Course:

Management Information System

Submitted to:

Prof Sayyid Haider Mustafa Rizvi

Prepared By:
MUHAMMAD NAEEM YASIN

L1S13MBAM2016

SIKANDAR HAYAT

L1S13MBAM2002

AROOSA AKRAM

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L1S13MBAM2039

Contents
6 BEST GOOGLE SERVICES FOR BUSINESS COLLABORATION..................................3
1 Google Sites....................................................................................................... 3
2 Google Groups................................................................................................... 3
3 Google Docs....................................................................................................... 4
4 Google Calendars............................................................................................... 4
5 Google+............................................................................................................. 4
6 Hangouts........................................................................................................... 4
What is Microsoft Office 365?..................................................................................5
1. Anytime, Anywhere Access.................................................................................5
2. Professional Face for Your Business.....................................................................5
3. Easily Communicate and Collaborate Inside and Outside Your Organization.......5
4. Simple to Learn, Straightforward to Use..............................................................6
5. Email, Collaboration, and Online Meeting Solutions............................................6
6. No Requirement for Advanced IT Knowledge......................................................6
7. Flexibility for Your Business.................................................................................6
Conclusion............................................................................................................... 6

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6 BEST GOOGLE SERVICES FOR BUSINESS COLLABORATION

Google is not the only company that offers collaboration software online but they are expanding
their services all the time and with their new social service Google+ they are moving into the
area of Enterprise Social Collaboration. When looking at Google+ many people have made a
direct comparison with Facebook and concluded that Google+ is failing when actually Google is
adding additional tools to Facebook that may create a collaborative platform that could work for
small teams and huge projects alike.
Although Google+ may become a great collaborative tool Google already have many great
services that can be used for collaboration for teams and businesses. I have listed below the
seven I think can be the most useful:

1 Google Sites
Googles website builder allows people without any knowledge of HTML or web design to
create relatively simple sites quickly and easily. While currently it is not that popular for building
your main business website it is a very useful tool to create sites for events, projects or a one-off
requirement. For collaboration a Google site can have many users who can either view or edit
content. Importantly the viewing of the site can be restricted to a small or large group which is
very helpful if you are working a project either internally or involving external people. One of
the best things about Google sites is that you can easily include other Google services within the
site for example if you are using Google Groups, Google Calendar or any Google docs, all
mentioned below, they can all be shown on the site giving you a central area for all project
related information and services.

2 Google Groups
Googles group discussion software will allow you to create your own discussion or forum group
where users can post comments or questions which other users can read, discuss, answer or
comment on in a threaded conversation. A threaded conversation means that you will see all
comments and updates on one discussion going down the page. One of the benefits of groups is
that it can keep group discussions out of email and kept in a designated place making it easy to
be very active in one discussion while being able to effectively ignore topics that do not interest
you. But if you do like to be updated by email on discussions you can choose to receive email on
group discussions either by an email for each post or a summary digest. The email options will
allow a user to do all discussion by email without ever having to visit the group web page.
Groups can be public or for collaboration can be private to only the members you invite. A
Google Group could be used for many purposes including a specific event, project, subject or
just for a group or team who need a space for online discussion. If you have used a Linkedin
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Group and then you could think of a Google Group as private (or public) Linkedin group. A
Google group can also be shown on your own a Google site.

3 Google Docs
Googles online office suite allows you to create and upload documents. The main two programs
that many of us would use would be the word processor and spreadsheet. While either the
Google spreadsheet or word processor can compete on advanced functionality with the products
of their Microsoft equivalents the Google products are great for collaboration and sharing.
Documents are hosted online and can be shared, for viewing or editing, with a group of the
document owners choice. You can collaborate on documents in real-time actually seeing other
users type letter by letter and can have a chat window so editors can leave messages for each
other. As well as a spreadsheet and word processor there is a presentation program similar to
PowerPoint, a drawing program and math calculation. The last application worth a mention is an
online form builder which can be used for creating web questionnaires which could be used for
internal teams right through to being made available to all web users.

4 Google Calendars
A big part of team collaboration can be time management. Tracking where people were in the
past, are at this present time and where they will be in the future can help manage projects. Time
is the knowledge workers greatest asset and its not just for meetings and milestones that teams
need to work on calendars together. Google Calendar is an online calendaring system that will
allow you to share a calendar with a single person, a team or even the world. As with many of the
apps we have already mentioned sharing can be set to read only or edit. There is also an option to
show time as busy without detailing any information which is useful if you are not looking to
share all of your calendar information. Being able to view all of a teams calendars is very useful
but you can also create project or team specific calendars which can detail any time sensitive
information such as deliverables or schedules.

5 Google+
This is Googles answer to Facebook and social networking like Twitter but also it is so much
more. In many ways Google+ could be the platform that glues all of the items in this list together
making the project joined up. Google+ for businesses could be seen as an Enterprise
Collaboration tool allowing you to communicate and collaborate with other team members
quickly and easily. Two great features of Google + are Hangouts (mentioned below) and Circles.
Circles allow you to easily add contacts to groups. So if you had a team for a specific project
then you can add all of those people to a named circle so you could share information with just
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them. If you have more than one project team you could set a circle for each one and if there is
someone who is a member of more than one group then they can be a member of more than one
circle.

6 Hangouts
Google Hangouts is a new product which is part of Google+ their social site to rival Facebook.
Essentially Google Hangouts is a video VOIP conversation (a bit like Skype) which can include
a large or small group of people. As well as being an excellent way for disparate teams to meet
and discuss their projects it is also adding even more collaborative tools such as sharing and
working on a Google Doc (see above) directly in the hangout and also screen sharing allowing
you to show your computer screen to a group of people on a hangout or for you to see someone
elses.

What is Microsoft Office 365?

Microsoft Office 365 for small businesses is an easy-to-use set of web-enabled tools that let you
access your email, important documents, contacts, and calendar from almost anywhere and any
deviceincluding PCs, Macintosh computers, iPhones, Android phones, and BlackBerry smart
phones. Designed to meet the needs of a diverse range of small businesses, Office 365 lets you
choose which tools to use. It works seamlessly with the programs you already know and use,
including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Its easy to try and simple to learn and it works with your existing hardware. Office 365 also
offers improved collaboration capabilities, including a password-protected portal to share large,
hard-to-email files both inside and outside of your organization. Powerful security features from
Microsoft help protect your data, and when the service is released for general availability, it will
be backed with a 99.9-percent uptime guarantee.

1. Anytime, Anywhere Access

Office 365 provides web-enabled access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendar
on almost any deviceincluding PCs, Macintosh computers, iPhones, Android phones, and
BlackBerry smart phones. It frees you to work where and when you choose, letting you respond
to important requests right away, from almost any location. With the ability to access email and
documents from your mobile device, you dont need to hurry to the office or look for a WIFI hot
spot. And if youre traveling without access to Microsoft Office, Office 365 helps you view and
edit documents from the most popular web browsers on PCs and Macintosh computers. Take
control of when and where you work with Office 365.

2. Professional Face for Your Business

Using professional services like Office 365 tells potential customers that youre serious about
business. For example, you can impress your prospects by inviting them to a collaborative online
meeting where you can review your latest proposal. With these state-of-the-arts but easy-to-use
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collaboration, mail, and messaging services, you can set yourself apart from organizations that
use free or ad-supported services. A custom domain name further enhances your branding, and
Office 365 includes design tools to easily create a professional, public-facing website in minutes.

3. Easily Communicate and Collaborate Inside and Outside Your

Organization
With Office 365, you can create a password-protected portal to share large, hard-to-email files
both inside and outside of your organization, giving you a single location to find the latest
versions of files or documents, no matter how many people are working on them. Send instant
messages to colleagues and customers and invite them to participate in online meetings where
you can review documents or take control of a desktop.

4. Simple to Learn, Straightforward to Use

Office 365 is easy to try, simple to learn, and straightforward to use. You dont need to learn new
software, install complicated systems, or learn new jargon. In just a few minutes, you can create
a trial account and see how easily your business can be in the cloud with benefits usually
found only in larger organizations.

5. Email, Collaboration, and Online Meeting Solutions

Microsoft has years of experience delivering scalable, secure online solutions. Enhance your
Office\ experience with Office 365 features like a 50-gigabyte (GB) mailbox that accommodates
attachments up to 25 megabytes (MB), calendaring, contacts, online meetings, instant messaging,
document collaboration, and more. With Office 365, you can take advantage of these easy-to-use
solutions and advanced features at a small-business price.

6. No Requirement for Advanced IT Knowledge

Office 365 administrations is designed for organizations without IT staff, so you can easily set up
and use the features, helping you focus on your business rather than on learning menus and
technical lingo. Perform administrative tasks using an intuitive, web-based portal that is
accessible only to people you designate. The online portal provides step-by-step instructions on
how to add users and set up your account so your employees can quickly start using Office 365.

7. Flexibility for Your Business

With Office 365, you get pay-as-you-go pricing options that give you predictability and
flexibility for your business. Office 365 also offers great flexibility by allowing you to easily
provide users with only the services they need, cost-effectively adding value to your business.

Conclusion
There are plenty of other features and categories which are similar or different between Google
Apps and Office 365, of course - mobile apps and connectivity, document sharing, instant
messenger tie-ins, and dozens of other topics. The field is always changing as each vendor
updates and improves their services, so if you're in the market for online productivity apps I
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recommend you keep an eye on the Google Apps and Office 365 product pages to stay as current
as possible - and read independent reviews as often as possible. Both services offer similar
products at the end of the day so it really boils down to what is of specific interest to your
business. If you want a product that gives you 99% of what you need for significantly less money
and is truly flexible and scalable than Google Apps is the solution for you. But if you need that
1% of extra functionality and youll benefit from the advanced set of features (and youre
prepared to pay a premium for it) then you should consider Office 365.

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