Google Apps – The Best Features of 2009

One of the best things about SaaS and Google Apps specifically is that the product is continually evolving.  More times than not, I or a client has said “I’d really love this feature in Google Apps” and within a month or two its part of the feature set.  In the past year, over 100 new features have been rolled out to Google Apps.  In a way, the conspiracy theorists are right in saying that Google is listening in however its not while wearing trench coats, dark sunglasses or in-ear walkie talkies.  Google is listening to the clients.  With a solid social eco-system around Google, the Google Apps team can hear directly from customers and continually evolve the platform.

So, with that, here’s the best new features of 2009:

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook
Enjoy the reliability and affordability of Google Apps, but allow users to keep Outlook as their client if they want. Users can get their email, contacts, and calendars in Outlook while also being able to access all of their data in the cloud.

Mobile support for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile phones
With Google Apps, if you aren’t in front of a computer, you can still access your data and be productive. Blackberry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile users can manage their email, contacts, and calendars from their mobile phones. And if you have a Blackberry Enterprise Server, be sure to take advantage of the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which adds administrative control and added security for BlackBerry access.

Offline access
Have your laptop but no Internet connection? Not a problem with Google Apps, which offers offline access to Gmail, Calendar, and Docs.

Shared contacts
Premier Edition admins can robustly manage shared contacts on their domains by creating a global address list for users accessible in both the Gmail web interface and Outlook. With this feature, users can access others’ phone numbers, addresses, and custom fields that you define. As an admin, you can also use the directory sync service to connect Google Apps to your exisitng LDAP directory.

- Aric Bandy

The web2.0 / online tools that I use…

While consulting I’m often asked about the applications and tools I use.  Here’s a list of the tools I use:

Get Dropbox (online file storage):  www.getdropbox.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com

Google Apps: www.google.com/a

Short URLs: http://bit.ly/

News:  www.digg.com / www.fark.com

Teleconferencing: www.skype.com / Google Chat / www.tokbox.com

Blogging: www.wordpress.com / www.squarespace.com

Universal Instant Messenger: www.digsby.com

Credential Management: http://keepass.info/

Intranet: http://www.backpackit.com/ Google Sites

What do you use?

- Aric Bandy

Social Networking

As I comb the Internet I occasionally stumble across great articles / blogs that clearly articulates a point. This blog clearly captures how to approach Social Networking http://bit.ly/EadTJ

- Aric Bandy

Here’s the highlights:

From Positively Paula 4/30 blog ( http://bit.ly/EadTJ ):

There are some key learnings about social media that every corporate social media marketer should know:

• Every brand can be and should be “social” – Conversations about your brand and products are happening everywhere. You need to be part of the conversation and if H&R Block can make taxes social, your product can be social too.

• Just get started – It doesn’t take a big budget to get started in social media marketing. In fact, much of social media marketing is human capital. Start by listening. Set up Google alerts to look for conversations about your brand or product. Use TweetDeck and set up a brand search to monitor what is going on about your brand or product in the Twitterverse. Then participate in the conversation, just remember to be authentic, honest and transparent and you will be fine. If you take the first steps to engage in the conversation you will learn more about how your brand or product fits into the social media space and it will help guide any future programs.

• Integrated marketing vs. social media – There is a difference between an integrated marketing campaign that includes viral components or online/offline coordination and a social media program. A marketing campaign has a short life; it is singular in desired action and is usually focused on demand generation. A social media program is a commitment to engage and communicate with consumers where the consumer wants to communicate. If you are going to start a marketing campaign with social elements versus a social media program, you must start with the end in mind. The worse thing a marketer could do is build a group of fans, friends or followers without a clear exit strategy after the campaign is completed.

• Find your brand’s own path – What works for one brand in social media does not mean it is right for another. For example, the path of engagement with a movie franchise is very different than engaging consumers about taxes. Remaining true to your brand promise is the best way to approach social media. Utilize your brand promise as a guiding principle across all your social media efforts. Reflect it in the content that you create, the tone that you use, and the programs that you develop.

• Media $ versus human capital – I mentioned human capital earlier. Companies can spend a lot of money trying to launch a social media program. For the most part, I would really classify those efforts as an integrated marketing campaign. Your approach and funding of an integrated marketing campaign needs to be in line with the size and scope of your overall marketing budget. Social media programs can be a lot more cost efficient from a media budget standpoint, but, you still need human capital to run them. In many cases you may be trading media $ for the human capital needed to run a program. For example if you are taking the first step of listening and engaging in the conversation, there is no media buy necessary. However, you do need to have some person dedicated to scanning and responding. Ideally, that person is an employee of the company. Why this should be an employee leads to the next tip.

• Agencies play a great role, but the voice needs to be the company’s -There have been many company backlashes by having your agency respond in the social media space. Remember that the consumer wants to connect with you, not your agency. Your agencies can monitor and identify opportunities, but it is the company that needs to respond – authenticity is key.

• Your agency needs to walk the walk – I hate paying an agency to learn on my dime. When we started three years ago, social media was so new and changing so rapidly that we were all learning together. Today there are many different agencies that are building expertise in social media including public relations firms, interactive agencies and newly formed agencies focusing on social media. As you select an agency partner make sure that they don’t just talk the talk but also walk the walk. Are they active in social media? Does the agency blog or twitter? Judge the agency not solely on their pitch, but also on their actions.

• Get legal involved early – Your legal department can be an ally or a roadblock. What you need to understand is that in the area of social media there is not a lot of legal precedence to draw on. This makes your legal department nervous because it is more difficult to know the best way to protect the company. Involve your legal department early and help them understand your goals so you can build a partnership and not hit as many roadblocks. Ask your legal department to help you solve for the risks versus just state that you cannot proceed with a program. There are always solutions to mitigate risk. You and your legal department can find solutions together.

• Have a crisis management plan – The recent Dominoes episode clearly identifies the need of a crisis management plan. In a world of 24×7 communications, the brands that can respond quickly to a crisis will be the brands that weather the storm. A good crisis management plan must begin with active monitoring. Judgment will need to be exercised to distinguish a customer service issue from a true crisis management situation. Once a crisis has been detected, the brand will need to respond in a matter of hours not days. Early action will help nip a crisis in the bud before it explodes into something larger. No action or ignoring it will only exacerbate the issue. A brand that is already active in social media will also carry more credibility and rally more supporters to come to the brand’s defense.

• Selling the C-Suite or ROI – One of the most popular questions that I get asked is how to build support at the C-level. Having a clearly defined objective is critically important to gain support of any initiative. However, everyone is always focused on the ROI or return on the investment. I have defined ROI a little differently in this new and emerging space as Risk Of Ignoring. There is an absolute change occurring in how we communicate and seek information as a society. The millennial generation is the first digital native generation with very different expectations of companies and marketing. In the not so distant future the millennials will be a larger purchasing demographic than the boomers. Not understanding this segment will be detrimental for future marketers. Watch Shift Happens and share it with your senior leadership team. It is a great example of how we are living in exponential times.

Cloud Computing and Social Network Trends

I recently had an opportunity to present at the Rotary Club of Minneapolis. I presented an overview on two topics that continually arise in my IT Steering Committees and consulting engagements: Cloud Computing and Social Networking. These are two trends that are drastically changing the way business is done today.

Click here to view the presentation: SaaS | SocialNetworking: An Overview

Article in Inc. Magazine

For the last year and a half, I’ve been acting as 2nd Wind’s outsourced CIO / CTO.  I’ve been working closely with their CFO, Tom Kelly, and the rest of the management team to develop and implement an aggressive SaaS strategy.  The plan was to identify and migrate applications and infrastructure to the cloud in an effort to raise functionality while lowering overall IT expenditures.  Over time we began calling this Operation Serverless.  We knew we’d never actually get all servers pushed into the cloud but the simplification plan was crucial to 2nd Wind’s continued success.

In March, Inc. Magazine wrote an article featuring our projects and their respective results.  While its nice to get accolades for the work its even better to demonstrate that OnDemand platforms can and do deliver AMAZING results!

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090301/one-companys-budget-getting-back-into-shape.html

Gmail goes offline and with it frees us from Outlook’s tyranny

 

Over dramatisation aside, this is the day many of us have been waiting for – Google mail (Gmail and Google Apps) can now be accessed offline.  Many of the organizations that we’ve helped implement Google Apps have retained Outlook for a subset of their users simply because they need to access email offline.  Those users need not wither any longer under the bloated, resource-intensive restraints of Outlook.  In an era where we’ve heard a lot about choice, we finally have a true choice.  

- Aric Bandy

From Google’s Blog:

We’re making offline Gmail available to everyone who uses Gmail in US or UK English over the next couple of days, so if you don’t see it under the Labs tab yet, it should be there soon. Once you see it, just follow these steps to get started:

1. Click Settings and click the Labs tab.
2. Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
3. Click Save Changes.
4. After your browser reloads, you’ll see a new “Offline0.1” link in the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don’t already have it.

Forrester Report Affirms My Analysis

Forrester recently released a detailed TCO analysis on cloud-based email, Exchange (premise/hosted) and Google Apps.  The numbers align with every analysis I’ve completed after a Google Apps implementation.  It’s alwasy good to know that others see the world in the same light.  

- Aric Bandy

Article: Cloud-based Email Cheapest Option of Most Companies.  Richard MacManus.

A new report from Forrester presents a cost analysis of cloud-based email systems in enterprises, such as Google Apps or Yahoo!’s Zimbra. In the report, Forrester argues that cloud-based email services are cheaper than running email on-premise for all companies with less than 15,000 employees. What’s more, Google Apps is significantly cheaper than both on-premise solutions and other cloud-based email services – even for very large enterprises. This could spell trouble for Microsoft, as we explain below.

 

Despite the cost benefits, at this point most companies (56%) are looking to implement a ‘hybrid’ model of on-premise and external email services. Just 19% plan to migrate their entire email base to a hosted or managed email provider.

Forrester’s cost analysis (outlined in full in its report) shows that for the “Information Worker” segment, a large portion of many modern enterprises, cloud-based email is often cheaper. Forrester concluded that “cloud-based email is always cheaper for companies with fewer than 15,000 users”.

The following chart of various options is interesting, because Google Apps comes out significantly cheaper than Microsoft Exchange Online - and other cloud based email options. Also interesting is that Microsoft Exchange Online Standard is about 10% cheaper than many cloud-based providers – due to its economies of scale no doubt. One wonders whether Microsoft will be forced to drastically reduce its pricing for Exchange Online, in order to compete better with Google Apps; although that of course comes at the risk of under-cutting one of the company’s cash cows, Microsoft Office.

Source: Forrester; the above figures are based a scenario for 15,000 employees with email.

Even as the staff numbers increase, Google Apps remains by far the cheapest option. Of course there are other factors to consider other than price, but even so these figures are striking and are likely to be very pursuasive for many enterprises over the coming years.

Lastly, there are some interesting comments in the report about about the low price point of Google Apps. Google told Forrester that it “uses automation and massive scale to achieve an order of magnitude lower cost of service than a typical enterprise.” This led Forrester to believe that “Google can make money at this price, and that the service will handle some firms’ or users’ needs well, including its bigger customers like Genentech and Avago Technologies.”

However Forrester noted that it is unsure how much focus Google will give to the service. Also Forrester suggested that Google Apps still needs “better mobile support, an offline email and calendar client, and a clearer view of the product road map.”

Note: Forrester released a companion report, entitled Should Your Email Live In The Cloud? An Infrastructure And Operations Analysis, that digs deeper into the technical issues around cloud-based email.

Top 10 Qualities of a Great IT Shop

Paul M. Ingevaldson is the retired CIO of Ace Hardware with 40 years in IT.  He recently wrote an article in Computerworld detailing the qualities of a healthy  IT department.    

As sad as it is some businesses / executives in the SMB  space still view IT as operational overhead.  In today’s economic reality, IT has to rise to a strategic level.  I’d argue that businesses that do not follow most if not all of these top 10 qualities won’t make it out of this recession!  

10 Qualities of a Great IT Shop:

. The CIO reports to the CEO or, at least, the chief operating officer. This is vital to the success of the IT department. It gives the CIO clout and ensures IT’s independence.

2. There is an IT steering committee composed of C-level executives from the business units. The executives make their decisions based on some set of priorities and criteria such as ROI. The committee is necessary to ensure that allocation decisions are made in the interests of the entire company, not of an individual department.

3. The IT shop uses up-to-date software and hardware. It should also have reasonable policies for PC software upgrades and other regular system updates. In addition, the company should be spending an appropriate percentage of corporate revenue on IT. This indicates the company’s level of commitment to IT.

4. There is a high-visibility system security team. Since security is one of the most vulnerable areas of IT, it must be well managed.

5. There is an ongoing disaster recovery process involving users, and a documented recovery plan that is tested regularly. Commitment to security and disaster recovery indicates the importance of IT to senior management.

6. There is an ongoing commitment to training to keep IT staffers up to date. This should include attendance at technology conventions as well as training seminars and industry events. If there is a lack of training and a parallel use of consultants, you know that the focus is not on in-house staff.

7. There is rigid adherence to somesystem development life cycle (SDLC) that is understood by IT and the user community alike. (Knowing how IT works helps users interact with IT more effectively.) Any of several SDLC plans may be used, depending on the type of project, but the process of selecting the approach should be documented. This gives you some insight into the professionalism of the IT organization.

8. There are established technical and managerial career paths that enable workers to remain technical and achieve higher pay and status within the organization. This is the only way to retain top technical people who have no interest in managing others.

9. IT produces, at minimum, a monthly status report that shows progress on all major IT projects. This document should be widely distributed throughout the company. Its existence shows the level of interest of IT within the organization.

10. IT sits at the long-range planning table and participates. If this is lacking, it is a sure sign that IT is looked at as an implementer and not an enabler.

Top 10 IT Trends in 2009

Tom Kelly, CFO and CIO at Second Wind Exercise, a $100 million Eden Prairie, Minn., athletic equipment manufacturer, points out that SaaS providers frequently offer better security and uptime than organizations can achieve internally. “This is particularly true in the small and midsize markets,” he says. Second Wind has moved heavily onto a SaaS platform, including using NetSuite for ERP, Adaptive Planning for budgeting and forecasting, and Google Apps for e-mail and word processing.”

Read the full article: baseline-magazine-top-10-trends-in-it-for-2009

SAP pushes Shane Co. into bankruptcy (partially)

Shane Co. is one of the nations largest jewelry retailers with 23 stores across 14 states. On Jan 13th, they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy primary due to the US Recession and an SAP project that ballooned from $10MM to $36MM.

It’s always tragic to hear about companies shackled to a specific technology or project regardless of whether its the right fit. I can hear the SAP PM now, “Well Tom, we’ve already gone this far. There’s no turning back now.” Too bad Tom Shane didn’t go with NetSuite. 2nd Wind is significantly larger (# of locations) and was able to implement NetSuite in roughly 120days for a few hundred thousand. Here’s the full article: shane-co1

- Aric Bandy