Become a power G Suite administrator with this handy checklist!

G Suite applications create a world of possibilities for businesses of all sizes. They present an intuitive way of working that goes beyond simple business email systems. From real-time document collaboration to engaged video conferencing, the vast range of tools make it incredibly easy to boost user productivity and data security. With such great usability and functionality, it's imperative to understand the utility of the console that administers these powerful applications; The G Suite Admin console.

The G Suite Admin console is designed to provide administrators an easy way to add users, manage devices, configure security, and tweak several other settings. Centralized administration allows users to work efficiently and the ability to focus on more important tasks. The G Suite Admin console also provides access to advanced insights and usage reports. If configured and used correctly the console can be a powerful way for administrators to optimize G Suite for their users. With a broad array of functions (which can seem intimidating at first), we hope this short list will give you a better sense of administrating G Suite.

• Add users and manage Google cloud services
• If you're a growing company, you'll probably be hiring new staff. You can add new users via the admin console individually or several at once. Once new users have been added, they can begin communicating and collaborating with fellow users immediately.

• Add layers of security and privacy 
• G Suite provides excellent security features to protect your invaluable data. It's important to utilize features like enabling 2-step verification across your domain. 2-step verification blocks the majority of hacking methods to better protect your organizations data. If you haven't yet enabled 2-step verification, it's only a matter of time before one of your users has their account compromised. This can lead to an embarrassing email broadcast to your customer base!
• The console also provides access to user behaviour reports designed to help identify users that are disregarding security procedures. The reports show risky user actions, such as the installation of external apps that may threaten the integrity of the user's account.

• Control users' access to services and features
• Administrators can activate/deactivate or even tailor how certain services work for specific users or everyone. This means users can only see the services they have been granted permission for when signed in. For instance, you can activate Google Hangouts for your support team while exclusively allowing the marketing department to share public Google Sites. (Note: by default, G Suite applications are turned ON for all users and there is no action required to make the services available to users.)

• Use Google training and deployment resources
• To ensure a smooth rollout, be sure to use Google's learning resources that contain guidelines for in-app training. We often find frustrated users abandon the system simply due to lack of education and understanding. Adopt best practices and learn hidden, yet useful features, by utilizing the videos, tips, and guides in the G Suite learning center. The deployment site features templates for building an in-house learning center and planning a successful rollout.
• You can also set Chrome extensions for G Suite training that facilitate self-paced interactive lessons for your users. For full featured and thorough training on G Suite, we recommend getting in touch with us (Interlockit.com).

• Grant admin privileges to other IT staff members
• Share the power! But we recommend doing so very carefully and only with trusted users that are responsible for managing users, devices, and configuring other management settings. Remember, granting admin permission to a user means you are giving them access to the admin console!

• Google's mobile device management for iOS, Android, and Chrome devices
• Users by default have access to their G Suite accounts from their mobile devices. This creates the need to manage and enforce security policies to protect the user data. G Suite's mobile device management tools provide a way for admins to remotely wipe data from lost or stolen devices. Admins also have visibility on mobile audit logs that help determine usage.

• Add domains as aliases or separate entities for free
• Unfortunately many admins don't know that the admin console allows organizations to add many domains at no extra cost. Users can be linked to identities at one or multiple domains without compromising their ability to share services. Admins can also add domains separately or as a domain alias.

Still need assistance with the admin console? No problem! InterlockIT.com offers training, not only on G Suite applications such as Gmail, Drive, and Calendar, but also on the feature rich admin console for administrators like you! We're here to help you with a range of things, from deployment and migrations to training and day to day management. Get in touch with us today to learn more about administrating G Suite for your organization!

How to better manage your G Suite domain as an administrator

G Suite is a package of cloud-based services that can provide your organization with an entirely new way to collaborate online. It's more than just email and chat, it provides video conferencing, social media, real-time document collaboration, and a powerful, yet under-rated, administration console for domain-wide management. Unfortunately, many organizations overlook the capabilities of the G Suite admin console. Hopefully this post will shed light on some of these capabilities. Here are a few great ways to better manage your G Suite domain as an administrator:

Add users and manage services in the Google Admin console:

This should be a no-brainer, but to allow folks in your organization to start using G Suite, you must add them to you account first.  To do this, you need to login to your Google Admin console (desktop or mobile). You can also use this console to manage all other aspects of your domain and users, including user services and password resets. 

Add layers of privacy and security:

G Suite includes many important security features that are designed to you company's data safe and protected. You can add additional layers of security to your users' accounts by enabling 2-step verification and enabling anti-spoofing measures to combat email abuse. Here are some security best practices to consider.

Control users' access to services and features:

By default, most services are turned on for all your users, but you can turn off the ones that you don't want users to use, via the admin console. You can even tailor how services work for specific users by applying different policies to different users. For example, you may want to turn on Google Hangouts for your entire sales team or allow only your support department to have 2-step verification.

Switch your business email to Gmail:

By default, users you add to your G Suite domain get an email address at the domain you provided when you created your account. If they're currently using this address with your old mail service, however, you decide when to make the switch. Mail will not start flowing to their Gmail account until the domain's MX records are changed to point to Google servers. Here's how to setup Gmail for your team.

Use a Google Cloud parter for deployment, training, and support:

To ensure a smooth transition to G Suite, Google recommends partners like us (Interlock IT) to provide a rich set of resources. Interlock IT provides end-user training, admin console training, support, and migration services to assist with your rollout. Here's a previous post one why you should use a Google Cloud partner. We also recommend using the G Suite learning centre for quickstart guides, videos, and additional tips. 

Grant admin privileges to your IT staff:

Regardless of the size of your organization, it's recommended that you distribute the responsibility of managing your users and services among a select group of trusted users. You can do this by granting administrator privileges to these users. Users that you have given admin privileges to arrive at the admin console just like you do. In comparison, users who do not have admin privileges do not see an admin console when they sign in, but rather go straight to their list of managed services. 

Manage new feature releases for your users:

Because G Suite is fully cloud-based, you and your users receive new features and updates automatically, without the need to install or update software. Some administrators prefer to know of these updates and want the ability to track upcoming releases. To do this, simply go to the release calendar or G Suite updates blog. You can also control when new features become available to your users by setting up your G Suite release process. 

Manage your mobile users remotely:

You can use the admin console to manage users' mobile devices, enforce security policies, remotely wipe lost/stolen devices, and much more. Here's how to manage your users' mobile devices.

Track usage and trends:

Adoption tracking is important; it's what tells you that your users are actually utilizing the tools available to them. By viewing the usage graphs and reports in your admin console, you can monitor how individual services are being used across your organization. This is a great visual to provide insight and assess your team's use of collaboration, identify unwanted security patterns, and even track other trends.

Add domains for free:

If your organization acquires a new domain name or has multiple domains, you can add all your domains to your account at no additional cost. This allows your users to have multiple identities across one or more of your domains while sharing services as part of single organization.

These are just a few useful things to know about the admin console. It's a highly versatile and capable tool to allow administrators unified control and management. Click here to learn more about the G Suite admin console or get in touch with us today!