e.g. internal vs

external)

• The offline calendar app is only available in

Google Chrome. This is a recurring theme with

both Office 365 and Google: each company’s

browser offers the best experience for their

software.

Outlook Calendar

Pros

• Install extensions to add new third party

features to Outlook calendar (e.g. insert template

text)

• If someone gives you access to their calendar,

you can manage it on their behalf (e.g. a Personal

Assistant).

• Includes a scheduling assistant to help compare

availability when creating events.

• Outlook will automatically check for available

resources (e.g. meeting rooms) and display those

that can be booked.

• One year’s worth of calendar entries (a year

in the past and future) can be synced offline in

Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome

without installing an app.

• Categorise events (e.g. Internal vs External)

• Weekly calendar view includes a weather

forecast!

Cons

• Slightly less intuitive than Google calendar in

places, but functionally rich.

• By default, staff cannot view each other’s

calendars unless they explicitly share them with

one another. In Google, this can be managed in

the admin panel, but in Office 365, there is no

option for this. The only way to enable this for

everyone is to run a ‘script’; technical experience

or a detailed step by step guide are needed.

• There are several places in Office 365 where

options are only available through scripting.

Administration is generally more difficult than in

Google.


Google Hangouts vs Skype for Business

Ideal for supporting office and remote team communications, Hangouts and Skype for Business both offer

group instant messaging, and audio/video conference calls. They are both excellent tools, but be wary of

placing too much emphasis on these when making a decision between the two platforms; there are many

other great - and arguably better - alternatives available. In fact, if you’ve made it this far (well done!), we

highly recommend Slack. Opening channels of communication across the organisation to break down

silos is easy and effective with Slack’s service, and yes - it’s free for charities too.

Google Hangouts

Pros

• Simple and intuitive (have we mentioned that

yet?)

• Free group audio and video calls (up to 10

people for video), both on desktop and mobile

devices.

• You don’t need to install a separate application

- it runs inside the browser (chat windows appear

inside the inbox)

• If you use the Chrome Browser, an extension is

available to make chat windows and video calls

appear outside the browser windows.

• Mobile application supports group video calls.

• Will adapt the quality of the audio/video on

mobile devices to keep people in the call, instead

of dropping them out.

• Google on-air for video calls: open up the

conference call to an audience, and automatically

post the video to YouTube afterwards. e.g. hold

seminars and online events.

Cons

• You have to have your browser open to use it.

• Cannot share files within the chat window

(other than pictures) - but if you use Google Drive

to store and share files, you can share a link

instead.

• The Chrome Extension for Hangouts is very

handy, but Google is clearly biased towards its

own browser for some of this functionality, which

is unfortunate.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Skype for Business/ Lync 2013

Pros

• Inside Outlook Online you can open chat

windows with other staff.

• Mobile applications are available for Android,

iOS and Windows Phones.

• Not ad-supported, like the free version of Skype.

Cons

• Not as intuitive as Google. Interfaces are slightly

confusing in places, but accustomed users

shouldn’t have a problem.

• The service is called “Skype for Business” on

Windows, and “Lync 2013” on Apple Macbooks

(the new applications are not yet ready, as of Oct

2015).

• No group video calls on mobile (i.e. more than

two people) - you can participate, but audio only.

• There are currently two different versions of

the Skype/Lync application on devices: one for

consumers, and another for business (this can get

confusing).

• You must install an app to use Skype outside

the browser.

• Slightly less forgiving of low quality connections

on mobile devices.

Google Drive vs OneDrive & Sharepoint

We need to share our files somewhere. Many organisations have an area on a server in the office, a shared

drive, that all PCs on the network can access. This might be available remotely, but it’s typically a slow and

clunky affair. Google Drive and OneDrive/Sharepoint are equivalent to the shared drives of old, but the files

are accessible anywhere you have a connection to

the internet, including on mobile devices.

This is where the Google Apps and Office 365

diverge the most, and you should make sure their

approach to document management is suited to

your organisation.

If your organisation takes a free and open stance

to document access internally (save for a few

confidential folders), empowering staff to manage their data themselves, Google Drive may feel liberating.

Alternatively, Microsoft have taken a command and control approach to document management,

providing a staggeringly comprehensive tool set for locking down and/or controlling access to files and

the workflows around them. This accommodates the wide variety of working practices companies have

This is where Google Apps and Office 365

diverge the most


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65 :

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

adopted with Microsoft’s older systems, but it does make things more difficult to manage for simpler, and

perhaps more ‘agile’ organisations.

Google Drive

Google Drive is an evolution of the ‘traditional’ file server. You can take the structure you currently have

(files within folders, within other folders, etc), and move it to Google Drive. Each folder and document is

now owned by someone (the person who created/uploaded it, and who has the permission to delete it),

and may be shared to other staff. These folders could be “HR”, “Finance”, “Programmes”, etc. You share

them with the users who require access, and everyone helps manage the contents. The structure is less

rigid than before, with control devolved to the relevant staff. They choose who can view, and who can

collaborate on certain documents and folders. You can selectively pick folders to share with people outside

the organisation too.

It’s liberating, but not best suited to an approach where ‘everything must have its place’. That said, search

(Google’s bread-and-butter) now allows to find what you need instantly, and folder hierarchies are

becoming less important than they used to be.

Google have built a set of applications to rival Microsoft Office which feel familiar, but are simplified. They

have around 80% of the functionality the Microsoft Office counterparts have, enough for most staff to use

without needing to revert to Microsoft Office. These applications are accessed in any browser, and the

browser is where staff create and edit their documents. By far, the largest benefit of this is that 10+ staff

can work collaboratively on the same document simultaneously. This is a game changer, but there may be

times when employees need functionality not offered by Google, at which point they can download the file

and edit in Microsoft Office. It is possible to work in Microsoft Office completely with Google Drive, but you

will lose the collaboration feature.

Pros

• Intuitive, but may take a little while to get used

to the new way of organising files.

• You can create as many Google documents,

spreadsheets and presentations as you like - only

non-Google files will use up the 30Gb storage

quota.

• Can behave like Dropbox. Create a folder

structure (or use your current one), upload the

files and let staff sync them to their devices

wherever they are. If your organisation is wedded

to Microsoft Office, this is the easiest way of

continuing to use it without Google’s version of

the Office Suite. However…

• A Google Chrome extension is available to

let you edit Microsoft Office format files inside

the browser. This is good for light edits to Office

documents.

• Create a folder structure and lock down

access at both the folder and file level. You can

also prevent staff from sharing them out further

without permission.

• Collaborate on the same file, wherever you are

in the world; see each other’s changes in real-time.

• Google Drive converts Microsoft Office

documents into their own format, usually

preserving all - or the majority - of the formatting.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

• Working on documents offline is fairly

seamless, and Google does an admirable job at

reconciling online and offline edits. It doesn’t

always work, but Google saves a revision history

so that changes that were not merged well can

be corrected (e.g. if someone edited a document

online, while another was working offline).

• Staff can work offline in the following ways:

» Using Google format documents? Install the Google

Drive Chrome browser application. Documents are

synced offline and are editable inside the browser.

» Using Microsoft Office format documents? Install

the Google Drive sync tool to synchronise selected

folders locally.

» Using both Google and Microsoft Office formats?

Install both.

• Photos uploaded to “Google Photos” don’t

count towards the 30Gb of storage space,

provided they are under 16 megapixels in size

(quite big).

Cons

• It may take a little while to get used to the folder

sharing and organising mechanics, unless you

plan well. Some may be confused by the concept

of all files and folders being owned by someone,

and the difference between having their own

private files in Google Drive, as well as shared

folders where everyone can collaborate.

• Google has its own format for Office documents,

and if you would like to use the collaborative

editing feature, you must use these. It is perfectly

possible to use both Microsoft Office formats and

Google’s for different documents and projects, but

if staff are not prepared it can be confusing.

• Google’s own ‘flavours’ of Microsoft Word, Excel

and Powerpoint, are relatively full featured (for

many basic daily tasks, they outdo the Office

365 browser apps), and are great for internal

documents. Those wanting more feature rich

formatting tools may need to revert to Microsoft

Office offline on occasion, which is possible either

through syncing files locally or downloading

and uploading the odd document manually into

Google Drive.

• Using the two different methods of working

offline (see pros) could be a little confusing for

some, without training. Consider whether staff

who tend to work offline often are changing

documents that others use at the same time. This

is a challenge that all offline-online systems have,

so a process for managing it will need to be put in

place.

• You cannot manage access to shared folders

using groups (e.g. members of the hr@ email

group); when onboarding new staff, each folder

will need to be shared with the new staff member

one by one. If you use Microsoft file servers, you

may be familiar with managing access by teams of

people. It’s slightly longer to do individually, but

staff have greater visibility of who has access to

which areas.

• Accessing the revision history can be slow, and

it is hard to tell where changes were made. e.g. if

wanting to recover a paragraph deleted roughly

a week ago, you may need to jump between

different versions to find the one containing the

text you need; there is no way to label versions.

• Managers and organisations with a strong

“command and control” culture may find the way

Google Drive manages documents too ‘open’.


Goog

le

Apps

vs

OneDrive & Sharepoint

Microsoft Office 365 is attractive for organisations that need to strictly control the flow of information

internally. The toolset is broad and powerful, and automated workflows for managing files can be put into

place. It can also accommodate most working scenarios that businesses may have. One outcome of this

approach is that smaller organisations looking for a replacement to their old file server are faced with a

large system which takes time to tame, is bursting with options and raises many questions on how best to

use it. However, if you have the time it can be a valuable tool.

Office 365 splits document management into two areas: OneDrive for Business and Sharepoint Sites. This

is how they are intended to be used:

OneDrive for Business

Feels similar to Google Drive, but is designed for working on documents solo, or in very small teams. It’s

the equivalent to “My Documents” on a Windows PC: the documents you store there are only visible to you,

until you put them somewhere that other people can access. OneDrive can be synced with your PC, with

the idea being that staff store all of their private/’work-in-progress’ documents in the OneDrive area so

that they are synced online. This way they’re protected from loss if the PC breaks down (an excellent idea,

especially given the generous 1TB of space). It is also possible to share them with others, as you would do

in Google Drive, but it’s a clunky experience, and Microsoft never intended it to be used for sharing files

inside the organisation, as you would do on a shared drive.

Sharepoint Sites

This is where shared files are meant to be organised; the equivalent to a shared drive/ file server in an

office. You can design a structure to the files and then selectively share areas to different teams of staff, and


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

individuals. However, rather than being accessed as a set of folders on your PC, this is browsed through

a set of internal websites. These websites can include other content like twitter feeds, information pages,

lists, calendars… everything you may expect to see on a website, but also include areas (Microsoft calls

them “document and picture libraries”) for storing documents. Each website area is a “Site”, and those

sites contain document libraries.

Managing these sites, and the document libraries takes time, similar to maintaining your website; part of

someone’s role is dedicated to keeping on top of making updates to the website. This is the very same

with Sharepoint Sites. Staff are not as free to change the structure of document folders as they would be

on a file server or in Google Drive - instead that power is given to a trusted few who maintain the system

on behalf of everyone else. Depending on how complex your structure and how ambitious your plans, the

amount of time needed varies.

Pros

• Use the Microsoft Office suite in a browser

(Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote),

even on PCs where Microsoft Office is not

installed. These are ‘light’ versions of the desktop

apps - useful for making changes to documents

without heavy formatting.

• Several people can edit the same document

simultaneously, in real-time, if using the browser

version of Microsoft Office, or Office 2016 on

Windows. This isn’t quite as smooth as Google

Drive, but it gets closer every day.

• If the browser version of Microsoft Office doesn’t

have the functionality needed, staff with Microsoft

Office 2013 and 2016 installed can switch to

editing the documents in local Microsoft Office at

the click of a button, without kicking other users in

the browser out of the document (also 2007 and

2010 with updates installed).

• Documents have a full revision history of

changes, and you can mark major versions with

comments to make them easier to browse later.

• Files stored in OneDrive for Business, and

document libraries in Sharepoint Sites can be

synced to your PC, instead of browsing online (like

Dropbox).

• Browse documents in Sharepoint and OneDrive

from within Microsoft Office using the “open”

menu, and edit them alongside staff working in

the browser.

• Sharepoint sites can be created for the

public, or members of the charity’s network

(e.g. volunteers). They can be login restricted

using Microsoft accounts (no additional cost), or

completely open to the public, and can include

documents, styled pages, calendars… Google

Sites offers similar functionality, but the tool set is

less rich.

• Add custom tags and categories to files in

Sharepoint. The search feature is also excellent,

showing previews of the document - it might

negate the urge to spend time filing everything

away.

• In Sharepoint, restrict access to areas using

groups (useful where many areas are locked off to

certain staff), and set more advanced restrictions

like the ability to sync certain documents offline,

download them or make changes if certain

conditions have been met (like having a document

signed off). You can also set management alerts,

with notifications should anyone make changes in

certain areas.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65 :

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Cons

• The online, in-browser version of Microsoft

Office has around a third of the functionality

available in the full, locally installed Microsoft

Office 2016 applications (think of it as ‘Diet Office’).

The browser apps are great for light editing and

reporting, but any heavier changes will need to

be done outside the browser. Bear this in mind if

wondering whether to purchase (or upgrade to

a paid subscription including) the full desktop

applications.

• Even basic tasks like freezing panes and adding

data validation in Excel, creating contents pages,

editing tables in Word and duplicating Excel

sheets (to name a few), are not currently possible

online. However, changes happen fast, and

Microsoft may suddenly address this.

• Real-time collaboration in Excel is currently

only available in the browser. Nobody can edit a

spreadsheet in desktop Excel if someone else has

the file open in the browser, or on a mobile.

• Only Microsoft Office 2013 and 2016 links with

Sharepoint Online (2007 and 2010 can also access

Sharepoint documents with updates).

• Editing documents in desktop Microsoft Office

will overcome the limitations of the browser

apps, but the experience differs depending on the

devices your staff are using:

• Office 2016 on Windows: edit in real-time with

others who are working in the browser.

• Office 2016 on Macs: you cannot edit together

in real-time, but you can co-exist simultaneously

with those working in the browser; the areas

others are working in within the document are

locked (they’re highlighted with dotted lines)

until they have moved to another area and the

document updates (once a minute at the most).

• Microsoft Office 2007- 2013 on Windows: the

same experience as Mac users.

• Microsoft Office for Mac 2011: not compatible -

doesn’t support simultaneous editing.

• OneDrive for Business is not yet available for

Apple Macbooks (expected in 2016), so users with

Macbooks must - for the time being - work online

or download files manually. Microsoft’s support

for Apple continues to be an afterthought.

• Staff can continue to work on documents

offline in OneDrive and Sharepoint if they sync

them to their PC using OneDrive for Business

(confusingly, it let’s you sync documents in either

area). However, if they have edited a document

that someone else has changed while they were

offline, the sync tool will fail to upload it - an

error will appear. That person must open the file

again for it to sync with the online version of the

document, and Microsoft will attempt to merge

the changes between them. They can be hit and

miss, but all changes are available in the revision

history. As with Google, a process may need to be

considered for those who frequently work offline

on documents that are widely worked upon.

• The document structure in Sharepoint -

depending on how it has been setup - cannot be

edited by all staff. Many changes will require an

admin, so if the organisation doesn’t already have

someone whose role already includes dedicated

time for maintenance of systems, this may need to

be planned for.

• If you store files in Sharepoint, staff will not be

able to view thumbnails unless the app is a “photo

library”, not a “document library”. This may force

you to store photos separate from everything else.

• Sharepoint has a number of restrictions which


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

will affect how data is structured, where it is, and

how staff access it. These include:

» Document libraries (those areas where documents

are stored inside a ‘site’, e.g. “HR”) cannot exceed

5000 files. If it does, the site will slow down, and

the files will no longer sync to PCs. Some careful

planning is needed to avoid this.

» Sites (the small websites), can sit inside one

another. The highest level is called a “Site

Collection”, and it cannot contain more than 1TB

of files. Some charities may never hit that limit, but

if you think you will, your admins will need to split

sites across several site collections and link them

together. Confused? We were when we first saw it!

Mobile Apps

It’s good to be able to work from home occasionally: time

lost to commutes (especially during tube strikes) can quickly

add up, and in the evenings many employees will prefer to

go home and continue working than to stay late at the office.

By moving your data to a cloud service, it’s instantly available

from anywhere, which helps to keep your options open.

Being able to reliably access emails and edit live documents

from anywhere with a 3G/4G connection is powerful (the

number of times we’ve popped into a document while

running out of the door to add a quick comment…), and

both Google and Microsoft have their own sets of mobile

applications to make this possible.

Google Apps

Pros:

• Gmail mobile app lets you turn off work emails

while at home and turn all accounts on and off

quickly.

• The Gmail and Calendar apps feel very similar

to the browser versions, and allow you to do most

things on the go. Filters and some of the more

advanced account settings are unavailable.

• You don’t have to use the Gmail and Google

Calendar apps - all other email clients are

compatible.

• The calendar app is user friendly and available

offline.

• The Google Drive applications (Docs, Sheets

and Slides) are all available on iOS and Android,

and make good use of the small amount of screen

real estate. On mobiles, anything but light edits

or reading files will become exasperating after a

while, but working on a tablet is fairly comfortable.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65 :

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

• Make documents in Google Drive available

offline. Doc, Sheet and Slide files are also editable,

but changes are occasionally lost if someone else

edits the online file while you were off the grid.

• The Hangouts application (Google’s equivalent

to Skype) supports group video calls of up to ten

participants on a mobile and tablet.

• Add a passcode/password to the applications to

prevent unauthorised access.

• Google Apps offers device management features

for Android and iOS devices. e.g.

» Enforce rules where all phones connecting to work

accounts must have a passcode and/or encryption

turned on

» Remotely wipe email and document data from the

phones of staff who have left. It is also possible to

completely wipe and factory reset Android phones.

Cons

• There are differences between the Android and

iOS Google Drive applications. e.g. if you add

dropdown options in your spreadsheets, they

can only be used on Android; iOS is missing that

feature.

• The Google Drive mobile applications are not

fully fledged; they’re designed for light edits, and

lack some of the formatting options, including

inserting media and graphs (which would be

clunky on a small mobile anyway). Unfortunately,

these are also missing on tablets, where working is

more comfortable.

• You can only make files available offline one-

by-one. If you have a folder of files to view on the

underground, it might take a while to get ready!

• The Gmail app will only keep some emails

offline, and it varies depending on the number

of emails you get each day; perhaps a few days

to a week’s worth of emails, but only those in

the inbox. If you need everything offline on your

phone, use a different email client.

• Device management requires that staff install

a security profile on their phones. The process

is simple, but staff may be wary of giving the

organisation the potential to control (and

remotely wipe) their personal phone, if you have a

Bring Your Own Device policy.

Office 365

Pros

• The Outlook email client for phones includes

emails, calendar, contacts and files in one place,

rather than switching between apps. (This can be

used with Google accounts too, so it isn’t Office

365 specific.)

• Add Google and Dropbox accounts to the

Outlook email client, on top of OneDrive and

Sharepoint. Files are view only.

• The Microsoft Office applications are well

designed, and include more formatting options

than Google’s. e.g. Excel for iOS does include drop-

down options in cells, whereas Google Sheets


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

does not. However, as with Google, the mobile

applications are again designed for light edits

only.

• Provides similar device management

functionality to Google for controlling access to

data on phones, and locking down functionality

(e.g. ability to install applications).

• OneDrive files can be downloaded individually

for offline access, but will need to be re-uploaded

if edited.

• Work on Sharepoint documents in Microsoft

Word for mobile, alongside others editing in the

browser.

Cons

• The calendar in Outlook for mobiles doesn’t

include a week’s view of events (you can view

three days by rotating your phone horizontally).

• Staff will only be able to view OneDrive and

Sharepoint files in the Microsoft Office apps,

unless they have a paid subscription to Office 365.

• The OneDrive application only allows access

to view files in OneDrive, not Sharepoint (the

organisation’s shared files).

• Sharepoint files can only be edited in the

Microsoft Office mobile applications, and they

cannot be downloaded offline. You must access

and work with them online.

• Real-time collaboration with staff only works

between Microsoft Office 2016 and the browser/

mobile apps in Microsoft Word and Powerpoint;

when trying to edit a spreadsheet in Sharepoint, if

someone else is already in the file, the app will not

let you edit it, unless all collaborators are working

in the browser.

• Skype for Business on mobiles and tablets,

doesn’t support group video calls (more than two

participants).

What are they like to manage?

If the wealth (and complexity) of corporate-level functionality that Microsoft Office 365 offers is not already

clear, nowhere is it more obvious than the administrative area. Only the well acquainted will feel at home

there. Google does offer an impressive range of options, but it breaks it down into manageable chunks.

We suggest that, if you wish to manage these systems yourself (we firmly believe technology should be

simple enough to use that you should be empowered enough to do it yourself, instead of hiring others

to support you), Google has the upper-hand on the accessibility front. Admin training may be needed for

both systems, it’s true, but the learning curve is certainly steeper in Office 365.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65 :

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Google Apps

Pros

• Accessing the administrative settings is

straightforward.

• Administrative tasks like managing accounts

(creating new users, resetting passwords) are

very… you guessed it... intuitive. Help articles are

available for every setting, and (in our experience)

are often easier to follow and more up-to-date

than Microsoft’s.

• The number of settings available are not too

daunting at a glance. Everything is broken up into

neat, logical sections.

• Google have opted for simpler, conventional

options, rather than allowing complete flexibility

to change and reconfigure. By doing this, they

appeal to the majority of smaller organisations

looking to do 80% of things swiftly and easily,

rather than invest time into configuring the other

20% (which Microsoft gives you the tools to do).

• Locking down access to functionality is fairly

pain-free, and can be done by groups of users.

• Reports let you see who is active/inactive, audit

where people logged in from, which users have

shared files with external contacts (including how

many), and the strength of the passwords users

have set.

• Set alerts for any major changes to Google Apps

by administrators.

• Supports two-factor authentication. This can

be turned on (or forced) for any email account,

and helps verify that the person attempting to

log in is the real owner. When logging in, a code is

sent to the user’s mobile phone, so that anyone

attempting to access an account must have both

the person’s password and phone.

Cons

• Permissions for functionality (e.g. the ability to

use Google+ and Hangouts) is managed by groups

of users; you cannot turn off functionality for one

individual, unless you put them in a new group

on their own (“organisation unit”). Unless you

want to get very granular with your permissions,

this shouldn’t be a problem for many small

organisations.

• There is a central contact directory where

external contacts can be shared with all users

automatically (e.g. the number of the local

pizzeria... or is that just us?), but it cannot be

managed from within Google Apps. The only way

to update this is through a third party application.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Office 365

Pros

• Adding, editing and resetting passwords of user

accounts is straightforward. There are quick links

to these tasks from the landing page when you

open the admin dashboard.

• Turn off permission to access areas of Office 365

(e.g. Sharepoint) on an individual by individual

basis.

• Greater support of enterprise level functionality.

e.g. a wider range of compliance and data leakage

protection features for organisations that wish to

more strictly monitor the data entering and exiting

the system.

• Shared directory of contacts. Administrators can

create a central contact list that is accessible to all

users in the organisation (i.e. they appear in your

Outlook).

• If a staff member leaves the organisation, what

do you do? Their successor may need access to

some of their emails. In Google, you can delegate

access to the account to the new starter (they

log in as the leaver), or rename the account

(which may feel odd to the person assuming their

position). Office 365 will also let you convert this

into a “shared mailbox”, which can be accessed

by any person you choose - they can open this

mailbox like a second account, within Outlook.

Very useful, and slightly cleaner.

• Also supports two-factor authentication.

Cons

• Help articles are a mixed bag. Some are well

written and easy to follow, others are heavily

technical, and occasionally out of date (or

referring to other versions of Microsoft’s systems).

• The system is very customisable. Often, there

are several ways of achieving the same goal, but

knowing the subtle differences between them and

which one to choose can be daunting.

» For example: I want an email address that more

than one person can send and receive emails

from. Should I use a “shared mailbox”; the new

“Outlook Groups” feature; a Sharepoint mailbox

(the answer’s ‘no’, by the way); a distribution group

or a public folder? In comparison, Google just has

“Groups”, which you can work with in two ways,

interchangeably depending on your preference.

• The admin area has a tendency to stop working

in places, displaying unhelpful error messages.

This seems to occur more frequently than in

Google Apps.

• Some changes can only be made in some

browsers. e.g. in Sharepoint, editing navigation

menus is not as reliable in Chrome as it is in

Firefox and Internet Explorer. Cross-browser

compatibility appears to be weaker than Google

Apps, but functionality is broadly stable in all

browsers, with the occasional hiccup like not

being able to login without closing and resetting

the browser (this occurs more frequently in

Chrome).

• Some changes can only be made in Powershell.

To be clear, this is like writing lines of code -

not changing an option in the settings. This is

a challenge for administrators, and really not

acceptable for non-technical staff.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65 :

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

» For example: you cannot automatically share

calendars with all staff in 365 (you can in Google).

There is a powershell script you can run which will

do this for you, but every time a new user is created,

this same script will need to be run to give them

access to their colleagues’ calendars without them

manually giving him/her access.

Backups/ retention of data

Google and Microsoft are safeguarding your data. They are responsible for protecting against data loss

- however, they are not responsible for recovering data staff delete themselves, either accidentally or

willfully. How do Office 365 and Google fare in helping you restore this data?

Google Apps

Google’s built-in tools are not ideal if you need good quality, searchable backups of your emails, files,

contacts and calendars, and the ability to quickly restore data.

• Administrators can restore ‘permanently’

deleted emails and documents (deleted from the

bin), on a user by user basis, however:

» It’s only available for the past 25 days worth of data.

» If you can’t remember who the owner of the

document you need was, this is going to be painful.

» It restores all deleted data between two dates and

times. You cannot search for the data you wish to

recover, and put that back.

» Does not cover contacts or calendars.

• A Google Vault service is available, which

will store a copy of all incoming and outgoing

emails for each user it is enabled for. This can be

indefinitely or a set period of time.

» Unfortunately, it’s not free with the non-profit plan.

You must purchase a license for each user. Licenses

are £3.30pm, per user/month, but a non-profit

discount is available on request.

» You can search all emails in a staff member’s vault

(e.g. for legal reasons), but the emails cannot be

restored to that person’s mailbox.

» Does not cover documents, but will let you search

all files in the organisation (even those which are

not shared).

» Contacts and calendars are not retained either.

• Any emails or documents you delete are

safe in a recycle bin for 30 days, after which, an

administrator has 25 days to recover them.

• To archive emails/documents for longer, and

retain the ability to recover them back into their

original accounts, we recommend a third party

backup solution, like:

» Backupify: $36 per user per year (10% NFP discount

available on request, when purchasing more than

50 licenses)

» Spanning Backup: $30 per user/license, per year

(NFP discount is 25%, and five free licenses on

request). Annual commitment.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Office 365

Office 365 is similar to Google: it does not offer backup services, but instead provides tools to control how

long deleted emails and documents stay in the system, and gives administrators the ability to recover this

data themselves.

Email retention

• When someone deletes an email in Outlook

online, the email goes through a multi-step

process. First it goes to a “deleted items” folder for

30 days, before moving to a second “deletions”

area. Staff can get to this fairly easily and recover

the emails if they realise in time. After 14 days

in “deletions”, the emails are then flagged for

permanent deletion, at which point an admin - if

they’re lightning quick - can still recover them, one

by one. It’s slightly confusing, but chances are, if it

gets past the second area it’s gone for good.

• The “deleted items” folder only keeps emails for

30 days before moving them to the second ‘bin’,

but admins can create a policy to increase this to

up to ~68 years (a bit arbitrary!). This is excellent, if

it’s enabled - some support may be needed to do

that.

• Organisations wishing to retain all emails

(even if staff try to permanently delete them)

can place a legal hold on email accounts, so that

emails are never actually lost. To enable this for

staff accounts, the admin needs to have an E3

subscription (£3.30pm). However…

» This is not a backup. To recover emails from

accounts under legal holds, the admin must create

an audit lookup to search for the emails required

by keyword; the emails cannot be moved back

into the original mailbox. This is intended for legal

compliance only.

Document retention

Similar to emails, Office 365 does not offer ‘backups’ of documents, just a way to ensure that files can be

recovered from deletion, by administrators, if a user deletes something they shouldn’t have.

• Files that staff delete from their OneDrive areas

will sit in the recycle bin for 90 days. After that

period, admins can recover these from a second

recycle bin, hidden from staff. The emails stay in

the second bin for a further 90 days, after which

they’re permanently deleted automatically. This

gives deleted files a 180 day shelf life; if missing

documents are noticed after that period, they are

gone.

• It is not possible to extend the timings for

OneDrive or Sharepoint.

• If you need to secure emails and documents

for longer periods of time than the ones on offer,

or if the processes above (like placing legal holds

on mailboxes) seem too complex to manage

yourselves, we recommend using a more intuitive

third party backup service like the following:

» Spanning Backup: provides a user friendly backup

service for emails, calendars and contacts only. $48

per year, per person.

» CloudAlly: for backing up data in OneDrive for

Business and Sharepoint. $20 per year for each 5Gb

of data (Sharepoint itself also charges for storage).


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65 :

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Customer Support

Both platforms have 24/7 phone and email support, available to administrators in your organisation. This

is not intended as an all-you-can-eat service for staff to call on while they learn how to use the system, but

as support when there is an issue you don’t know how to resolve, or when advice is needed.

The likelihood that you may want to call for support might be slightly higher with Office 365, given the

complexity of their system, but both provide a valuable, attentive service - especially considering they’re

completely free. At the end of the day, the quality of support boils down to who you get through to, what

kind of day everyone is having, and the nature of the issue - some can take longer to resolve than others.


Goog

le A

pps v

s Offi

ce 3

65 :

An In

depe

nden

t Gui

de

Summary

For some organisations, choosing between Google Apps and Office 365 is a simple decision, but that won’t

be the case for everyone.

We hope our comparisons have helped you begin to evaluate the two, but remember that both systems

are available for free if your organisation has a charity number. We encourage you to register for them both

and test them yourself, especially if you have specific requirements that need addressing.

Also, remember that you don’t need to completely buy in to one or the other - you could mix and match,

and use third party services too.

We hope that this guide has made you feel more comfortable with the options available to you, and if you

have any questions at all, please contact us at [email protected]


Unleashing Potential is operated by

ZING, a grant-making foundation and registered charity.

Unleashing Potential/ZING

6 Lloyds Avenue

London

EC3N 3AX

For further information, or if you have any queries about the contents of this guide,

please get in touch :

[email protected] 3735 5947