MacWin Consulting

Google Apps

GoogleApps

Google Apps for Business is a suite of applications from Google that allow small businesses to receive email, share calendars, store, share and collaborate on documents, upload internal training videos and presentations, all in a secure web based environment. Tired of managing documents, templates, contracts, calendars, contacts, presentations etc… the old fashioned way? Copying them from one machine to another, storing them on a “thumb drive” then copying them over to an employees computer or sending them as an email attachment when they need them? Worrying if your team is all using the newest version of a contract, showing clients the latest presentation or sending out correspondence on the old letterhead? Google Apps will solve all those problems and more!

GmailGmail for business: 25GB storage, less spam, and a 99.9% uptime SLA, and enhanced email security. End users can use the familiar Microsoft Outlook interface for email, contacts and calendar as they transition to Gmail and Google Calendar.

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Calendar Google Calendar: Agenda management, scheduling, shared online calendars and mobile calendar sync. At no extra charge, Google Apps supports over-the-air mobile access on BlackBerry devices, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android and many less powerful phones.

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Docs Google Docs: Documents, spreadsheets, drawings and presentations. Work online without attachments. Share and collaborate on documents, templates and stop wasting time sending out the “newest edition of your template” by email.

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Groups Google Groups: User-created groups providing mailing lists, easy content sharing, searchable archives. No more wasting time adding multiple email addresses to each email you need to send something out to your team, group or company. Now you can just add “Sales”, “Buyer Team” or any custom group you want to create to get the word out instantly to multiple people.

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Sites Google Sites: Secure, coding-free web pages for intranets and team managed sites. One of the most powerful features of Google Apps. Create a Site called “Short Sales”, add your company or teams Short Sale templates with a description of each template and now your team members have access to the most current edition of all the necessary documents. Now for the best part, your Google Apps users can also “Subscribe” to the site and each time a document is updated they will receive an automatic notification of the change! No more worrying if the correct document is being used or sending out an email each time your template, contract or presentation get’s updated.

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Video Google Video: Private, secure, hosted video sharing. Upload training videos, sales presentations, “screencasts” using the free software Jing and make them available online to any of your Google Apps users. Stop wasting time showing each member which document to use in a certain situation, fill out a contract correctly or what to say during a sales presentation, record it and upload it once!

Pricing: So now the big question, how much does it cost? There are 2 editions of Google Apps that are meant for businesses, Standard and Premier. Google Apps Standard Edition is FREE! The Premier Edition is $50 per user per year but includes additional features:

  • Google Video (not available on the Standard Edition)
  • Google Groups (not available on the Standard Edition)
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • 25GB of email storage per employee
  • Blackberry and Microsoft Outlook interoperability
  • Mobile email, calendar and IM access
  • Industry-leading security
  • Full administrative and data control
  • Helpful support choices

Still not sure if Google Apps is the right choice for your business? Take a look at the Google Apps FAQ

Deployment costs:

Since each company, team or group is different and has it’s own needs and challenges, MacWin Consulting can provide you with a Google Apps implementation and cost estimate free of charge that will include:

  • Domain configuration, setting up Google Apps to work with and receive email for your domain
  • User account creation and provisioning
  • Initial setup of folder structure
  • Full data migration
  • Training covering:
    • Day to day administration tasks
    • Creating and sharing new folders
    • Uploading documents and files, videos
    • Creating Google Sites

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