Google Apps. Socialwok. Socialwok. The Small Business Guide to Google Apps. This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Google Apps for business has a number of benefits over traditional business IT and desktop software. Using the full suite essentially places all of your data and entire workflow in the cloud, meaning you can access it all anywhere, any time, from any Internet connection. At $50 per year per user, the fully integrated apps system is certainly cost-effective, and even adding the free versions of Gmail, Calendar, and Google Docs into your workflow can keep your employees coordinated. For more casual users, or even those who might not be acquainted with Google Apps, here's a guide to how the software can benefit your small business. Gmail The many advanced features of Gmail really make it a leap forward in the web-based e-mail space, and a lot of these are ideal for business.
Enabling Collaboration. Google Apps Marketplace: 6 Great Apps to Try Now. Last night at its Campfire One event, Google officially launched the Google Apps Marketplace.
The Google Apps Marketplace offers third-party developers and services a way to integrate directly with the Google Apps platform and sell that integration at whatever price point they choose. This is a huge win for the cloud because it finally allows other cloud services to tap into some of Google's APIs for things like Gmail and Google Docs at a much deeper level, which can benefit their own customers, as well as offering additional value to Google Apps itself. Although the launch was yesterday, many companies and developers have been preparing for this event for quite some time and a number of very cool and useful apps are already available in the Marketplace. Here are just a few that stand out to us. 1. Zoho and Google Apps actually offer a lot of the same services: hosted email, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools, wikis, chat, etc. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
More to Come. Apps Marketplace. Apps Marketplace. Organize and Execute Your Collaborative Projects With Google App. If your project needs to have the cooperation of two or more people, here is your free solution.
For personal project/task management, I recommend you have a look at GTD and the many applications that support implementing the GTD methodology. Google Apps Standard Edition is free and includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites – everything you need to collaborate with Google. With the free account you also get up to 50 user accounts and 7 GB of storage. This post is primarily focused around using Google Sites as a central dashboard to manage and execute your projects. Prerequisite You will need to own a domain name to use Google Apps to its full extent.
Sign Up for Google Apps Standard Edition To collaborate with Google, first you will need to sign up for a Google Apps account. Next, you will fill out contact and administrative information on the next two screens. Setup Email Start by clicking the Activate Email link. Setup Users Create Your First Project with Google Sites. Google Labs. Fusion Tables API - Google Code.