As a creator of websites, I often work with domain names and hosting, which invariably means helping with email. Email, of course, is still the most critical form of communication for almost all businesses of any size. So, it pays to be careful and thoughtful when setting up email solutions.
For most businesses, email is bundled in with other critical organizational systems like the calendar, office document sharing and customer relationship management. For many, this is accomplished through Microsoft Outlook.
Email is one of the critical operational systems for any business.
For almost all businesses, upgrading to Google’s “Apps For Domains” service improves everything: better email, better calendar, better document sharing, better everything all in a cloud-based system that can be accessed from anywhere.
But, if you want your business to experience these improvements, you have to be willing to make a change to one of the most entrenched systems in your business – email. Why would you want to do that? Well, here are some reasons…
Google Apps Features
EMAIL: If you have ever used a Gmail account, then you have experienced what Google Apps email will look like. Just imagine that you go to a website, log in and use your email the same way you use Gmail. The legendary Gmail spam protection is continuously evolving. The email organization system is intuitive and sensible. Most importantly, though, you can access your real email inbox from any computer, anywhere.
CONTACTS: The contact mamagement system is easy to use, yet powerful. You can create groups easily and add fields to keep track of important user data.
CALENDAR; Google Calendar is quite simply one of the best free systems available. You can create sub calendars to track certain types of activities (I have calendars named “Client Meetings,” “Personal,” “Volunteer Activities” and “Workflow.”) You can then share ALL of your calendars or just certain ones with anyone you want. This allows others to either see the events and/or make changes to that calendar based on the levels you give them.
GOOGLE DOCS: I started using Google Docs just a few months ago and I cannot believe I went this long without it! A cloud-based document sharing system, it suports Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations (think Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point.) The documents you create can be shared with whomever you choose. Here is the cool part about the sharing: there is only one version of the document. You can collaborate with others anytime and you do not have to save different versions and send them back and forth with different titles. If more than one person is editing the document, you can see the other people logged in, start chats with them and/or leave “sticky note” comments on certain parts of the document. The documents can esily be printed and archived into saved documents on your computer.
MOBILITY: In addition to using a system that is accessible on any web-ready computer, Google Apps is also compatible with all mobile phones. It works extemely well on my Blackberry and I have heard from my iPhone friends that it works well for them.
There really is much more, including a way for you to create a website using GOOGLE SITES that integrates all of these elements together in a company intranet site.
CONTROL of your system is easy. A single email address will be the controller of the domain. He or she can create new accounts, create new passwords and delete accounts that have become inactive.
Here is why I really love Google Apps For Domains. Outlook is a resident program. This means that it is installed onto your computer and you “download” or input information into it. This can create some serious issues when you are traveling or even when you want to work from home.
How often have you been frustrated about being unable to access important emails or documents from your office computer?
This is for all those people who are in the airport desperately talking a co-worker through the maze of files on their computers to get that super important one sent to the client before they go on vacation.
THE TRICK: Here is something I have done numerous times. Two days ago, I sent the client an attached Word Document. Now, I am in a hotel in Vegas checking in on work stuff and I find that the client needs the document re-sent with a few changes. I am on my laptop, and the document is saved to my desktop computer back in the office. D’oh! However, because I used my Google email to originally send him the document, I can find the Sent email from two days ago, grab the document I had attached, update it and send it to him again. I look like a genius (maybe he never even needs to know I was in Vegas?) and I am at a show by the end of the day.
The Download Problem
The other problem with Outlook as a resident program is that it seems to work best when you do not simultaneously store the emails on the server. Let me explain:
Usually, when you download your email to Outlook, that email now ONLY exists on your computer. Bummer.
To set up Outlook, you have to find a tech person (or your web designer) who can go directly into your hosting account and create the email addresses. This is not always easy to do because it requires some knowledge of the hosting system and some care in working with the system because things could get messed up in there! Then, all the codes have to be lined up for your email address and your Outlook. Then, you most likely set up Outlook so that – when you hit the Send/Receive button, it goes to the host server, finds your emails and downloads them into your Outlook. And you most likely have it set to delete those emails from the server once they have been downloaded. This makes it so you do not need to purchase a lot of extra space for your email on the host server. But it also takes away your ability to check those emails remotely. Once downloaded into Outlook and deleted from the server, the EMAILS ONLY EXIST ON YOUR COMPUTER, IN OUTLOOK. That’s not too cool. Well, you could tell Outlook to not delete the downloaded emails. So, they exist in both Outlook and on the server. This can cause problems with the amount of space you have on the server for emails. If you hit the maximum amount of space used, you will suffer the worst possible email fate: EMAILS TO YOU WILL BOUNCE. Not worth the risk. Plus, who really wants to have to remember to go in and delete old email messages from the server manually? On top of all of this, your Sent Emails would not be saved on the server, making it impossible for you to pull off the little trick mentioned above.
So, the solution is to get a better system. And why not go with one that is free? Google Apps for Domains is a superior email system that allows you to control (i.e easily add email addresses for new people, etc) from one user-friendly interface. plus, you can set up Google Calendar, Google Docs and many more systems to improve your workflow.
Enter The Net believes strongly in the Google Apps products. We are interested in developing a product where we set up Apps and train people in how to use them. We need to test this product.
We are looking for three small to mid-sized businesses that want to “hire” us to set this up for you. We will create the Google Apps accounts for you, set up all the technical stuff and then train you in how to use the programs. We will also be available for support as you roll out the new system. In return, we ask that you provide us with feedback on the product and – if you liked it – maybe a testimonial we can use. If you are interested, jump to our CONTACT page and let us know.
Thanks!
