Google Apps – A Case Study

Every person who has ever been associated or heard of small business knows that in small business every dollar has to count. The small business person has to think smart to survive. Google has created Google Apps which is a set of tools that are excellent resources for the small business owner.

Google Apps Standard Edition is Free or the Premier Edition is $50 per user account per year. The Standard Edition is loaded with everything that I have needed for over a year. I recently moved to the Premier Edition for the Postini email security.

Google Apps has a number of tools. The tools that I consider the most useful to my business are Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites. These tools are a beneficial to me because they can be implemented without the overhead of having a data center, VPN’s or expensive software.

Here is one case study to how my Office Manger and I can collaborate using Google Apps. Friday afternoon I have planned my activities for the following week and input my appointments on my calendar. I can also input the address of where I am going and Gmail shows the location on Google Maps in the appointment details. Monday morning I take my laptop and hit the road. I am scheduled to be with my client at 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM that day and my afternoon is open. While I am working with my existing client a new client has called and would like for me to visit them in the afternoon. My office manager goes into her calendar and she can see that I have the afternoon open. She also gives me a call to confirm that my afternoon is open. She can then enter into the calendar the name of the client, address and their phone number. I have Google Sync installed on my Blackberry which then synchronizes my updated calendar. My Office Manager also creates and shares a case file for the new client in Google Docs. I can open the file on my laptop, my Blackberry or any computer that has internet access. After my meeting with the new client I can update the case file for the new client. My Office Manager can now view the latest information about the client, how many billable hours I worked and how we can serve the client in the future. All of this was done without an Exchange server, file server or Microsoft Office.

To read in detail about Google Apps go to: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

Adam Bell
Sublime Computer Services
We make your technology work.

615-942-0850
www.sublimecomp.com