You probably already know that Chrome devices provide a cost-effective and secure way to create a connected workforce, whether they’re working from home, in the field or in branches. Adding a Chrome Enterprise license to your setup provides additional controls and features that are especially useful for team members working from home. Combined with G Suite, Google Meet and Google Voice, Chrome devices and Chrome OS will give employees secure access to all the tools and data they need, when and where they need them.
With Chrome Enterprise, you can:
- Allow users to work on any device in any location. Chrome lets you pick up exactly where you left off when you move to another location or switch devices. That makes it easy for your team to work from different offices, hot desk at their home office or borrow a device temporarily to work from home, as well as work remotely on their own laptop, tablet or smartphone.
If your team is working on their personal devices, you can remotely control their Chrome Browser set-up to enforce policies and manage extensions. And you don’t even need to replace your company’s current devices with Chrome hardware to benefit from the full Chrome experience: Cloudready allows you to deploy a Chrome environment on any device. - Manage users, devices and security policies remotely. Chrome Enterprise lets you manage your IT from any web browser. The Google Admin Console allows you to quickly and easily add new users and devices, and control what they can do, as well as set and enforce security and network access policies. If a Chrome device is lost or stolen, you can disable it remotely.
You can also enforce screen lock and idle settings so a device can’t be used if someone steps away for a while. If there’s a technical issue with a device, Chrome remote desktop can help you fix it without needing to get hands on. In other words, there’s simply no need for a user to ever make a trip into the office because of IT — even if their hardware fails. You can simply ship them a brand new device and set it up remotely for them. - Give users fast access to the apps and extensions they need — including your custom business apps. With Chrome Enterprise, you can create a Managed Play store that only contains the apps and extensions you want your team to use. You can let users download what they choose or force devices to install and pin a particular set of apps to make sure they aren’t missing out on anything. Chrome also supports Citrix Workspace and other virtual desktops, so staff working from home can continue to access line-of-business apps running on your own servers.
- Automatically update devices without interrupting users’ work. Updates are downloaded and installed automatically and seamlessly in the background and are available immediately the next time users reboot. There’s no need for your team to wait while an update is applied or for them to bring their device into the IT department. Users receive updates to Chrome OS every six weeks and you can set policies to stagger when devices update to minimise the impact on the network.
If you’d like to find out more about how Chrome Enterprise can help your team when they’re working from home, take a look at our dedicated Remote Working site or come and talk to the experts in our Chrome team.
Article updated April 2020
First published October 2017