Pixolüt runs a lot of great IT infrastructure for such a small shop – but there were a few issues which we started running in to which we felt could be better handled by having a centralized cost-effective solution for email, calendar, contact management.
I chose to move to Google Apps for the Enterprise and it was a very painless transition from our existing hosting/POP scenario with disconnected calendars. I simply set up the DNS entries for the Google servers to resolve our host header aliases and then used the WYSIWYG tools to create our home portal page and set up the app configurations and users. All told it was a deployment which took 4 hours from start to finish.
Now, here are my impressions of each of the key areas of the GA suite:
1. GMail
2. Calendar
3. Home/Start portal page
4. Web pages
5. Google Docs
6. Google Chat
7. Administration
GMail
GMail has a great minimal web user interface – but it is now a good generation behind other web mail technologies out there.
Pixolut ishosting with an Australian company called Destra, we do this to improve local performance for .au web sites which we host. We used their POP services to handle our email and they royally sucked. The webmail user interface was absolute trash and had not been updated since 1996. So GMail was very much in the lead on this front – but if you look at other less decrepit hosts, for example GoDaddy webmail, they make you feel more like you are using Outlook – and after using the GoDaddy webmail services for some time going to GMail webmail is most certainly a step BACKWARDS.
Now, even thoughthe GMail UI is simplistic and maybe a bit limiting by todays standards, it is certainly powerful and fast. The real benefit is in the underlying features of external POP sync and bundled POP/SMTP services which allow you to use Outlook or any other email client with GMail, and the performance of Google email is so much better than any other host out there – that is, less bounces sending and less bounced emails receiving with a near 100% correct hit rate for SPAM emails. It really is quality engineering under the surface and you can feel it.
The ‘contacts’ feature of GMail is underdeveloped with very very limited capabilities for import and export and at this point I do not think that any third party app which connects to Google Apps allows for sync with Outlook (or other PIMs) or OTA sync for cell phones. I am hedging bets that this feature will be available soonish as there will undoubtedly be huge demand for it – but right now this is a WEAKNESS. Enterprise users need one repository of contact information and calendar information and if it cannot be accessed on mobile devices and synced to multiple PIM solutions including mobile devices like PDAs and cell phones then there is a problem.
Calendar
This was a huge drawcard for us – the Google calendar is by far the most powerful feature of the Google Apps suite and really shines. It has a snappy user interface, it allows you to share calendars and overlay existing calendars (such as public holidays and the like). We love it.
The only down side of the Calendar is the same thing as mentioned with contacts regarding import/export and sync. There is a third party solution called GooSyncwhich can do OTA sync of calendar entries with cell phones and PDAs -but I was not impressed with its performance on first use. NOTE: This may not be the fault of GooSync; I need to try clearing out my cell phone calendar completely to give it a fair chance as the issueI had was that entries which were deleted from the web calendar did not delete on the phone – this is a common problem with SYNCML implementations.
Home/Start portal page
Very nice indeed – we have a home portal which acts like the Google home page. You can create custom widgets – like links to company systems – or use applications like world clock or todo list or sticky notes. All in all, this is killer functioanlity to create a central place of cohesion for the enterprise which can link all business systems and act as a starting place for employees.
Web pages
Useless for us, but very small businesses may find this useful. I have no conclusions on this functionality at this point.
Google Docs
I was really not too stoked about this – I think its half baked – not that it isn’t a powerful solution for editing online docs, but that its too single minded for real business content.
The thing that makes Microsoft Sharepoint a killer web app is that it can store any kind of document and organize it in a structured filesystem – and when its time to edit docs which it knows how to – it provides access to the appropriate editor. If Google Docs allowed users to upload anything and structure their content more like a document management system – with the features of the online word processing and spreadsheet editors as peripheral features then I would see immense value. Right now, useless.
Chat
The chat feature is a bit lost on me – I can certainly see huge value, but we use Skype and the ability for us to make ad-hoc voice calls, video conferences or chat with one application made this simple tool somewhat redundant. Now, I know that Google Chat is adding voice and video services but since we already use Skype for our US phone services it made little sense to migrate to this application. I would reserve judgement at this point. Some businesses may indeed find this indispensable.
Administration
In the Google tradition the management of the system is very very simple. The minimalist user interface hides the complexity of managing the setup and there are enough power tools on there to simplify integration even for more abitious administrators who want single sign on capabilities or bulk user creation.
There you go – I hope this helped you get some independant point of view if you are considering a migration to the Google Apps for the Enterprise suite. Overall I highly recommend it but it is certainly early days. As these tools evolve we will find an extremely powerful solution for IT administrators of the SME.
