Google’s doing a lot more in the enterprise space than I had realized! Most everyone knows Google as the search engine, the Gmail, maybe even as a Calendar, and Chrome.
Besides the cool stuff they are always working on in the Labs, they really have done a lot of work on their Apps and have some pretty significant wins in the enterprise arena based on some of the articles listed at their site. I’ve taken my company from a hosted Microsoft Exchange solution to a full Google Apps solution (email that’s compatible with Outlook for our Windows users, no Entourage support for our Mac user though besides IMAP, Calendaring, Sites, Video, etc.) and so far so good. The mobile synching could use a bit of work based on the device you’re using…
Windows Mobile 6.1 (via HTC Touch Pro2) is all good via Activesync, iPhone is ok via IMAP but seems like Activesync is still flaky for mail (based on forum posts), Blackberry users get mail via IMAP and have to use the Google Sync app for contacts/calendar, while the Nokia S60 users seem to have it the worst since their Mail for Exchange app doesn’t seem to like the change and will have to move to IMAP. I think MfE app supports the contacts/calendar though… i hope!
So far I’m liking the compatibility with Outlook but may soon ditch that after cleaning up the labels. When converting/uploading your existing .pst/.ost to the Google servers, it creates labels based on your folder hierarchy, so if you had something like:
-Inbox > Projects > Client A
-Inbox > Projects > Client B > docs
it will create labels like:
inbox\projects\clientA
inbox\projects\clientB\docs
Since I had a very deep hierarchy setup for Projects, Partners, clients, internal, etc., I have a TON of labels. It would have been nicer if they had treated folders as a new category so it created stuff like:
(inbox) (projects) (client A) and then tagged all relevant mail with those individual labels.
Additionally I’d love to lose the inbox label but another annoyance is that I can’t edit the labels that it created. I’d have to create the ones I want then sort and relabel… I can edit labels, but I can’t edit them and split them. So I can’t change one long “slash-separated” label to multiple, separate labels. With enough work I can clean up though, so I think i’ll get around to it, but not exactly sure when i’ll want to sit down and do all of that. I definitely wouldn’t mind losing Outlook altogether and just using it like Gmail/offline Gmail.
As for the sites, the tools could be a little more intuitive, but they’re workable to create decent intranet-style sites, project collaboration sites, etc. I wish there was a better WYSIWYG editor to create more flexible page layouts with gadgets, etc.
GoogleTalk is GoogleTalk and will end up in my Pidgin along with my other chat clients, though I do have the standalone client installed so I can just have “work” contacts up sometimes. Seems like some of my friends have too much time on their hands! Even at “work”!
Haven’t checked out their video site option which will let you create video-enabled sites for your enterprise from your own content, Google videos, or YouTube. I can’t think of anything productive to make from that, but I can definitely think of some Family Guy or Monty Python highlights i’d throw into a site.
There’s much more info at the Google Apps site along with their press releases and info/testimonials from other companies, but I wanted to throw in my 2c.