Google Apps is a suite of programs that are designed to streamline common business processes, specifically, email, calendar, documents, spreadsheets, and chats (among other features being released on a regular basis).  All of these services have features unique to each one, but all share some common features:

1. Access from ANYWHERE in the world.  You can access ALL of your emails (not just the recent ones), ALL of your documents (price lists, agreements, whatever), and access each other's calendars from any computer with Internet, Smartphone, BlackBerry, or iPhone, from the office,
2. Everything is stored on Google's servers.  Google is the fourth largest server manufacturer in the world, yet the don't sell any - they're manufactured for their server farms.  Since they have so many, all of your data is backed up on hundreds of servers around the world, so if one fails, the others pick up the slack without you ever noticing.  With regards to security, they understand the concern, which is why every time you connect to the service, it's encrypted with a 256 bit connection.  To put that in perspective, online banking uses either 64 or 128 bit encryption.  In fact, it's safer than storing your information locally, as PCs and/or laptops are prone to breaking, theft, loss, hard drive failure, etc...  Even if you do a backup of your current systems (time consuming and expensive if done correctly), there's always the possibility of the backup system failing.
3. User Friendliness - Google employs some of the world's top engineers and designers so that they may deliver products that are not only intuitive, but top of their class when it comes to features.  I'm not talking about useless features as well (ie., MS Office with 3000 features that you'll never use), but functions that make you go 'WOW' when you first try them.  We could list them all here, but that would take a few hours.  It's really best to play around with it yourself and discover as you go.
4. Everything is subscription based - rather than constantly wasting time with updates, patches and purchasing new software versions, everything is not only done for you, but the expense if FIXED.  There are no surprises.  $50USD per user per year.  New features are added automatically on a regular basis (2-3 new features per month).

Now, a brief overview of the various services:

Email

The email solution is the most well developed, as it uses the same features of GMail which you are partially familar with.  Instead of @gmail.com however, the address remains @yourdomain.com, so you can have This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , etc...  Regardless of whether you choose to Google Apps, using a properly branded email address is a small but important detail for any business, and we strongly recommend switching your email addresses eventually if you're currently using a generic email address.  Though there are tons of great features with the Email, We'll list some of the more popular ones:

• The best spam filter ever.  Period.  We've now been using the same Google Email for about 4 years, and on average, receive one piece of spam in our regular inbox about once per month.  The remaining 150+ pieces of spam received daily automatically go to the spam folder.  If it costs 2 seconds of time to deal with each piece of spam currently (time to download + time to delete), and you get an average of 100 pieces of spam per day, the filter alone saves you 20 hours a year.  It's not a lot on a per/day basis, but it adds up to half a work week, and as you know, time is money.
• 7GB - 25GB storage space.  Unlike your current setup, you likely need to download your emails to your PC on a regular basis, otherwise your online mailbox gets filled and customer emails will bounce back.  Since you're given 7 to 25 GB of online storage space for your emails, this means you can store approximately two and a half MILLION emails before you need to start deleting any.  Coupled with Google's built in search function, you can find any email going back through several years, in about 1.5 seconds.  If you tried finding an email amongst hundreds, let alone thousands using MS Outlook, Outlook Express, or Lotus Notes, you'd have time to go out for lunch before the right results showed up.
• Built in chat.  Though this may seem like a frivolous feature, it can be very useful for simple quick questions or exchanges amongst yourselves.  Ie., what's the address for company X?  Instant answer via chat.  The following week though, you forget what the address was, so you just do a search for a couple of keywords "address, X", and instantly, the chat is retrieved with your answer. Chat can be used within the domain (ie., amongst colleagues,...), and outside the domain (clients and suppliers)
• Labels instead of folders.  If you like to keep things organized in folders, you've no doubt encountered situations in the past where you weren't certain which folder an email should go into.  Does a receipt from Supplier X go into the Supplier X folder, in the Receivalbes folder, or in the receipts folder?  With labels, you instead apply whichever labels you want to an email, and however many you want.  Thus, when you choose to lookup everything with the Supplier X label, the receipt is there.  At the end of the year, if you want to view ALL receipts from all companies, lookup the receipts label, and that same invoice from Supplier X also appears there.
• Send and Receive from/to multiple accounts.  If you currently have other email accounts, your main account can be used to retrieve emails from the other accounts, and even pretending to send from those accounts.  This pretty much lets you deal with ALL of your email from one place.
• Filters allow you to assign labels or earmark emails if they meet certain criteria.  For example, if a client sends you a message with the word "urgent" in it, the program can be setup to apply a giant red label to it, to act as a visual cue so you don't miss it or let it sit there for too long.
• If for some reason you still want to keep a copy on your PC, an offline version can be synced with the online version.
• If you or other staff are absolutely determined to keep using your existing email software (Outlook, Outlook Express or Lotus), you still can, and thus make the change over gradually when you're ready.  The only difference is that you now have added access from anywhere, and the spam filtering.

 

Calendar

The calendar is great of course for keeping track of appointments, but what's really neat is the ability to share your calendar with others.  For example, Jeff is at Supplier X's store and setting up an appointment for a trade show in Dallas, but he also would like to setup an appointment with Jane for a different line while he's there.  Jeff can pull up Jane's calendar and view what time slots she has available.  This is also of course useful just for keeping track of who's where and when.  Each user maintains full control over what they share in their calendar.  Some items may be marked as "private", "busy", or "show all details with the people I choose".  As with email, the calendar is also accessible from anywhere (blackberry included).  When viewing your calendar, you can choose to overlay other people's calendars over yours, so as to determine when to schedule certain things.

Docs & Spreadsheets

This is perhaps the newest feature of Google Hosted Apps.  Given it's young age, it still needs some features, but for most common uses, it's excellent.  Essentially, it's like a replacement to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  As with the other items, there's nothing to install or update - everything is done through the browser.  Some key advantages to this are of course accessibility, but in terms of collaboration, you can choose to have several people work on a document at the same time.  No more having to save, email, re-email because you forgot the attachment, download, open, merge changes, resave, resend, etc...  I don't know how often you all need to collaborate on documents, but if you do even just one every couple of weeks, you'll see quickly how this is a useful feature.  Though it is not as feature rich as MS Office, most people see this as a blessing - the interface is much cleaner and simpler to navigate.  And again, because it's Google, you can find any document in about a second.  Even if you do not use the collaboration features, it's just a handy way of getting access to your documents from anywhere.

FAQ

To ask your own question, either contact us, or, if available, ask us via live chat on the right hand side of this screen.

I’m happy with my existing email solution.  Why should I switch?

You’re either using a free email solution, such as gmail, hotmail, aol, sympatico, rogers, etc… which, despite having lower mailbox sizes, are not as professional as when your customers choose to email you @yourbusinessname.com.  Would you rather be doing business with someone whose email address is joe@abcwidgets.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or joe@hotmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ?

Alternatively, you already have a domain and you’re paying your domain provider for an email solution that simply doesn’t have the matched capacity of Google Hosted Apps, nor are all of your emails accessible online (not to mention documents and calendars).  With domain providers, you either have email included for free (low capacity) or you’re paying a few dollars a month for slightly more email storage.  Either way, you need to download your emails off the server to avoid filling up your mailbox.  Once they’re downloaded onto your computer they are not easily accessible from outside your home, and they are prone to being lost should your system crash.

I’m happy using Microsoft Office for my documents, spreadsheets and presentations.  Why is Google Docs better?

Four Reasons:

1. Accessibility.  By working on documents and keeping them online, you can retrieve them from anywhere including your smartphone, iPhone or Blackberry.  You no longer need to remember to email your documents to yourself.
2. Simplification.  Though Google Docs is less feature rich, it is at the same time, simpler to use.  If you’re like most people and you don’t use 90% of the functions of MS Office, you’ll probably find Google Docs easier to navigate
3. Collaboration is simpler.  If you ever need to work on a document or spreadsheet with 1 or more people, they can work on the current version at all times, rather than your having to email it to people, then wrestle with having to manually insert multiple revisions from several people.
4. Security and Updateability.  Unlike MS Office where you have to frequently install patches and pay for new editions, Google Docs is constantly being updated with new features at not additional cost.

How secure is this service?

Google Hosted Apps employ 256 bit encryption connections for when you access any of your services.  Whether or not you understand the intricacies of 256 bit encryption, know that online banking, which usually sets the standard for encryption is currently employing 128 bit encryption.  Short of the NSA trying to read your information, all of your emails and documents are very secure.

What’s so special about the gmail-like email interface?

Several years ago, Google reinvented webmail by recreating it from scratch using the guiding principle of  functionality and simplicity.  Though an entire book could be written about how Google Mail is better, some basic highlights include:

1. Messages with the same subject are grouped together into ‘conversations’.  By keeping these grouped, you can easily view what was discussed earlier in the discussion without having to scan through unrelated emails
2. Labels – not folders.  If you’ve ever tried putting an email into two folders, you can understand the issue in sorting.  By using labels as pseudo-folders, you can apply multiple labels to a single email.  For example, an email with budget information for marketing product X would be problematic with folders.  Do you put it in the folder labelled marketing, budgeting, or Product X?  You could copy the email 3 times to place one copy in each folder (time consuming and devours disk space), or, using labels, simply apply each label to the email with 3 simple clicks.
3. The best spam filter ever.  Not only does Google Mail have the smartest and most effective spam filter of any provider, it does not require any sort of manual heuristic training, and very rarely provides false positives.
4. Less searching, more finding.  Each Google Mail account has its own search powered by Google’s search technology.  Effectively, you can find an email from 3 years ago by typing in a couple of keywords within about a second.  No other local or online search engine comes even close to matching the speed and reliability of Google Search.
5. God is in the Details.  There are dozens of seemingly minor features with Google Mail, which on their own may not seem that impressive, but put together in a package, make a significant difference at the end of the day.  Almost all of the Google Hosted Apps email features are available in gmail, so try it out and see for yourself at gmail.com

How does Google earn revenue from Google Hosted Apps?

With the Standard Edition, there are context driven text ads on the far right of your emails (read: no flashing animations!).  With Google’s massive server farms, storage space ends up being paid for by the ad revenue when users choose to click on some of these ads.

With the Premier Edition, which has no ads, revenue is paid for by the licensing fee of $50 per user per year.

Google manages to keep the premier edition affordable (works out to a little over $4/month) simply because of economies of scale.  Few people know that Google is the 4th largest server manufacturer in the world, and yet they don’t sell servers.  They’re manufactured for themselves.

What happens when my Internet connection goes down?

Google understands that Internet connections occasionally become unavailable, which is why they’ve started rolling out offline services.  Currently, Google Mail and Calendar have a new feature that allows users to use all functions without an Internet connection, saving your sent mails & events and sending them out once your connection is established.  Though there is still no offline version of Docs available, it is expected to become available soon.  It must be noted that Google has an excellent track record of service uptime as compared to pretty much ALL online web services.  If Google’s servers go down, you can be sure a good chunk of the world is in the same boat.