We have been using Google Apps at GOYELLO for our communication and collaboration for quite a long time now. We use their mail server instead of managing our own one, we communicate by means of Google talk and we use their online collaboration tools to work together on the same documents. The continuous development of this platform makes it more and more a platform that suits almost every business from SME, governmental up to corporates. Recent announcements that big corporations like Rentokil and Jaguar Land Rover will move their users towards Google Apps proves this.
All your communication online
Google Apps is a so called cloud based office suit. It offers comparable services to Microsoft Office. The main difference is that everything is available online. This enables people to collaborate with their colleagues wherever they are. Everything is always online available via the Internet. To prevent people from not being able to work offline in case the Internet connection isn’t available they also provide an offline service.
Dramatic cost savings possible
Companies like Rentokil claim to save about 50-70% on their IT spend by using the Google Apps service. For SME companies the ease of use and the limited amount of maintenance are probably the most appealing. Up to 100 users the Google Apps service is even for free, so why wouldn’t you give it a chance?
It’s not Microsoft Office, but it offers a lot
Honestly today you cannot really compare Google Apps with Microsoft Office. Especially exchanging Word documents is hard. In general you will face layout issues and the experience Word user will have to face limited functionalities. On the other hand most people hardly use the broad range of office functionalities, for them Google Docs will offer (almost) everything they need. Sharing documents with your colleagues is really easy, you can even work on the same document at the same time. If you wish you are even able to share a document with people outside your company. Everybody will always have access to the latest version, without version control issues.
Premier Edition replaces Microsoft Exchange
Google Apps is provided both as a free Standard Edition and a paid Premier Edition. The Premier Edition enables you to keep working with Microsoft Outlook on your PCs, meanwhile replacing your Microsoft Exchange servers. After installing the Google App plugin all e-mail, calender items and contacts will be stored online. The Standard Edition enables you to store your e-mail online by using IMAP and to sync your calender. The Premier Edition does this in a single integrated way. See the video below.
If you would like to know more about our experiences or what Google Apps can mean for your business feel free to contact us. See the movie below for a quick tour. We invite you to share your experiences with us by leaving a comment below.