Copper CRM integrated contact us/sign up form for your website using Google Forms

Copper customers frequently ask us about setting up web forms that will automatically create a person (or lead) record and send a personalized email response upon submission.

Copper has posted a solution based on Wufoo and Zapier but it doesn't send an automatic email reply. It's also simpler and cheaper to use free Google Forms plus free Mailchimp, so we built it!

We loved this solution so much, we opted to use it on our own website.

Our live Contact Us Google Form: http://www.interlockit.com/Home/contact-us

If the email address submitted does not already exist in Copper, a Lead record is created instantly and a welcome email is sent using Mailchimp's Automated Welcome Email feature:

If the email address is found the phone number submitted is compared and updated if needed.

In both cases a Copper CRM Task is created to followup and is assigned to the user of your choice, plus Mailchimp sends a personalized welcome email.

You can even use Mailchimp to schedule automatic follow-ups, which is what we did for our Blink Reports Software Free Trial Sign-ups. This is another Google form we integrated to Copper CRM and to our Blink Reports for Xero Accounting software running in Python on Google App Engine/Google Cloud Platform. Mailchimp handles DRIP marketing to our free trial signups with a scheduled series of helpful emails.

In the case of the Contact Us Form 100% of the code runs inside the Google Cloud using Google Apps Script. The benefits are speed, simplicity, reliability, and security. It's all managed by Google's massive Cloud Computing resources and the world's best security team. All security for editing the online form and reviewing past form submissions in Google Sheets is managed by your existing Google Account logins.

Here's a code excerpt for the techies like me:

So what does it cost?

• It's FREE if we can become your G Suite license Reseller for 10 or more users, which is at no additional cost to you.
• Otherwise cost is $10 per month plus a small setup fee of $99 with discounts available for buying less than 10 G Suite users through us
• Mailchimp is free for up to 2,000 subscribers or $10/month for unlimited emails

Certainly reach out to us at http://www.interlockit.com/Home/contact-us to sign up or send us any questions you may have!

Google Drive Backup and Sync for Google G Suite

As we discussed in our prior post Google Drive Backup and Sync plus Google Drive Streaming both work great with your Google G Suite for Business account.

In this post we'll show you how to backup your documents folder, Quicken files, photos and videos with Google Drive.

Google Drive Backup and Sync can both Backup and Sync files to your computer but we recommend turning off the Sync feature and using Google Drive Streaming with your G Suite account. This avoids the consumption of hard drive space and the security risks of storing files locally on your computer.

Download Drive Back and Sync here: https://www.google.com/drive/download/backup-and-sync/ and run the executable to start the installation.

During the initial setup choose the folders you would like to backup, but don't turn on Drive Sync.

Your preferences should look something like this:

Note that we've chosen to backup various folders from the Home Theatre PC (HTPC) including my kid's local user directories where their valuable Minecraft levels are saved. 

We've also enabled the uploading of photos and videos to Google Photos. This way any new photos saved to the selected folders on the local drive from my Sony camera are automatically stored in Google Photos and accessible from any device anywhere, anytime. You can choose Original quality or the free unlimited High quality mode.

Note the "Removing items" option. If you want files you delete in Google Drive from the cloud or from the local computer to be deleted everywhere without prompting then choose "Remove items everywhere". You can also be prompted to remove items or you can choose not to delete items on other devices which may leave lots of orphaned files behind.

If you have a large amount of data to backup the initial backup could take many days to complete but once finished it will only upload the changes as they occur.

If your G Suite license is for G Suite Basic ($5/user/month) you can store up to 30 GB of files, photos (original quality), and emails. Upgrading to G Suite for Business will give you Unlimited storage for $10/user/month (1 TB/user if 5 or less users on the domain).

G Suite for Business at $10/user/month is one of the most cost effective unlimited storage options available since it includes the full G Suite of software, Google Vault and more in the price. Dropbox charges $10/user/month for 1 TB of storage but it does not include email, calendar, Google Docs, Google Meet video conferencing, Google Sites, etc.

Google Drive Backup and Sync is also an excellent replacement to Crashplan who exited the consumer backup space this year.

Certainly contact us at Interlockit.com for assistance or to upgrade to G Suite Unlimited storage!

Is your company domain safe from spoofing?

There's no doubt that in the last two decades email has become the backbone and primary source of business communication. Businesses rely heavily on emails to communicate internally with their own staff as well as externally with clients and partners. Gmail alone has well over one billion monthly active users. Such heavy email dependency requires immense reliability and security. Unfortunately, we find many businesses are unaware that their backend mail settings are not configured for optimum reliability and security.

When it comes to securing Gmail admin settings, it's crucial to have the correct DNS (Domain Name Settings) configured to prevent domain spoofing. What's domain spoofing? In simple terms, it's the unauthorized use of a third-party domain name, primarily in an email message, in order to pretend to be someone else. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are all security standards followed in G Suite applications to keep your domain safe. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records allow the user to easily identify spam messages for their domain. DKIM (Domainkeys Identified Mail) attaches a new domain name identifier and encrypts the message to validate authorization for the message, and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) allows the user to instruct how Gmail handles unauthenticated emails coming from within the domain. These may all sound complicated but are quite necessary to keep your users and domain safe. Use the Google Toolbox MX checker to see if your domain is configured correctly. If there are issues you will see the following prompt when you run the check:

If this is what you see when you check your domain, contact us! We highly recommend using an expert to configure these security protocols as we've seen customers claim their IT staff has already set these up, only to find out later that it was configured incorrectly. This cost of properly setting these protocols up is negligible in comparison to the potential damage they prevent.

In our several years of experience, we've seen users simply don't realize the importance of having the proper DNS records set up, simply because it was not given importance or because it was too complicated for their IT staff to configure correctly. To help our cloud friends enjoy a safe and secure domain, InterlockIT will clean up your DNS records for FREE in exchange of transferring your G Suite subscription to us as your reseller (some conditions apply). It's a win win since you get free assistance to protect your domain as well as all the benefits of having a Google Cloud Partner. Contact us today and lets secure your domain!