Run a 5-step pilot

For: A small group testing ​Google Workspace​ within a larger organization

In a larger organization, a pilot team can try out Gmail and other Google Workspace services before everyone switches over. Piloting won't interrupt anyone's current mail service, and users keep using their current email address. 


1

Set up pilot users' Gmail


Let pilot users try Gmail without changing your domain's MX records or interrupting anyone's mail service. Do this by setting up dual delivery for those users, so your legacy mail server forwards their mail to Gmail.

Set up dual delivery

After you follow these steps, pilot users can use Gmail to send and receive mail, while everyone else keeps using their legacy inbox.

  1. During sign-up, skip the step to activate Gmail for your domain. Instead, leave your domain's MX records so they continue to direct mail to your legacy mail server.
  2. Add Google Workspace accounts for your pilot users.

    Skip this step if you added the users during signup.

  3. Set up dual delivery for the pilot users, only.

    Follow steps to use your Legacy server as the primary server.

2

Sign in and start sending mail!


Let pilot users know how to sign in to their Google Workspace account and start sending mail.

Sign in to Gmail

Send these instructions to your pilot users:

  1. Open a browser and go to the Google Workspace User Hub.
  2. Enter your Google Workspace email address (such as [email protected]) and password.

    (Replace example.com with your organization’s domain name.)

  3. At the top right, click App Launcher and thenGmail .

Sync with Microsoft Outlook (optional)

If anyone would rather access their emails, contacts, and calendars using Microsoft Outlook instead of their browser's web interface, they can use our Outlook plug-in.

  1. Set up Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook 
  2. Have pilot users install the plug-in

3

Migrate pilot users' data


Test our migration tools to import your pilot users' old emails, calendar events, and contacts into Google Workspace. You can migrate data directly from your legacy server or let users migrate their own data.

4

Set up mobile devices


During your trial, you can sync your organization's Google Workspace mail, contacts, and calendar data to your users' Android, iOS, BlackBerry, or Windows mobile devices.

5

Explore Google Workspace


Direct your team to training resources so they can organize their mail, hold meetings, collaborate in real-time on documents, and more.

Get training and help


After your pilot

Deploy Google Workspace to the rest of your organization:

 


Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

 

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?
Search
Clear search
Close search
Google apps
Main menu
10761710801321342473
true
Search Help Center
true
true
true
true
true
73010
false
false