20 Reasons to Go Google Apps

8/6/2019 20 Reasons to Go Google Apps

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How you can increase the productivityof your organization through

simplifying IT and reducing cost.

By Arno van Boven en Ronald Kloots

Version 1.0, april 2011

2011 by Madoera (KRIS consult bv Netherlands)

You have permission to post this, email this, print this and pass it along for freeto anyone you like, as long as you make no changes or edits to its contents or digital format.In fact, we love it if youd make lots and lots of copies. The right to bind this and sell it as a book,however, is strictly reserved.


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20 Reasons To Go Google Apps

Purpose

Provides you with reasons and incentives for making a leap forward, to move your IT to thecloud, using Google Apps.

Target audience

Board and management.

Synopsis

Businesses can significantly reduce cost and at the same time boost productivity bydeploying Google Apps. Key cost factors, such as the reduced need for hardware andsimplified administration, are identified and it is shown how Google Apps can greatly reduceoverhead.

At the same time, Google Apps helps to boost productivity, because of improvements inmessaging, improved collaboration between both internal and external parties, andintegration with existing systems.

An overview of core Google Apps functionality is given. A shortlist of considerations formoving to the Google Apps platform is presented, and we explain what services Madoeraoffers to help you make the transition to Google Apps.

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3. Print out as many copies as you like

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madoera.com makes you go Google Apps
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Inhoudsopgave

Introduction .......................................................................................................... 4

Cost reduction ............................................................................................. 5Reason 1: Costs of on-premise e-mail including hardware, staffing and financing costs: .........5Reason 2: Secure e-mail and web reliability ......................................................................... 6Reason 3: No investment in new hardware and software......................................................6

Increase productivity through Messaging and Collaboration ...................... 7Reason 4: Reduce time spent on handling e-mail ................................................................ 7Reason 5: Improve the response time to answer e-mail........................................................7Reason 6: Reduce time spent on conferring with colleagues .............................................. 7Reason 7: No need for manual archiving ..............................................................................7Reason 8: Less time spent searching e-mail messages ......................................................... 8Reason 9: Less time spent organizing e-mail........................................................................8Reason 10: Reduce junk and spam clutter ......................................................................... 8Reason 11: Faster Sign in ................................................................................................... 8

Additional productivity with Collaboration .......................................................... 8Reason 12: Collaborate by using Chat & Talk for internal collaboration ..................................8Reason 13: Have the most current document on hand ......................................................... 8Reason 14: Have only a single copy of a document .............................................................. 9Reason 15: Reduced Cost Of Distributed Corporate wide Information ...................................9Reason 16: Management can better and easy communicate with colleagues .........................9Reason 17: Flexibility and Scaling ........................................................................................9Reason 18: Increase productivity by easier collaboration with third parties ............................ 9Reason 19: Google Market place ....................................................................................... 10

Reason 20: Save the planet .............................................................................................. 10

An overview of Google Apps ...................................................................... 11

Introduction ........................................................................................................ 11

Important applications included in Google Apps: .............................................. 11GMail - Get 25 Gb of Storage for Your E-mail Messages With Google Gmail .........................11Calendar - Easily Schedule Time For You and Others with Google Calendar ......................11Docs - Real Collaboration Comes to Life with Google Docs .................................................. 12Sites - Create Website for Your Customers or Teams .........................................................12...more than 60 other Applications .....................................................................................12

Administration .................................................................................................................. 12

Migrate, integrate, consolidate ........................................................................... 12Easily Migrate from your Legacy Applications ..................................................................... 12Designed to Integrate .......................................................................................................12Security of Your Precious Data .......................................................................................... 1399,984% uptime .............................................................................................................. 13

Always Ready When Disaster Strikes ................................................................................. 13Preparing to switch to Google Apps ................................................................................... 13

Services by Madoera ................................................................................. 14Assessment ...................................................................................................................... 14Implementation ................................................................................................................14Change Management ........................................................................................................14Education .........................................................................................................................15

Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 15

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Introduction

If IT isnt a core competency for your organization, it is a support mechanism. Do you askyourself: do we need to spend time and resources to support e-mail? Can we improve ourinternal and external communication? Are you looking for ways to cut costs?

Cloud computing is currently a rapidly developing market. Innovation by moving to thecloud, either entirely or by using services relevant to your business, can gain your businesssignificant benefits. Being a major player when it comes to all things cloud, the Google Appsmessaging system and application suite might be your best choice. Google Apps is a cloud-based messaging and collaboration platform that includes mail (Gmail), calendaring (GoogleCalendar), instant messaging (Google Talk), as well as web-based collaborative documents,spreadsheets, presentations (Google Docs) sites (Google Sites) and more than 60 other

applications.

Google Apps helps every business to increase productivity by both simplifying ITinfrastructure, thereby reducing overhead, and providing it with a set of tools that contributeto improved collaboration within and between companies. Many companies experiencelimitations to their current e-mail platforms, with increasing cost, limited scalability andflexibility. They have to balance end-user inbox storage needs, and encounter limitationswhen it comes to collaborating with colleagues, suppliers and customers, such as sharingcalendars outside the company LAN network. Some companies have concerns aroundsecurity and a perceived loss of control when they move from legacy to the cloud. But othersare grabbing the opportunity to move to a more collaborative web-based platform.

Two key benefits of migrating to Google Apps stand out: cost-reduction and increasedproductivity.

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Cost reduction

By migrating to Google Apps, businesses can achieve IT Cost Savings between 38% and56% versus their previous environment, according to Forrester.

Reason 1: Costs of on-premise e-mail including hardware,staffing and financing costs:

Category Cost factors (of on-premise e-mail including hardware, staffing andfinancing costs)

Hardware Costs for servers & operating system, data center costs, power to keepthese systems running.

Serversoftware

Mail server software & client licenses, with maintenance for updates,patches, implementations, etc.

Client software Client-installed software & implementations, with maintenance for updates,patches, new implementations, etc.

Messagefiltering

Installed filtering hardware or filtering service, license fee with maintenancefor updates, patches, implementations, etc.

Messagearchiving

Archiving monthly costs, with monitoring and financing extra space.

Mobilemessaging

Mail delivery and administration, with maintenance for updates, patches,implementations, etc.

Staffing Administration for hardware, software, storage, and mobile. IT internal orthird parties.

Financing Cost of financing servers, storage, and software.

Source: Forrester Research Inc.

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There are a lot of IT costs saved by moving your messaging environment from a traditionalon-premise environment to Googles cloud-based platform.

These savings include

Reduced operations and administration cost .

Reduced software cost on technology licenses .

Reduced infrastructure cost .

Reduced administration of collaborative sites

Your organization can focus on core activities while you dont have to

run an infrastructure

manage and implement patches of applications

manage updates of applications,

manage server maintenance

concern yourself with scaling

concern yourself with administration

According to Forester, on average, the cost savings for the surveyed organizations rangedanywhere between 38% and 56% compared to their previous baseline environment.

Reason 2: Secure e-mail and web reliability

Google Apps comes with early detection to remove unwanted and malicious e-mail withouthardware, software management, maintenance and patches. This is all done by Google andincluded in the yearly fee.

Reason 3: No investment in new hardware and software.

Some of the benefits of cloud based e-mail services over e-mail and applications on-premise:

Always run the latest software and configurations without upgrade hassles. Keepingclient and server software upgraded and safe is a headache for the IT professionals.But al this work is done by Google and included in your annual license fee.

You can allocate valuable IT professionals to other projects in your organisation.

You can shift the financial burden from upfront capital expense to ongoing operatingexpense. The financing benefit of paying as you go rather than a big upfrontinvestment will appeal to any budget holder.

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Increase productivity through Messaging andCollaboration

If you have managed a traditional on-premise messaging- and collaboration environment,then switching from legacy e-mail and productivity solutions to Google Apps is an innovation.As we will show it gives you new productivity gain possibilities.

Forrester saw that the end-user productivity gains were even greater than IT cost savings.End-users were able to use Gmail more efficiently than their previous e-mail solution and to

collaborate more effectively with Google Docs and Google Sites than with traditional officesoftware.

Reason 4: Reduce time spent on handling e-mail

Moving to Gmail has a net positive impact on users for many common tasks. Usersexperience a reduction in the amount of time spent searching, filtering, and archiving afterthey become accustomed to Gmails features.

Reason 5: Improve the response time to answer e-mail

Automatic message organization capabilities like threading in Gmail is a great timeimprovement for users in how they read and respond. It automatically organizes past e-mailsinto coherent conversations. This makes it easier to summarize and respond to messages.

Most on-premise solutions have no way to couple related e-mails by thread. This results inmore time spent searching for past e-mails. And you need to mentally piecing together yourconversations.

Reason 6: Reduce time spent on conferring with colleagues

The integrated Chat & Talk within Gmail makes it easy to quickly identify internal contactsand resolve immediate questions. Users can see their colleagues status (online, busy,offline), allowing them to send a chat when they need a quick answer, and they can evenchat as a reply to an e-mail message.

Reason 7: No need for manual archiving

In the case of e-mail archiving, users noted that in the previous messaging environment theyneeded to perform manual archiving of their e-mail onto their local client, whereas Gmail slarge storage (25 Gb) quota eliminates the need for manual archiving. If you need more(!)than 25GB for archiving of massages you can you can add Google Message Discoverypowered by Postini. At $13 per employee per year, your organization is provided withcomplete e-mail security, an e-mail archive and powerful message search and recovery tools

for regulatory compliance.

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Reason 8: Less time spent searching e-mail messages

In addition, with all e-mails stored in one central, easily searched location, the amount oftime spent searching for e-mail is reduced as compared with the previous messagingenvironment, where archived e-mail is stored in multiple locations. In fact, 37% ofrespondents of the Forrester Survey said they spend less time searching for e-mailmessages.

Reason 9: Less time spent organizing e-mail

According to Forrester, 46% of the employees using Google Apps find they spentsignificantly or slightly less time organizing e-mail.

Reason 10: Reduce junk and spam clutterWith Gmails spam filtering, users are able to reduce clutter within their inbox through areduction in junk or spam messages. A full 25% agree that they spend less time looking forimportant messages because they have less spam to deal with.

Reason 11: Faster Sign in

Furthermore, a very high 89% of employees report that they can sign into e-mail faster withGmail than they could with their previous solution.

Additional productivity with Collaboration

In addition to the messaging productivity benefits for common daily tasks, the collaborationtools of Google Apps gives your organization additional benefits. These include sharing andediting documents across teams and within teams, ability to incorporate feedback morequickly, more efficient face-to-face and virtual meetings, as well as pushing more timely andrelevant information to teams.

Reason 12: Collaborate by using Chat & Talk for internalcollaboration

78% of Forrester survey respondents say that they use chat for internal collaboration, while98% exchange ideas via e-mail. Users see chat as a faster way than e-mail to resolve issuesand quickly move forward.

Reason 13: Have the most current document on hand

With Google Docs users always have access to the most up-to-date version of anydocument, be it a spreadsheet, presentation or other document. Furthermore, people canshare and edit the same document, simultaneously and in real-time. Once used to this novelway of working Forrester reports employees like it a lot.

70% of employees feel that the time to create and complete a shared file is improved. 52% feel that they no longer have to wait for others to complete a shared document.

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Reason 14: Have only a single copy of a document

Because documents live on the web, only a single copy needs to exist. Sharing is done bysharing the link to the document, not by sending the document itself as attachment. Thisway, users always work in the correct document, and dont have to worry about which copyis the real deal. Google keeps track of revisions on a document.

Reason 15: Reduced Cost Of Distributed Corporate wideInformation

A benefit Forrester cites by organizations is the ability to quickly create collaborative sitesand files to disseminate corporate wide or team-specific information to the appropriate set of

users. In particular, several organizations noted the effectiveness of using Google Docs andSites as a way to push content such as employee HR policies, benefits summaries, andfinance information to different teams.

Reason 16: Management can better and easy communicate withcolleagues

The possibilities of easy sharing information and easy setup of sites enhance thecommunication in the organization.

Forrester cites the following example:

Prior to the use of Google Apps, the process of soliciting feedback from colleagueswas ad hoc, with high time requirements to collect and analyze feedback. Forexample, face-to-face meetings enabled management to receive immediate feedbackfrom employees but were very time consuming. With increased adoption of GoogleDocs and Google Sites, management could quickly create collaborative sites and filesto solicit feedback on different topics rather than resort to repetitive e-mailcommunications or face-to-face meetings.

Reason 17: Flexibility and Scaling

Scalability becomes simple with Google Apps. Once users are added, they immediately haveaccess to all Google Apps applications. There is no need for any additional setup orinstallation. Since a wide range of services is available, organizations are also very flexible asto which applications they use. And because of the open character of the platform, they caneven integrate Google Apps into their legacy systems.

The number of user accounts are easily scaled to follow the flow of the market; you pay onlyfor what you use.

Reason 18: Increase productivity by easier collaboration withthird parties

Sharing of information isnt limited to the users within the Google Apps domain. It alsomakes is easier to collaborate with third parties, like external partners and suppliers, byusing Google Docs and Google Sites as well as applications from Google marketplace.

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Reason 19: Google Market place

The Google Apps Marketplace offers business applications installable with Google Apps andintegrate directly with your Google Apps. These installable apps are easy to use becausethey include single sign-on the universal navigation of Google. Some applications eveninclude features that integrate with your domain's data.A few examples.

Reason 20: Save the planet

Making the move to cloud-based IT infrastructure saves energy usage and diminishes carbonemission. Not simply because people get more done in less time, but also because there isno more need for an elaborate on-premise hardware infrastructure. More.

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https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplacehttp://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/going-green-at-google-in-2010.htmlhttps://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplacehttp://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/going-green-at-google-in-2010.html


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An overview of Google Apps

Introduction

Google Apps is a web-based messaging and collaboration platform available to businessesfor a flat fee of $50 (40) per employee, per year. All Google applications run in a browserso there is no need to purchase additional software. Google Apps offers more than 60different applications, out of the box, without having to maintain, install or upgrade theseapplications. All this is done by Google and included in the price. Google also takes care of

the complete back-end infrastructure, which is scalable, flexible and secure. So you donthave to purchase, store, configure patch and upgrade any servers.

Important applications included in Google Apps:

GMail - Get 25 Gb of Storage for Your E-mail Messages WithGoogle Gmail

Google Apps Gmail is same e-mail application as the free Gmail. But you get 25 Gb ofstorage per employee. You also get e-mail search and industry-leading spam protection. It isintegraded with IM, voice and video chat. Your workers can securely access their Gmailaccount form any computer or smartphone devices such as iPhone, Android phones,Blackberry, Windows Mobile and tablets. For the employees who still prefer the Outlookinterface can continue to use the Outlook e-mail client. Best of all, you dont need to runMicrosoft Exchange server anymore!

Calendar - Easily Schedule Time For You and Others withGoogle Calendar

Google Calendar allows your employees to manage there appointments and easily schedule

time with other co-workers inside or outside your company. They can view a combination ofmultiple peoples schedules. With this overlay of multiple calendars your employees caneasily see when their co-workers are available and schedule time with them. Best of all, yourworkers can access the Google Calendar using smartphone devices as iPhone, Androidphones, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and tablets. For the employees who still prefer theOutlook interface they can continue to use the Outlook as their calendar. Best of all, youdont need to run Microsoft Exchange server anymore!

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Docs - Real Collaboration Comes to Life with Google Docs

Google Docs is where the real collaboration comes to life. With real-time collaboration indocuments, spreadsheets, drawings and presentation your employees can simultaneouslyaccess the same object and make their contributions, as well as view others changes in real-time. This feature spares co-workers the inconvenience of collaborating using attachmentswith e-mails, and the frustration of having multiple versions of the same document. Anotherimportant feature is that Google Docs can import office and other files types, and export tothose formats as well.

Sites - Create Website for Your Customers or Teams

Google Sites allows your employers to easily create websites without any help of IT support

or a webdeveloper. These sites can display all kinds of information like embedded docs,presentations, calendars, video, pictures, etc. This way, teams can share information andcollaborate on projects. Team members can securely access these sites from any computer.

...more than 60 other Applications

More than 60 other Google Applications are available for every Google Apps user at noadditional charge. Among these are Google Voice, Google Reader, Picasa, Google Alerts,Google analytics, Adwords, Bloggers and many more. The Google Apps administrator canprovide Ethese applications to each group within the organization.

AdministrationAll domain settings and administration are done from a central dashboard location.Administrators therefore have cleaner overview of and control over who you users are, andwhat they are using. Because several management information tools are available, managerswill also be able to accurately monitor the use of Apps in their organization. With thisinformation, they will be able to make better strategic choices.

Migrate, integrate, consolidate

Easily Migrate from your Legacy Applications

Google offers a host of easy to use tools to migrate e-mail, calendar and contacts from theapplication you use right now. At no additional cost your employees can seamlessly switchform Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and many other e-mail application to Google Apps.This is all possible with minimal disruption.

Designed to Integrate

Google Apps can integrate seamlessly with other services, offering such technologies as

LDAP directory synchronization

Single Sign-On (SSO)

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Local data repositories with the Secure Data Connector

Flexible access to Google from many other systems with the use of APIs

Security of Your Precious Data

The Google Apps suite has completed an SAS 70 Type II audit. This ensures you that theGoogle Apps security procedures operate effectively. As a matter of fact, Google Apps is thefirst cloud-based messaging and collaborating application to receive the stringent FederalInformation Security Management Act (FISMA) certification from the US General ServicesAdministration.

99,984% uptime

The SLA (Service Level Agreement) for Google Apps guarantees a least a 99,9% of the timeavailability. As this official post shows it is actually higher. This means your employeesalways have access to their information in Google Apps. But thats not all: Google providesenterprise grade support to customers including 24/7 telephone support for criticaladministrative issues.

Always Ready When Disaster Strikes

Is your company ready when disaster strikes? Most of the IT administrators getuncomfortable with this question. They know that answering that question with a Yesrequires a lot of money. With Google Apps your organization does not have to worry

anymore because disaster recovery is included and the amount of your data doesnt matter.Read here how Google Apps handles the recovery of your data.

Preparing to switch to Google Apps

Innovation requires preparation and planning. It obviously requires that you know yourneeds and goals, but it also requires that you know what Google Apps has to offer. That iswhere Madoera comes in, we counsel and assist companies in making the move to GoogleApps.

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http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/01/destination-dial-tone-getting-google.htmlhttp://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/03/disaster-recovery-by-google.htmlhttp://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/01/destination-dial-tone-getting-google.htmlhttp://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/03/disaster-recovery-by-google.html


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Services by Madoera

Changing the way in which people are used to work requires that they be properly instructedand prepared. The so-called New World of Work is very different from traditional ITsolutions. Successful adoption of any new system is dependent on whether the users areable to both experience and understand the benefits. Communication is the key here.

What makes Madoera different from most other companies that offer Google Apps services,is that we do not focus primarily on the technical side of the Google Apps story, but thatcommunication and coaching is a key element of our services.

We at Madoera firmly believe that delivering the toolbox is only half the job. Teaching peoplehow to use its tools equally important. Adopting and adjusting will take some time, andpreparing and coaching will aid in attaining the benefits it has to offer more quickly.

Madoeras Go Google Formula contains the following ingredients:

Assessment

In this stage, the requirements and goals are determined. An assessment is made of how toimplement these in Google Apps, and a testing environment is set up. In the following pilot

stage, user experiences are collected online (via surveys) and evaluated. These provide animportant indication of the viability of the solution. Once approved, the next stage isimplementation.

Implementation

The implementation stage involves the actual setting up of the Google Apps domain,including such steps as redirection of e-mail traffic, activation of services, the adding of usersand groups, and additional fine-tuning. If applicable, this is also the stage where integrationwith other applications and services is implemented, and existing e-mail and documents aremigrated to the domain.

Change Management

Once implemented, it is time to make that leap forward. Your users will have to make thetransition to Google Apps. The experiences collected in the first step, combined with existingeducational material, are used to define how to coach end-users in making the transition toworking in the Google Apps environment, with particular emphasis on the features you areimplementing. Most often, companies start with Google Apps by adopting its messagingsystem and work from there.

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Education

Based on what Google Apps services you be using, a selection is made of available onlinetutorials and courses, and if need be, custom tutorials will be compiled (in case of customapplications such as integration of Google Apps into your on-premise applications).

Using online surveys and management tools included in the Googe Apps suite, the adoptionand adaptation process is monitored, enabling you to make strategic decisions as to theneed of additional steps to take in optimizing (the use of) your new environment.

Conclusion

So when you start to use Google Apps,

Your overhead for managing IT drops dramatically.

Your employees get the freedom to work whenever and where ever they want.

You get flexibility to scale up or down with the workload of your company.

Your companys productivity increases

Your company will become greener

You get more control on who is using your applications and who gets access tocompany information.

You get a cloud alternative with a proven record, in January 2011 50.000 businesseshave gone Google. With more than 25 million users, all with the same high reliabilityonly the large enterprises can afford.

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Documents

20 Reasons to Go Google Apps