A powerful enterprise browser can power employee experiences — and productivity

Improving employee productivity and collaboration is this year’s top digital objective among IT leaders, according to Foundry’s 2023 Digital Business study. Given today’s highly distributed workforces and their familiarity with getting work done on the web, it makes sense to personalize browsing experiences to help them more easily accomplish their tasks.

A recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Google found that employees spend at least 70% of their workday across their web browser and virtual meetings, 

A seamless browsing experience

We’ve become accustomed to shifting from one device to another without losing our web searches — similar to the streaming concept of watching a program on the living room TV, then continuing that show on a mobile device or bedroom TV.

Considering how many organizations now follow a hybrid work model, it’s time for the enterprise browser to offer that same experience, allowing individuals to easily navigate their tasks whether they’re on their laptop at the office or checking email on their mobile device at home.

“Individuals are spending more work time in their browsers — collaborating, sharing documents, and accessing web apps,” says Lorena Crowley, Head of Chrome Enterprise Marketing at Google. “They want the ability to easily jump between different projects and work streams, and on different devices.”

Chrome Enterprise provides these capabilities with features such as tab management, which enables users to search, group, and share tabs.

Google has also innovated the browser search function with Chrome Journeys. “This feature allows you to dive back into a previous search,” Crowley says. “For example, if you were creating a vendor shortlist but got pulled away for another task, when you’re ready, you can pick up where you left off, even if you’re using a different device.”

This device-switching capability is enabled by Chrome Sync, which gives users the ability to move from their laptop to their mobile device and continue their browsing experience – down to the same tasks, tabs, and information. This approach to work can create IT complexities, but with Chrome Enterprise, IT admins can provide safe browsing without requiring users to jump through multiple policy and access hoops.

“For example, a user might get blocked from accessing a particular browser extension,” Crowley says. “They may think that extension makes them more productive, while the IT administrator blocks it as a safeguard to protect the enterprise.”

Chrome Enterprise balances productivity and security objectives with context-aware functionality that identifies where users are geolocated, enabling IT admins to approve or deny access to documents or extensions. It also provides seamless configurability that enables IT teams to easily apply policies across individuals, groups, and/or whole departments.

Roche, a global pharmaceuticals and diagnostics enterprise, uses Chrome Enterprise to help keep its data secure, while ensuring employee productivity. For example, the company uses the extension request workflow tool to help reduce support tickets, streamline extension approval processes, and reduce problems that might result from using extensions that IT administrators haven’t approved.

“The browser is easy and customizable for Roche employees,” says Mario Rodriquez Maroto, Service Delivery Manager for Roche. “Employees are learning to create their own bookmarks so they can find cloud apps in a few seconds and log in. Chrome has become a productivity tool for our workforce, and as more apps are accessed through the browser, we expect to see even higher productivity levels at Roche.”

Provide admins the tools for the experiences that employees want

An enterprise browser should empower employees to do more on the web, from easily finding the information they need, to continuing their work journeys on their mobile devices after closing their laptops. This approach requires IT leaders to think holistically to meet both employee and IT operations needs.

“Don’t deploy your browser in a vacuum,” says Anuj Goyal, Chrome Enterprise Product Manager. “Sometimes, organizations lock down browsers to the point where they become unusable. Getting employee feedback needs to be part of the deployment process to improve and continually enhance the browsing experience.”
See how you can empower your organization to work safely in the cloud with Google Chrome Enterprise.