The core applications of office productivity suites such as Google Workspace are: email, documents, spreadsheets and presentations. These are the basic software tools most people use at work.
In addition to these core applications, there are a number of Google Workspace extras that are included in the monthly per user price. Not everyone is aware of these bonus applications.
Online Meetings
Google Meet has much of the functionality of paid applications such as GoToMeeting and Zoom.
For online meetings with multiple attendees that can include voice only, video, and/or screen sharing, Google Meet is an excellent bonus application.
Meet is integrated with Google Calendar, which makes sending out meeting invitations simple.
Virtual Collaboration
Google Chat allows for virtual collaboration among Google Workspace and Gmail users. Meeting rooms can be set up.
Bots allow for interacting with popular applications such as Asana and Freshdesk — all from within Hangouts Chat. Developers can create custom bots.
Website Hosting
Google Sites is robust enough that a small business can build its entire website with Sites rather than subscribing to Wix, SquareSpace, or WordPress.com.
Sites can also be used for creating company intranets.
Designing a website only requires: point, click & drag and type in text. No coding is required. If needed, HTML code can be embedded in the site.
Map Creation
Google My Maps has a lot more than the ability to drop pins. It allows for creating data-driven maps.
A spreadsheet can be imported into a map.
KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files can be imported into My Maps in order to display regions. KML imports were used to show the AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) in this Sonoma Valley, California wine map.
Image Design
Google Drawings is a flexible graphical editor that is included with Google Workspace.
Drawings can be copy/pasted to Google Slides and vice versa. Google Drawings can also be inserted into Google Docs.
One business application for Google Drawings is creating social media images with overlaid text.
Polls, Surveys and Web Forms
Google Forms have a wide variety of business uses.
A Google Form can be embedded in a website to capture sales leads. A free add-on called Form Notifications makes sure you get back to your site visitors promptly. The add-on can also add autoresponder functionality to Google Forms.
Inbound and Outbound Telephone Calling
With appropriate admin permissions, any Google Workspace user can request a new phone number as a part of Google Voice.
A Google-assigned phone number can be forwarded to one or more other phone numbers. It can also accept text messages. In fact, the Google Voice number can be used for SMS or voice two factor authentication—a better option than a mobile number which is susceptible to SIM spoofing and SIM swapping.
Google Voice can be used to make free outbound calls via Google Hangouts. Alternatively, Google Voice can first call a Google Workspace user on their mobile number or landline and then patch the user through to a destination number.
Keep in mind that Google Voice is different from an offering that’s simply called Voice. Voice is a full multi-user business telephone service that competes with services such as RingCentral and Ooma.