Google’s G Suite is picking up well

Still, Google has made inroads by throwing more resources at this lucrative market and finally listening to its business customers. Since Google got serious about developing features for major enterprises two years ago, the number of organizations paying for G Suite has doubled to more than 4 million, a new figure expected to be highlighted in Alphabet’s earnings announcement Thursday.Most of those customers are small and medium-sized companies. But some big names have signed on too. Verizon Communications Inc , Nielsen Holdings Plc and Colgate-Palmolive Co alone have brought about 250,000 workers to G Suite over the past 15 months, according to the companies. Other big firms are now giving it a serious look, said Jeffrey Mann, an analyst at research firm Gartner.

Schools and startups had been Google’s top business suite users since the package debuted in 2006. They liked the low prices and collaborative features such as the ability for multiple users to edit a single document simultaneously.

By 2012, Google sought bigger, more profitable clients. But it offered minimal handholding, leading companies to doubt its long-term interest. That changed in 2016 when Google brought in new leaders and rebranded its business apps as G Suite.

Non-paying users of Gmail, Docs and other productivity tools still make up the lion’s share of Google clients. But its priorities are clear. About 80 percent of nearly 250 new G Suite features introduced last year, including an automated tool for redacting sensitive data from files, were primarily aimed at paying enterprises, according to Google.