The G Suite offers productivity tools and software that make collaborating and working remotely easy and efficient. It enables you to use business email, online storage, shared calendars and video meetings.

For a personal account, it’s free. Pricing starts at $7.80 per user per month for the Basic plan, and from $15.60 per user per month for the Business plan. For a personal account, it’s free.

Very similar in design and functionality to Word and Excel documents in the Office suite, Google Docs and Google Sheets make collaboration on a single project more efficient and dynamic, since you can share the same document with several people at the same time and track the progress of a file in real time. Each collaborator has access to the latest version of the files, without any possibility of error. In addition to text documents and spreadsheets, the Drive allows you to share all types of files – photos, sound and visual recordings, etc. – with other users – you can even make Power Point presentations with Google Slides or create forms using Google Forms. In the G Suite, you can also share information and communicate remotely with your employees and artists. Accessible on a computer, tablet or cell phone, it allows you to stay connected with your team at all times through chat or video conferencing. Access your files stored in the cloud (Drive) and add comments and annotations in shared documents or send questions to your collaborators.

G Suite allows you to keep all your tools in one place.

For example, you can :

• Write a grant application, a press release, with several hands;
• Create a presentation folder from different documents;
• Share high-resolution photos with your artists or clients;
• Access your team’s calendar;
• Interact via chat or video;
• Have access to your work anytime, anyplace and on any support.

Back up and store your files in the Drive, which offers up to 15 GB of space in its free version. The Basic version offers 30GB and the Business version offers 1TB or more depending on the number of users.

The Google Calendar tool in the Google suite allows you to keep your schedule on hand at all times and to adjust it jointly with your colleagues if you wish. Register appointments with clients, schedule meetings and check team availability by sharing your calendars. Easily compile multiple calendars by assigning distinct colors to each of them.

Organize your work with the Keep feature, which allows you to keep your to-do lists, keep track of your ideas and create alerts to stay on track with your planning.

The security of your data is ensured at different levels. Google provides automatic saving, which means that changes made by all employees are saved, as well as the recovery of previous versions of a file. It is also possible to set up, for each document or folder, who can access it in read-only mode (without modifying it), who can comment on it or edit it. Options also allow you to protect your gallery’s data and secure it following the loss of a device or the departure of a collaborator.

To learn more about the G Suite

Videoconferencing solutions are becoming indispensable for functioning in times of social distancing. Not only are they necessary for teleworking, they also enable the exchange and maintain human contact with customers and collectors.

•  Discuss live, free of charge
•  See and hear the person you are talking to
•  Duo or larger group meetings
•  Ability to record your meetings
•  Interact via chat or shared documents

https://openvidu.io/

OpenVidu is an Open Source video conferencing service. As in Zoom, with OpenVidu you can organize a video conference, share your screen and record your conferences. The basic version is free. The interface is attractive and user-friendly.

• Free option
• Open Source
• Sharing features
• Ability to record your meetings

https://zoom.us/

Zoom is a multi-platform professional videoconferencing service (computer, tablet, smart phones). To use it, simply create an account and set up a meeting. Only the host of the meeting needs an account: your guests can join you via an invitation URL. You will have access to screen sharing, whiteboard and chat features. You can host up to 100 people in your virtual meeting room.

Zoom offers a free version. However, the duration of free meetings is limited to 40 minutes. For meetings of unlimited duration, you can subscribe to paid subscriptions

● Free option ;

● Capacity: 100 participants;

● Multi-platform (computer, tablet, smart phones) ;

● Screen sharing, whiteboard, chat functionality ;

● Ability to record your meetings ;

● Time limits ;

https://products.office.com/fr-ca/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software

Integrated with Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams is a video conferencing platform that gives you access to all Windows tools. Teams is a tool for group conversation and videoconferences that can bring together up to 10,000 participants. It allows you to consult, share and modify Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents simultaneously and in real time. Thus, this application is more efficient for collaboration than its counterpart Skype (also a Windows product).

Teams offers a free or paid version. Simply download the application, login to Office 365 and create or join a new team to start a meeting. It is also possible to participate in a meeting using your telephone.

• Free option
• Designed for the Microsoft Office 365 suite
• Capacity: 10,000 people
• Multi-platform (computer, telephone)
• Features for document sharing

https://duo.google.com

Duo is a simple video communication service available on tablets and smartphones. As it does not offer advanced features, it is best suited for small group communications or one-to-one conversations. One of the advantages of Duo is that, because it is not widely used, the servers of this service may be less overloaded at the moment than other services. Duo can also be a good solution for personalized exhibition visits!

• Free
• Simple
• Capacity: Small groups or one-to-one

https://meet.google.com/

Last week we were introducing the G Suite, Hangouts Meet is an instant messaging and video conferencing solution from Google, available free of charge to anyone with a G Suite account. In its simplest form, you can host up to 100 participants in your conference. This solution offers screen sharing, a chat room, and more. To use Meet, you will need a Gmail address. Once you’ve downloaded the application, you can create a meeting and invite attendees via a URL link. As complete as Teams (Microsoft), Meet allows you to participate in a meeting directly from Google Calendar, to view, share and edit Docs, Slide Presentations, Sheets tables or any document shared via Google Drive. Focused on mobility, user experience and simplicity, Meet takes advantage of the many features offered by G Suite.

Note that in response to the social distancing measures recently put in place with the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), Google is offering the Premium version of Hangout Meet free of charge until July 2020. All G Suite customers will therefore have access to the Premium features of Hangout Meet.

• Free option
• Premium version available free of charge until July 2020
• Designed for the G suite (Agenda, document sharing, Drive);
• Capacity: 100 participants
• Multi-platform (computer, telephone)
• Invitation via URL