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Even more companies offer free work at home tools for coronavirus
The coronavirus epidemic has businesses across the company rethinking their Q2 strategies. Not only is the new disease dangerous, it’s highly transmissible. This means any workplace can easily become a petri dish given enough time.
To compensate for a reduction in workers, business owners should consider preparing their workplaces just in case. With the rapid spread of the disease, it may be safer to have a work-from-home plan in place. Tap or click to find out how you can prepare your business for the virus.
With so many businesses planning for the unexpected, tech companies are keeping a close watch for opportunities to help. And now, a constellation of industry leaders are offering free work-from-home tools to keep businesses up and running. Here’s what workers will have access to.
Tech companies announce their workplace productivity tools are free (for a limited time)
5 different tech companies have announced that premium fees on their productivity tools will be waived in light of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
The companies, which include Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Zoom and LogMeIn, all feature different tools that enable businesses to take their operations off-site. This goes in line with the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendation that workers stay home during the peak of the epidemic.
The two biggest names, Google and Microsoft both announced updates to their respective productivity suites for businesses. Both Google’s G Suite and Microsoft’s Office 365 will be enabling premium features for business subscribers for a limited time.
Both G Suite and Microsoft Office see extensive use in workplaces around the country. Tap or click to see which of these productivity suites is better.
On Google’s side of things, the company announced it would grant free access to “advanced” G Suite features like Hangouts Meet, which allows live-streamed meetings with up to 250 participants.
Ordinarily, these features would cost an additional $25 for G Suite users, but through July 1, all business and education users will get these features free.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai chimed in on Twitter with more details on the announcement.
We want to help businesses and schools impacted by COVID-19 stay connected: starting this week, we’ll roll out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities through July 1, 2020 to all G Suite customers globally. https://t.co/OWWF7s5jjR
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 3, 2020
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