What is Google Apps?

Why you found this page…

If you’re out on the Internet searching for information on Google Apps, you’re probably running into one of the same issues as the businesses I’ve helped already.  Think about what led you to search the Internet for a new solution to your problems.  Was it:

• Your email hosting provider doesn’t provide you enough storage for your email.
• You can’t afford a web designer to create your web sites, and you’re looking for a way to easily create your internal and external company websites.
• You need a way to manage multiple calendars for your workers.
• You want more control over the way your team collaborates.
• You can’t afford to maintain your Microsoft Small Business Server or your various email/web servers.
• You don’t want to continue paying multiple hundreds of dollars to upgrade each of your employee’s Microsoft Office licenses.

Am I right?  Did I miss anything?  As you can tell, there are many ways management of your business productivity software/infrastructure can become an expensive, time-consuming nightmare.

What do you get with Google Apps?

So why did the businesses I worked with decide to make the switch to Google Apps?  Here were a few selling points:

Your Employees: 

• Data, email and calendar accessible from anywhere, on any computer platform
• 25GB of email inbox storage per user with powerful search capability
  
  • Google Apps Free provides 7GB per user – still more email storage than you get from most hosting companies!
    
• Built-in synchronization for various smartphone devices.
• Simple and fast collaboration and messaging tools
• Data is never lost, even if your laptop dies or is stolen
• Sharing is built-in with Docs, Sites, and Video, enabling new levels of collaboration

You (or Your Computer Admin): 

• No hardware and/or software to install and maintain
• Exceptionally low fixed cost per user starting at $50 per user / per year
  • Businesses with 10 users or less can implement Google Apps for FREE!
    
• Intuitive applications that many users already find familiar
• Ability to move users incrementally
• License fee, hardware, software and data center cost savings
• Open platform for integration
  • Ability to integrate a number of 3rd-party applications through the Google Apps Marketplace.
  • Ability to create your own applications via Google App Hosting and/or App Scripting.
    

Your business benefits through: 

• Decreased operating cost – check out my own little comparison!
  
• Rock-solid reliability – Google promises 99.9% up-time and replication of your data to multiple data centers!
  • Check out Google’s blog post about reliability and uptime versus on-premise email systems.
    
• Increased employee productivity and collaboration
• Flexibility to deploy changes and innovations fast – get on with business and stop getting bogged down with “upgrades!”
• Focus resources on strategic initiatives instead of operational activities
• An attractive IT environment for your younger generation of employees
  • With the number of colleges and universities already deploying Google Apps for their student population, your fresh-from-college workers will make the transition to your business productivity apps without interruption!

Want to know more?

Google Apps is a powerful tool that can replace thousands of dollars in server hardware and software licensing.  It can help make your office more mobile, and give you the ability to work from anywhere at any time!  Feel free to Contact Me if you would like more information on Google Apps or would like to enlist my help with signing-up or transitioning to Google Apps!

Are you currently using Google Apps for your business?  Tell us about your experience in the comments below!

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