BACKGROUND
Can you please provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?
I work for NetGuru, a team of over 100 people including Ruby on Rails and mobile developers. Since our founding in 2008, we’ve worked with a broad range of clients and partners across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
CHALLENGE
What was the business challenge your company was facing that incited the need for this platform?
We needed to use Google Drive for cloud storage.
SOLUTION
How does your company implement this platform or software?
We use Drive mostly for our documents. We have all of our project-related documents, checklists, and procedures described there. We do not have our financials on Google Drive, but we have some statistics related to our office department and various other departments, depending on the type of documents. We use Google Drive mostly because of the Google platform and the variety of documents they provide.
We also use Google Drive to store various media files, like team photos from our retreats and events. It works very well for that, because we can upload hundreds of photos and put them into a folder, and then allow users to download the entire folder as a zip file. That is very useful.
We also use Google Drive because of the fact that it has great sharing capabilities. For instance, we can share with all of our departments, and it is also easy to share files with a client outside our company. Sharing is one of the key features for us when using Google Drive.
On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?
I don't really know, but assuming that Google Apps is $5/month/user, it would be less than $1,000/month; but this is for the entire Google Apps suite. It is definitely much more than just a storage platform for this price.
FEATURES
Were there any software features/tools that you were really impressed by?
Google Apps is something we use very often, but I don't know how it compares to other storage options. I would say it is very convenient to use and it is easy to share stuff with a bunch of people.
Looking back, are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?
Editing documents could be better, but that's more of a downside of Google Apps. In terms of the storage, Google Drive offers you a folder structure, but actually it is not as you would expect it to be, because it can get messy.
For example, I am the owner of the company and I would like to have four directories, each for a given department. I would like to build my entire permission structure based on that. It is hard to manage that in Google Drive, so I would say that the structure is something that they could improve, in terms of user experience, because it's hard to know what is shared with whom, and who has access to what, etc. I know that because I can click to each element, but it is not really convenient.
Another improvement they could make stems from an issue we had previously. Someone tried to sync their files on their laptop, but this person thought that one particular folder was too big so they removed it from their computer; however, the folder was removed from the entire company!
This was the only time we had to contact the software team, and they helped us write a script which would take an activity log and then restore the files. It was pretty messy. I thought it would be easy, like just click and restore the file and that would be it, but that wasn't the case. It was very complicated. So, in terms of managing and restoring or recovery of files, they could improve it, because it is not as clear as it could be.
As far as recommendations that you would make, based on your experience with Google Drive storage, what recommendations would you make to another business that was considering it?
First of all, with Google Apps, one good thing is the way you can share documents with anyone, and the ability to process a document simultaneously with an entire team is very efficient.
We have unlimited storage with Google Drive, which is very convenient. We don't need too much storage, but if someone needs a lot, Google Drive has it.
They have apps on every platform. You can sync your folders from Google Drive on your Mac, your PC, your mobile phones, etc., which is very convenient as well. Plus, it works all the time.
Also the feature I mentioned before that allows you to download entire folders as zip files is convenient. I really like it.
How many people at Net Guru are currently using Google Drive?
More than 150.
Have you had to interact with the platform’s support team or reference their support resources?
The time regarding the deleted file was the only time we had to contact the software team, and they helped us write a script which would take an activity log and then restore the files. So, in terms of support, they helped us. I'm not sure if it was strictly a Google person who helped us or if it was someone before Google; nevertheless, they were able to fix it for us.
OVERVIEW
To sum up: We havea few quick questions, and for each question we ask you to rate the software on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best.
What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?
Four.
What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?
Four.
For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?
Five.
Overall, satisfaction with the platform?
Four. Because there is still room to be better.
How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?
I would absolutely love for other people to use Google Drive, because overall it is great.