Interlockit.com Becomes a Google Apps Premier SMB Reseller

Interlockit.com announced today that it has become a Premier SMB Reseller of the Google Apps™ suite of communication and collaboration tools. This new designation from Google enables customers to more easily assess a reseller’s expertise advising on and deploying Google products. Interlockit.com has moved from an Authorized to a Premier Reseller based on their expertise and success in helping customers deploy and use Google Apps.

Interlockit.com was launched in 2009 to help small and medium businesses (SMB's) leverage Google Apps for an enterprise class email, calendar, and document collaboration solution that's easy on the wallet, simple to use, and allows you to be productive from anywhere, with anyone. Our solution offering has grown to include Google Apps integrated products such as Norada Solve360 CRM/project management, Freshbooks billing, Xero accounting, plus custom programming on Google App Engine and Google Apps Script.

Google Apps brings simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools to organizations of any size – all hosted by Google to streamline setup, minimize maintenance, and reduce IT costs. With Gmail (including Google email security, powered by Postini), Google Calendar, and integrated IM, users can stay connected and work together with ease. And, using Google Docs and Google Sites, which include word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and website creation tools, they can share files and collaborate in real-time, keeping versions organized and available wherever and whenever users work.

The Google Apps Reseller program includes companies globally that sell, service and customize Google Apps for Business for their customers. As a part of the Apps Reseller program, Interlockit.com receives training, support and deployment tools from Google, as well as access to APIs for integrating Google Apps into their customers' business operations. To learn more about becoming a Premier Reseller, including eligibility criteria and benefits, please visit the Google Reseller Program website: http://www.google.com/enterprise/resellers.

Oracle acquires RightNow CRM: Cloud Platform or Cloudwashing?

This morning Oracle announced a deal to purchase RightNow for $1.5 billion.  Oracle's headline reads "Adds Leading Customer Service Cloud Offering to Oracle's Public Cloud."

In 2007 I had written RightNow CRM off as a non-cloud product while competing against them as a Sales Manager at NetSuite.

Unless a product is 100% web based like Google Apps or Norada Solve360 you still have all the costs and complexity of installing, upgrading, supporting, and fixing workstation based software.  Check out the RightNow CX "staff member" system requirements and recommendations to use complex technology like Citrix.  It has a Smart Client that needs 850 Mb of free hard disk space and only runs on the Windows 7 platform.  This means only 39% of the world's computers can fully use RightNow CRM.  True cloud products like Google Apps and Norada Solve360 CRM can be used by 99% of the world's computers.

What's strange is that Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle was an early investor in Salesforce.com and is a majority shareholder in NetSuite.  Larry definitely knows what a 100% web based cloud solution looks like.

Enlighten me with comments please because I'm skeptical how this acquisition will help long term against true cloud computing CRM solutions like Salesforce.com and Norada Solve360 that require nothing more than a web browser on 99% of the world's computers.

Certainly RightNow is more "Cloud" than the rest of Oracle's portfolio.  It is still a big step behind 100% web solutions that allow devices like notebooks, tablets, and smartphones to be portals to the data, which helps people be productive from anywhere, at any time.

True Cloud products allow businesses to spend more time with customers and less time on managing technology.

Customer Case Study: Google Apps integrated with Solve360 CRM moves people, literally

Here’s a story most business folks can relate to — established in 1959, Taylor Moving starts with 1 truck and a handful of employees.  Dad grows the business.  Sons take over, expanding to 100 staff and operate a network handling international employee moves.

Fast forward to the present and those sons find themselves asking “How can we stay competitive and keep growing the business?” Son Rick Taylor knew more of the same wasn’t going to cut it.  “Our coordinators, our sales team, they were spending far too much time doing internal stuff and not talking to clients.”

The solution started when they looked at their email which, despite being mission critical for dealing with overseas moves, was unreliable.  A friend introduced Taylor to Blair Collins, founder of Interlockit.com, who was asked to help. “They were paying $1000 per month for IT support yet none of their email history was backed up because it was scattered across the hard drives of everyone's computers.”, noted Collins.  InterlockIT introduced Taylor to Google Apps and helped with the implementation.  With email issues now out of the way they now had the resources to look at how they organized their moves.

For years, Taylor Moving managed moves through a paper-based filing system and initially a document management system seemed like the answer.  The narrow access point of paper files was causing chaos and a lot of wasted time. “In the past, there would be a sales person at a coordinator’s desk eight times a day… they were always looking for information.”

But after a review, InterlockIT introduced Taylor to Solve360, which is a client management solution available in the Google Apps Marketplace. Solve360 focuses on helping businesses like Taylor manage their customers and their projects.  “We quickly realized that a fully integrated CRM solution like Solve360 with its included project management could do far more for their business“, said Collins.

Taylor was quickly impressed by Solve360’s flexibility.  Now any adjustments made to the move are now seen in real time, company-wide. Now everything is in one place, and easily accessed. “This is a big step up.”

Taylor and his team experience seamless integration between Solve360 and Google Apps.  In fact, Taylor himself barely acknowledges a separation between the two, viewing them as a single system. The Gmail contextual gadget for quick access to contacts/projects, the ability to easily capture emails, the simple linking to Google Docs, and the Google calendar integration are key features for them.  “Once you’ve got [Gmail], which I find to be a very user-friendly system, the changeover to Solve360 was far easier than I had expected. I expected a much harder learning curve.”

Streamlining the internal systems allowed Taylor and his team to turn outward and address what matters most to their business — the customer.  “In a service industry, you’re only productive if you’re talking with a client… if you’re doing background stuff, that’s offering no value back to your service.  So, what are the things you can do behind the scenes so that you’re spending the majority of time with your clients?... That’s why we brought the system on.” Solve360 allowed his team to focus on what would really drive business forward.

Growing his business with Google Apps and Solve360 “is something he’s looking forward to”, says Taylor.  “With software and servers you need to manage all the changes yourself to keep up.  Now [with Google Apps and Solve360] that’s done for us automatically so we can focus on serving our clients.”

Solve360 CRM and Google Apps for Commercial Real Estate Brokers

On August 25th and September 15th we hosted a webinar demonstrating how Solve360 CRM and Google Apps are ideally suited to and easily customized for Commercial Real Estate Brokers.  Our thanks to Sid Bhatt, a Solve360 and Google Apps user, plus President of Global Commercial Sales for making 9,000 CCIM members aware of the webinars.

The online registration form for the webinar is a great example of how easy it is to integrate a Google Apps Form into Solve360.  Can your current CRM system accept data from an online web form in real time and automatically assign a task for your staff to followup?

http://www.interlockit.com/Home/services/Norada-Solve360-CRM/commercial-brokers

We had a large number of registrations for the webinars and it was a breeze to send personalized emails and reminders to the registrants using Solve360's built in email merge functions.

Custom Reports in Solve360

As businesses grow, the challenge of understanding and managing relationships and opportunities can become a daunting task. Obtaining an uncompromised view of the "big picture" often ends up being more trouble than it's worth--especially for a growing business!

With the help of Interlockit.com, custom reporting is a cinch. Using the powerful integration of the Solve360 API and Google Docs Scripts, Interlockit.com can build real-time reporting and analytics specific to your business needs!

Contact Interlockit.com today!

Congratulations to Norada Solve360 on "Google Apps Marketplace Staff Pick"

GoogleatWork is the official Twitter home of Google Enterprise plus Google Apps.  Solve360 received the Staff Pick this past Friday and is a "Featured App" on the Google Apps Marketplace home page.

At Interlockit.com we've helped over 25 customers switch to Norada Solve360.  Their well deserved average rating on the Google Apps Marketplace is 5 stars on 106 customer reviews.

It's a ton of fun helping businesses with Solve360 because it has such a big impact on their operations and is nothing like anything they've seen before.

Congratulations to the entire team at Norada.

Transition from Salesforce.com to Norada Solve360

Announcing the official launching of our Salesforce.com activity and opportunity migration tool!

We can migrate tasks, events, and activity records and emails from Salesforce.com to Norada Solve360 starting at $495 USD. Mapping custom activity fields and migrating lead activity adds slightly to the cost. We provide fixed priced estimates after reviewing your Salesforce.com and Solve360 account.

The history is pushed into a formatted note on the appropriate contact or company (Account) record.

Update: We can migrate open and closed Salesforce.com opportunity records too!

Give us a call at (416) 840-6268 or visit us at http://www.interlockit.com

Announcing: Norada Solve 360 CRM and Project Management Software

A common customer question is "How do I share my contacts with others?"

After much research we have signed on as a partner for Norada Solve360 Customer Relationship Management (CRM).  We compared it to Zoho, BatchBook, insight.ly, and Salesforce.com (which we use internally but will be switching).  The Solve360 user interface is fantastic, simple to use, yet powerful.  Google Apps is not just an application but a platform into which many products can already integrate. 

When you combine Norada Solve360 with Google Apps, Mailchimp/Constant Contact, Freshbooks, plus Mobile contacts and calendar synchronization you have the ultimate integrated platform for superior customer relationship management, marketing, sales results, project management, time management, and invoicing.

The real time integration is suberb and is an excellent showcase of the advantages of cloud computing.

Solve360 pricing starts at $40 per month for 3 users which is a huge bargain compared to the market leader Salesforce.com at $195 per month for 3 users.

Norada Solve360 is seeing huge growth and we're proud to be a business partner.