5 min read
The Google Workspace Onboarding Checklist
Are you struggling to onboard new team members smoothly and efficiently? As a business leader managing a large team of Google Workspace users, you...
For Google Workspace administrators, particularly with the shift from traditional offices to increased remote collaboration, robust reporting is more critical than ever.
According to Gartner, 79% of corporate strategists see analytics as critical to their success over the next two years. If you don't want to let these forward-thinking competitors outshine your business, then you can’t underestimate the importance of fully utilizing Google Workspace reports.
Effective reporting helps admins monitor security risks, track the utilization of different Workspace apps, and make informed decisions about resource allocation. For instance, knowing which apps are being used the most can help in managing storage needs and identifying potential areas for training or support.
This guide will show you a few useful tools like Drive logs, password security, and app usage reports, so you can maintain a secure and efficient workspace and your teams can have the resources they need to collaborate effectively.
User activity reports provide detailed insights into how users interact with Google Workspace apps. These reports help admins identify trends in app usage, detect unusual activities, and ensure that users adhere to company policies.
This visibility is crucial, especially in the context of remote work. As of 2023, about a third of U.S. workers who can work from home do so all the time, making it essential to monitor user activities to maintain productivity and security
Google Workspace reports offer valuable data on user engagement with all of your Google Workspace tools, helping admins make informed decisions about resource allocation, training needs, and policy enforcement.
Robust user activity monitoring ensures that the organization can swiftly address any issues that arise, thereby maintaining a secure and efficient working environment.
Drive usage reports offer a comprehensive overview of how your organization is utilizing Google Drive, providing critical data on storage utilization, file sharing activities, and document collaboration.
With the rise of remote work and employees working in hybrid environments, understanding and managing how cloud storage is used has become increasingly important. Monitoring these activities helps admins optimize storage, manage sharing permissions, and ensure data security for the entire organization.
You can use these reports to see detailed information on how much storage is being used, the types of files being stored, and sharing patterns within the organization. You and your admins will have an easy way to identify potential areas of concern, such as unauthorized file sharing or excessive storage use, and take appropriate actions to address them.
Email log search reports are an invaluable tool for Google Workspace admins, offering detailed insights into the flow of emails within the organization. These reports let you track sent, received, and bounced emails, providing a clear view of email traffic patterns and potential issues.
Given that 85% of emails were classified as spam in 2023, leading to significant productivity losses, having robust email monitoring is crucial for maintaining an efficient communication system.
Admins can access email log search reports through the Google Admin Console and see comprehensive data on email transactions. Filter and search by specific criteria such as date ranges, sender or recipient email addresses, and email status.
The level of detail helps admins quickly identify and resolve issues, such as undelivered emails or unauthorized email activities, ensuring that your organization’s email system remains secure and efficient.
Security reports are critical for Google Workspace admins, providing comprehensive insights into potential security threats and vulnerabilities within the organization's Google Workspace environment. These reports include data on suspicious logins, malware detection, and phishing attempts, enabling admins to proactively address security issues.
Regularly reviewing these reports, can help admins identify patterns and potential vulnerabilities, allowing them to take timely action to mitigate risks. For example, if a spike in failed login attempts is detected, admins can investigate further to prevent potential unauthorized access.
While a lot of these reports are available in the Google Admin Console, many administrators find that they need a little bit more visibility and control. That’s where gPanel comes in.
gPanel®️ is Promevo's exclusive Google Workspace management and reporting solution. This robust platform provides organizations and their Google administrators with all the tools they need to manage users effectively in their domain while safeguarding sensitive data, making it the perfect complement to Google Admin Console.
With gPanel’s vast reporting capabilities, admins can gain a comprehensive understanding of their organization’s Google Workspace usage and security posture. For example, gPanel provides detailed user activity reports that help identify patterns and anomalies in user behavior. This can be particularly useful in a hybrid work environment, where monitoring user activity is essential for maintaining productivity and security.
Furthermore, gPanel’s security reports offer granular insights into potential threats, such as unauthorized access attempts and suspicious file activities. By leveraging these reports, admins can implement proactive measures to safeguard their organization’s data.
Here are the top twelve reports currently on our platform:
Our newest platform tier, gPanel Enterprise, offers additional reporting capabilities to enhance visibility over critical data.
While Google Workspace typically provides up to six months of data for its Activities Shared reports, Promevo’s gPanel Enterprise extends this capability, offering access to over six months of historical data for four critical reports: Activities Shared Report (My Drive), Activities Shared Report (Shared Drive), Activities Shared Report from My Drive (Public), and Activities Shared Report from Shared Drive (Public).
This extended access enables administrators to perform long-term trend analysis, track historical compliance, and make more informed strategic decisions based on a richer dataset.
Robust reporting is an indispensable tool for Google Workspace admins, providing things like critical insights into user activities, app usage, email flow, and security. The reports we’ve highlighted above can enable you and your admins to manage a Google Workspace environment effectively, ensuring a secure and efficient work environment for your entire organization.
Contact us today to learn more about Google Workspace reporting in gPanel and how you can take full advantage of your data.
Meet the Author
Promevo is a Google Premier Partner that offers comprehensive support and custom solutions across the entire Google ecosystem — including Google Cloud Platform, Google Workspace, ChromeOS, everything in between. We also help users harness Google Workspace's robust capabilities through our proprietary gPanel® software.
5 min read
Are you struggling to onboard new team members smoothly and efficiently? As a business leader managing a large team of Google Workspace users, you...
6 min read
Google Workspace is an integrated workspace that unites productivity tools in one easy-to-use solution to help people, teams, and companies do their...
5 min read
Email management can be a time-consuming task for any professional. From sorting through overflowing inboxes to delegating emails to others, the...