Google Apps = Awesome

Hey Everybody! [Pause for Simpsons Fans] The team has been on my case to get on this whole blogging thing and the time has arrived.  I’ve got plenty to say and now you’ll get to hear some of it.  My interests run a pretty wide range so expect to find me talking about anything from the Project Management to Wireless Technology and Consumer Electronics to the Mythbusters.

I don’t know how many of these I’ll crank out, but John, Joey and Serena are super competitive about this and I’ve got some catching up to do if I want to get in the race. So, readers, I encourage you to read, comment, hate, etc… This is only any fun if you tell me why you think I’m an idiot.

Today’s topic, and a personal favorite is Google Apps.  Here at Startup Army we’re using a combination of Google Apps and Microsoft Office to keep ourselves organized and productive.  In case you’re unaware, Google Apps is a suite of applications that enable users to collaborate through e-mail, calendars, documents and customized sites.

Most people are familiar with gmail and google docs, etc, but Google Apps Standard Edition allows you to setup these and other applications on your own customized domain (e.g. docs.yourdomain.com).  This allows for companies, teams, organizations, etc to create their own set of hosted apps and intranet to keep everyone organized and facilitate communication.

I’ll get into more details of Google Sites in another post, but for now you can see some examples from Google here.  The sites are simple to setup, easy to customize and support integration with numerous widgets that extend the functionality and crossover to other companies (like Salesforce.com).  Currently we’re using them both as our company’s intranet as well as a customer facing dashboard and CMS.

Anyway, enough on what it is and on to why you should care…

1. Google Apps is well known and easy to use.  New employees and customers will probably already be familiar with the applications and how to use them.  And in many cases they can integrate multiple Google accounts.
2. All the basics are there from document creation, to chatting and collaboration to Exchange-like features (available in the Premier Edition, more on that later) to excellent mobile access.
3. It’s freakin’ Google! They are constantly rolling out improvements, better cross platform integration, mobile access, etc and it’s all backed by one of the world’s biggest internet leaders.  Generally the upgrades you see public versions of gMail, Google Docs, and gCal are the same you see in your Google Apps setup.
4. Low overhead.  No hosting on your side (!!!) and if you hire a new employee there is no need to set them up with MS Office, just create an account for them and they’ll automatically have a calendar, document repository, and web based e-mail access (plus all Gmail’s bells and whistles).
5. Most importantly… Google Apps integrates with everything.  Whatever other decisions you make or platforms you choose in the future Google Apps API and open nature will support, integrate or export to make a transition simple.

These and many other reasons made Google Apps a great fit for Startup Army.  Our implementation of Google Apps is all growing very organically as our needs develop and I’m excited to find the next way we can add value to our processes.  It’s not the most comprehensive solution you can find, but its low overheard, simplicity, scalability and price (free!) make Google Apps Standard Edition an excellent choice for many companies.

So, to recap, Google Apps = awesome.

In future installments I’ll cover Google Apps Premier Edition ($50/user/year gets you actual real live phone support), Google Sites, Google Labs, and some of the really cool features that Google has recently rolled out in response to customer feedback and need.

Related posts:

• Google Apps and Data Portability
• More from Google’s Data Liberation Front… Export and Zip!
• Google Calendar Makes Following Your Favorite Teams Easy
• Google sends a cease and desist over an Open Source OS?
• Talent Wars: or The Necessity of Working with B and C Players

Tagged as: apps, google, google apps, google docs, google labs, google sites, infrastructure, Technology