Google to Docs users – “Upload anything”

Friends,

This is a first post in 2010, and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you happy New Year and myriad of successes in 2010 and beyond.

Several days ago, Google announced that soon all Google Apps users would be able to use Google Docs environment as online file storage by being able to upload any file in virtually any format. Last night, Google Apps Premium received the following message while login to Google Docs:

Google Docs - upload anything message screenshot

According to Google, users will be able to share uploaded files with others and open and edit supported file formats such as doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt etc. within Google Docs. By the way, we have uploaded several PDF and JPG image files that can be viewed and shared online with a click of a button.

What does it mean to your business? Utilizing online storage is not new. Many companies have been providing such services for years. It is new for Google and if your company presently uses Google Apps, the good news is that you should be able to forget about your USB thumb-drive and share important files with your employees, clients and partners through the same familiar environment you already use. Instead of emailing files to yourself, or uploading files to your local computer, your employees can always access important files online when they need it.

Why it’s important? For example, John is flying to from Atlanta to Toronto to meet with a client. Prior to leaving for his trip, he saves presentation files to his laptop hard-drive and a USB thumb-drive just in case. At the airport, his laptop case is lost or stolen and John recalls that the USB drive was in the same case. On the way to client’s office, John phones his assistant asking to email the presentation files to him, however, his assistant is not sure which file version is the most current since multiple edits where made by several people. As you can see, the amount of time required to find right version of the file for client presentation in enormous, and the process is tedious.

If John was using Google Apps as an online file storage, all he would have to do is ask his client for Internet connected PC, any PC, and access his files online without worrying about any local software since most files can be open from within Google Apps and the process does not require any specialized local software. One of the best features is the ability to view PDF files without Adobe Reader, meaning that you will no longer care about a platform or operating system, i.e. it will work on MAC OSX, Windows, Linux etc.

If you are interested in learning more about Google Apps, please contact us today for a free, customized demo!