Google Wave at NCS

I Just Received my Google Wave invite and we will be testing "Google Wave" out at NCS. Email me if you interested in Google Wave! desi@ncsworks.com

Droid Users Group!

We are forming a group that will share ideas about using the new Motorola Droid Smart Phones. We can demo how to use the full power of Google to help you salve business problems and just plain have fun!

More details soon - or email me desi@ncsworks.com

Cities Moving from Microsoft Office to Google Apps

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously earlier this week to outsource its e-mail system to Google Inc., according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. The contract is worth $7.25 million and covers 30,000 employees.

In June, Washington, D.C. made a similar decision, signing a contract worth almost $500,000 for its 38,000 municipal employees to use Google's e-mail, spreadsheet and word- processing programs, giving them an Internet-based alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Office software, installed on computers, according to Bloomberg.

Interestingly, the chief technical officer responsible for the decision was Vivek Kundra, now Chief Information Officer of the United States. The White House recently decided to migrate its website from proprietary software to Drupal.

Los Angeles plans to complete implementation of the Google system by June and will begin with a pilot period during which a limited number of employees will test the system, the Times said. City law enforcement agencies including the Los Angeles Police Department will migrate to the new system once they are satisfied with the security and functioning of the system.

Los Angeles worked on the decision for nearly a year, where Google competed with other software vendors, including Microsoft. "Parties on all sides believe that if smaller cities see Los Angeles successfully transition to Google's cloud system, they may be more likely to follow suit," the Times said.

Put Verizon's Motorola Droid to Work with Google Services

Building on a Google Foundation
For starters, if you are an owner or IT manager of a small to midsized business and haven't looked into Google Apps, you should. Even large enterprises like Genentech and Delta Hotels have adopted Google Apps in place of more traditional solutions like Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange Server.

Google on the Go
Google Apps is not yet fully integrated with the Android operating system, but Google says it is working on it. However, the most critical components--e-mail and calendar--can be leveraged from the Droid right out of the box.
Business professionals on the go need to be able to keep in touch and maintain their schedules. Droid provides access to Gmail and Google Calendar as part of its core feature set, so roaming workers can send and receive e-mails, check their calendar, and schedule meetings while away from the office.
Droid also includes Google's newest free service, Google Nav. The turn-by-turn navigation service is integrated into Android. Comparable to portable GPS devices, or iPhone apps that cost $100 or more, the free tool can help roaming professionals get from point A to point B.
Small and medium businesses can also leverage Google Voice for advanced voice features. Google Voice provides call routing, simultaneous ringing of the desk and mobile phone, custom ring tones based on caller, voicemail transcription, and other features for free.

Enterprise Tools on an SMB Budget
Let's set aside all iPhone comparisons. The bottom line is that the Droid appears to be a more than capable hardware platform, built on an impressive operating system, that is capable of providing small and medium businesses with the communications and productivity tools they need while on the go.
By embracing Google Apps and other Google tools, and adopting the Verizon Droid (or other Android-based device), small businesses can create a cost-effective alternative on par with large enterprise Blackberry or Microsoft server implementations.

Major Enhancements to Google Forms

Google Forms have always been a convenient easy way to gather simple information, but have lacked some of the features found in commercial survey tools. We are happy to share that this is changing. With several recent rounds of updates, Google Forms have are maturing.

The first round of enhancements include:

• A new Grid question type
• Support for bi-directional languages
• Improved formatting of statistics and better formatting of charts for each question type
• The ability to pre-populate responses in form fields using URL parameters
• The ability to create forms which require sign-in to access

Improved Sharing and Publishing Controls for Google Docs

Users of the Premier and Education Editions now have improved controls over access controls and publishing for Google Docs. Administrators can now determine if users are allowed to publish documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to the Internet.

Get the details on how to manage the settings here.

 

More Consistency Across Google Docs

One of the legitimate criticisms of Google Docs has been that the menu options and user interfaces differ between Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations.

Just released, Google has updated Google Docs to minimize the differences between the apps.

Learn more and see the updated menu bars here.

 

More Task Features

If you use Tasks in Google Apps, you can now email task lists. With the ability to have multiple lists, emailing task lists makes delegation easier.

Improved Directory Sync with Google Apps

One of the advantages of the paid versions of Google Apps is the additional integration features provided. Even smaller companies gain when administration time is minimized.

Recently, Google updated the capabilities of Google Apps Directory Sync:

• Google Apps Directory Sync can now help synchronize contact information for non-employees (as well as employees) that are listed in the central LDAP directory, so that employees can look up and contact important customers, partners and vendors.
  
• More contact fields can be synchronized between an LDAP system and Google Apps. Rich user profile information like multiple phone numbers, addresses and job titles are now supported.

With these enhancements, it is now easier to manage your Google Apps user accounts as part of your overall directory (including Active Directory) administration.

Cloud Computing Reaches Mainstream Media

Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is gaining coverage in mainstream, non-tech media, such as USA Today. This is an indication of broader acceptance in the market.