Google Drive is an efficient collaboration tool for teams working across various locations
November 17, 2015

Google Drive is an efficient collaboration tool for teams working across various locations

Jonathan Miltimore | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Google Drive

Google Drive was used heavily at my previous company to share magazine content between the editorial and design teams. Because we had ad sales in New York, design in Seattle, and editorial in Minneapolis, our teams were working on different drives. Google Drive was an easy way for all teams to have access to the content. It made document sharing relatively easy.
  • It's easy to share documents in Google Drive.
  • It's easy to edit documents in Google Drive.
  • It's easy for new users to understand how Google Drive works. There is really no learning curve because we are all familiar with Google applications.
  • The way files are stored can be an issue. Once a user drops a Word doc or Excel sheet, it doesn't seem that one can edit that doc without that document changing (to Google Sheets, for instance). This can at times cause formatting issues.
  • Dropping documents involved too many clicks. Instead of just being placed into the folder I moved it to, I'd get asked "Would you like to move this document to XYZ folder?" The answer is yes, I want it moved there. That's why I'm dropping it there.
  • Because of item 2 (above), moving large numbers of files can take a little longer that I'd like.
  • It's difficult to say, because I have no idea what we were paying. But ...
  • Google Drive helped us quickly begin effectively working across various offices in NY, Seattle, and Minneapolis.
  • From a negative perspective, some team members preferred the local drives they were comfortable using. But that wasn't an option for us. And once they used Google Drive for a few weeks everyone agreed that it was the most efficient means we had for sharing and edit documents.
I don't recall using any different cloud software.
Who is going to be using the drive? How many files are involved?

I'd ask these questions because 1) If there were many, many people using Google Drive, I found it to be less effective. Too many people had ability to add folders, rename documents, etc. I know access for this can be restricted, but deciding who gets access to what can be difficult without a clear project manager. 2) If you're dealing with thousands of files and users that are all on location, I'm not sure Google Drive would be the best tool. Moving and adapting files within Google Drive is not its primary strength.

Google Drive Feature Ratings

Versioning
6
Video files
6
Audio files
6
Document collaboration
8
Access control
3
File search
5
Device sync
Not Rated
User and role management
5
File organization
5
Device management
Not Rated
Performance
7
Reliability
8
Storage Reports
Not Rated