Like other medical offices, veterinary practices must store patient records, track treatments, manage scheduling, and handle invoicing. The right veterinary software automates all of these operations, resulting in a more pleasant patient experience.
This post will compare Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, two of the greatest options for office productivity software.
The Commonalities Between Microsoft and Google
Microsoft and Google strive to be the best one-stop-shop for productivity software for businesses, including veterinary services. Their subscription plans check all boxes on a company’s communication and productivity checklist.
Specifically, the following features get included in each suite:
- A management interface with sophisticated capabilities such as compliance and archiving, as well as security features such as two-factor authentication.
- Custom domains used to host business email and shared calendaring services.
- Messaging, online meetings, and video conferencing, among other corporate communication tools.
- Online storage, as well as shared space for cooperation.
- Productivity apps to create and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Ultimately, these services get supported by a dependable cloud infrastructure with data centres worldwide.
The Differences Between Microsoft and Google
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two in terms of important factors.
Pricing
Microsoft 365 costs from £4.50 per month per user, while Google Workspace costs from £4.14. However, because the lowest-tier Microsoft plan does not contain Outlook, the two base plans are not completely comparable for individuals searching for business email.
Microsoft 365 Pricing
- Microsoft 365 Basic: This service costs £4.50 per user per month. This plan includes OneDrive and web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, not Outlook business email.
- Microsoft 365 Standard: This service costs £9.40 per user per month. This plan includes corporate email with Outlook, Office programs on multiple devices, and cloud file storage.
- Free Trial: Good for 30 days, but Standard and Premium Plans only.
Google Workspace Pricing
- Business Starter: £4.14 per user, per month. This plan includes a business email, 30GB of cloud storage, and Google’s suite of business productivity apps.
- Business Standard: £8.28 per user, per month. This plan adds cloud search, unlimited cloud storage, and archiving vault.
- Free Trial: Good for 14 days
Features
The feature lists for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are both remarkably long. The most significant differences between the two platforms are not whether a feature exists but how it gets implemented, which is almost always due to a creative difference.
Emails
Microsoft offers Exchange Online, designed to work with Microsoft’s Outlook, the desktop client. Google has Gmail, geared for usage with Chrome and mobile apps. Apart from those structural differences, the feature set offers almost everything a business email administrator may want, such as anti-malware protection, spam filtering, and group aliases.
The maximum inbox size for Google Workspace Business Starter accounts is 30GB. The Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Premium, and Enterprise plans remove this restriction. Depending on the plan, Microsoft 365 mailbox sizes are limited to 50GB or 100GB. Archive mailbox storage is unlimited for Enterprise accounts with archiving enabled.
Productivity Apps
Google’s flagship productivity apps only work in a browser or one of the company’s mobile apps. The most popular Microsoft 365 plans, on the other hand, contain the most recent versions of the Office desktop apps for Windows PCs and Macs, as well as increasingly full-featured web versions of those key tools.
For some businesses, the availability of Office desktop apps is the deciding factor. This issue is especially true for maintaining authenticity with Office document formats. Although Google Docs and Sheets are simple to import and export, Office document capabilities cannot withstand round trips between the two environments.
Both can store files securely and share them across multiple devices, but Microsoft has the edge as you can manipulate the files easily locally while Google is more cloud focused.
Communication and Collaboration
You have various communication and collaboration tools to select from, regardless of whether you use Office 365 or Google Workspace.
Both services support simultaneous document editing in the web browser, allowing people to collaborate on shared projects as a team. You can also work on files stored on OneDrive for Business using the Office desktop programs.
The Google Hangouts apps have been renamed “Meet” for online meetings, video conferencing, voice conversations, and “Chat” for simple text chats. The Microsoft Teams software, which replaces Skype for Business and the old Lync, achieves the same goals as Google Hangouts.
Furthermore, veterinary clinics would want to share information centrally, whether it is access to essential documents, a single calendar for practice activities, staff discussion boards, or even a method to see public feedback from clients. Microsoft SharePoint, of course, accomplishes this. On the other hand, you can do this with Google Sites, but it takes a lot of effort.
Choosing Between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
Small organizations that need to edit and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with people outside the corporation should use Microsoft 365. Its productivity apps include more complex functionality, including more business documents, spreadsheets, and presentation templates. It is the only one that provides dedicated desktop versions of each program.
On the other hand, Google Workspace is the greatest solution for small firms and teams collaborating on in-house document creation. Plus, teams can take advantage of the unlimited number of connectors between Google Drive and the project management tools, CRM software, and other programs they already use. Furthermore, Gmail is the greatest and most cost-effective solution for small organizations that require a business-branded email.
Microsoft’s Front Line Worker plans are ideal for most staff personnel in a veterinary clinic from a licensing perspective. The license includes all of the necessary features and crucial security safeguards to help you thrive in your veterinarian practice.
An Alternative Suite: Zoho Workplace
With a forever-free plan for up to five people, Zoho Workplace is a cloud-based suite of programs that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and email client. However, when compared to the two frontrunners, Zoho falls short on several features.
In the end, both suites provide pros and cons — the choice will ultimately depend on your veterinary company’s needs and requirements.
In this regard, contact Veterinary It Services for more information.
