Google defines 100% Web

Google today posted an excellent article about bringing customers to a world they call 100% web. Interlockit.com has helped numerous customers move their businesses to the cloud ranging from 1000's of users to sole proprietors. Defining the vision we share of 100% web will help future customers better spot the numerous cloud pretenders.

"This year cloud computing went mainstream, and the conversations moved beyond "this is a way to cut costs" to "this is a better way to run my business."  While many IT vendors have now adopted (or co-opted) the term “cloud computing” to describe a wide variety of technologies, most don’t deliver on the true promise of the cloud. Hosting single-tenant server products in a data center is not cloud computing. Nor is requiring customers to install thick client software. These solutions lock-in customers to multi-year release cycles, leave them with the significant costs of managing client software, and expose sensitive data on insecure devices."

You can read the complete Google Enterprise blog post here

How to create mailing labels from Google Apps

After much experimenting here is a way to do mailing labels from your Google Apps for Business/Premier Edition contacts:

1. If you're only using Google Apps from the web interface, install Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook (requires Business Edition), don't import anything, run it, and allow it to finish loading your contacts.  No need to wait for it to sync the first 1 Gb of your email.
2. Open Microsoft Word (2007 or 2010 in my case), choose Mailings, Start Mail Merge, Labels, and select your label format.  Mine was Avery US Letter 5160 Easy Peel Address Labels.
3. Click Select Recipients, Select from Microsoft Outlook Contacts.  (You can fine tune the filters and the list of contacts again later by clicking Edit Recipient List from the toolbar.)
4. Click Address Block, Match Fields.  Beside "Address 1" choose "Home Address" or "Business Address" appropriately.  Change all the remaining address fields such as "City" to "(not matched)".  Since addresses in Google Apps are free format they don't parse consistently into the appropriate fields so choosing Home Address in Address 1 and clearing the rest of the fields gets around this problem.
5. Click Update Labels to make all the labels the same format.  Click Preview Results.
6. Select All (Ctrl-A) and change fonts, sizes, and line spacing according to your preferences.
7. Finish and Merge to a new document for further editing or send it to the printer.  You're all done!

P.S. I tried exporting the contacts into Google csv or Outlook csv format,  and converting them to an Excel spreadsheet using Excel or Google Spreadsheets but this gave me too many issues with the formatting of the addresses.  Maybe your contact list is cleaner than mine.  If you know another way that works well please share the knowledge and post a comment.

Family members, your Christmas cards on their way...

How to synchronize your Google Apps Calendar and Contacts with your Blackberry smartphone

As posted here on the official Blackberry blog, phones with Device Software 5.0 or higher can do wireless calendar and contacts synchronization without installing Google Apps Sync for Blackberry on the phone.

We've tested this out and it works but there are a few caveats:

• It causes many duplicates whereas we have not seen this issue with the Google Sync tool.  You can use the Google Apps Contact Merge option to clean them up later.
• You can't tell the phone to "Sync Now" like you can from the Google Sync icon.   If you create a contact on the phone it is immediately added to Google Apps.  However, we added a contact to Google Apps and after 3 hours it still hadn't arrived on the phone.  It's definitely not a push contact sync like Google Apps with the iPhone or Android.
• You can't sync multiple calendars like the Google Sync tool can.
• You can't specify how many weeks forward and back to keep in sync.

So the only advantage is that you don't have to install the Google Sync tool on your phone.

We recommend continuing to use the Google Sync for Blackberry tool.

Certainly give us a call at interlockit.com for assistance.

Android wallops Blackberry

Back on March 21, 2010 I blogged about the cost savings of using Android phones.

The Globe and Mail reports that Android phones account for a dominant 44 percent of the consumer smartphone market in Q3 2010

We're big proponents of the cloud because we're saving corporations lots of money on their IT and putting them on a continuous innovation curve; but we'll miss the billable hours from configuring Blackberries. :)

With an Android phone you sign it into your Google Apps account and you're done.  Email, Calendar, and Contact sync starts working immediately.

Tip:  Only buy phones with version 2.1 or greater of the Android OS.  And make sure the manufacturer is going to upgrade it to version 2.2 which is faster and adds flash player support.

In Canada we recommend the Google Nexus One from Videotron, Samsung Galaxy S from Rogers, HTC Desire from Telus, Motorola Milestone from Telus, and the HTC Desire Z from Bell

Enjoy!

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.

Why the iPad and iPhone need cloud based applications

Some might decry that the lack of a physical keyboard and the limitation of only being able to install applications from the App Store mean that the iPad can't be used for "real" business work.

But if your company is already using cloud based solutions like Google Apps, or Salesforce.com the iPad is perfect for the business professional on the go who doesn't need a full laptop.

And soon Google will release the ability to edit Google documents on an iPad or Android device allowing you to edit a spreadsheet from your iPad simultaneously with a co-worker on an office PC.

P.S. We've seen many iPad and iPhone users incorrectly setup their phones using IMAP, POP3, or the Google Mail icon on their phone.  Yes, it's counterintuitive but a Google Apps account gives you Email, Calendar, and Contacts sync via Microsoft Exchange Active Sync technology on the iPad or iPhone.  The official Google iPad and iPhone setup instructions are available here.

Or give us a call at Interlockit.com and we'll walk you through it.

70% of Canadians have a wireless device

Integration with mobile devices is a critical component of any email and document management solution.

A study released by firm iSuppli Corp shows that 73.4% of the earth's population has a mobile phone.  In Canada, 70% of our population has a wireless device.

You can join a live webinar for businesses on 9/23: Google Apps for mobile.  Click here for more details and to register.

For additional reading:

• http://www.isuppli.com/Mobile-and-Wireless-Communications/News/Pages/Global-Wireless-Subscriptions-Reach-5-Billion.aspx 
• http://mobilesyrup.com/2010/09/21/73-4-percent-of-the-earth%E2%80%99s-population-has-a-mobile-phone/

Two-factor authentication for Google Apps released

This is powerhouse stuff that was normally only available to larger enterprises...  Organizations like the brokerage house BMO-Nesbitt Burns use expensive RSA SecurID two-factor authentication solutions for employee remote access.  Google is bringing the same two-factor authentication capability to our Google Apps customers through the use of mobile phones for no additional cost.

Ultimately any system open to the Internet is only as secure as your passwords.  The problem with passwords is that employees tend to over use them across many websites and systems.  Even if you force regular password changes many employees will rotate a single character leaving it easy for former employees to guess.

With two-factor authentication the employee must supply the password (something they know) and a one-time verification code from their mobile phone (something they have).

Only cloud computing can deliver rapid innovations like two-factor authentication at such a low cost and with no upgrades to install.

And by the way, 1 million businesses have adopted Google Apps in less than 12 months bringing the total to 3 million businesses and 30 million users.

At Interlockit.com we're always available to help with your Google Apps setup.

For more details visit: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-secure-cloud-for-millions-of.html

Google Apps User Rename

There are more friendly tools for renaming Google Apps users that you can purchase but GAM (Google Apps Manager) is free and can do user renaming plus much more:
http://code.google.com/p/google-apps-manager/

It's command line driven.  We use it for various batch operations like turning off webclips for all Google Apps user accounts.

With the ability to rename users there is no need to backup and restore user accounts just to change their email address.

Google Apps: Rapid innovation in the cloud versus hosted applications

Wow, Google is rolling out a massive number of improvements to Google Apps in a short amount of time!  I count 87 entries so far on the blog for 2010, which is an average of  ~10 per month.

This is a fundamental difference between true cloud computing and the hosting of applications.  Quickbooks for example (not Quickbooks online which is not availabe in Canada), is an excellent accounting application but having it hosted doesn't elimininate the work of installing patches, learning the significant changes from the prior version, and preparing for any major impact to your current business processes.  However, for certain businesses hosting Quickbooks in a data centre is a great option that eliminates the headaches of running your own servers, provides simple remote access, and ensures backups are stored offsite.  At Interlockit.com we've helped customers move a variety of applications into data centres but we always do a cost comparison to the alternatives before making the recommendations.  Sometimes the hardware or software requirements mean running it on the customer's own servers is the better option.

I like this analogy from one of the articles below:  "Buying the services of a traditional hosting provider is like renting a set of electricity generators, whereas a cloud computing provider provides an electrical power grid. The idea is that a cloud computing provider makes it extra easy to treat computing resources like a pay-as-you-go utility service."

NetSuite, SuccessFactors, Salesforce.com, Freshbooks, these are all true cloud computing applications that provide continuous innovation for all of their customers.  The learning curve is small because small changes are made on a continuous basis.

Remember the big learning curve when switching from Microsoft Office 2003 to 2007?

Subscribe to the Google Apps official blog to keep up with all the changes at http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/

Subscribe to the Microsoft Online Services/BPOS blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/msonline/

For additional reading:

• Salesforce CEO: Private cloud is not real cloud 
• The differences between Hosting and Cloud Hosting 
• Cloud Computing versus traditional hosting

Google Apps IT Executive Summit in Toronto

Join Interlockit.com and the Google team in Toronto to discuss if Google Apps – the cloud-based suite of email, calendar, IM, and collaboration tools – is right for you. You'll hear from a customer why they switched, their experiences with deployment, and most importantly, the results. We'll also provide an overview of our Postini services which include spam and virus filtering. This will be a great opportunity to talk with other IT professionals and Google representatives on moving to a cloud-based model, and how to evaluate the benefits of Google Apps for your company. You'll learn: • Why companies have switched • How Google manages security and privacy • Best practices for deploying Google Apps • How to effectively implement change management

	When Thursday, August 26 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
	Where Delta Chelsea Hotel 33 Gerrard Street West Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1Z4
	RSVP Register today. Space is limited so please RSVP early and answer "Interlockit" in the field "Who invited you to this event?"

Do Canadians avoid Cloud Computing due to the Patriot Act?

Having sold U.S. based SaaS solutions for over 5 years we occasionally encounter prospective Canadian customers that use the U.S. Patriot Act as an excuse to avoid cloud computing.

Note that as far as the Federal Government knows the Patriot Act has never been used to access Canadian data.  Consider also that your customer's data is far more secure on Microsoft's or Google's servers than it ever will be on their own server in their own office.

My editorial opinion is that ensuring you have secure passwords is far more important than being concerned about the very remote possibility that the U.S. government might access your data.  1 in 3 Canadian jobs is related to international trade; to require the data to be located in Canada limits a business' opportunity to utilize the best solution at the best price and makes us less competitive in the global market. 

Would you be willing to pay 5 to 10 times more for the same service in Canada?  I did the costing analysis with 2 large SaaS companies and that was the reality of the numbers.

For further reading:

• Treasury Board of Canada: Frequently Asked Questions: USA PATRIOT ACT Comprehensive Assessment Results
• IT World Canada: Don’t use the Patriot Act as an excuse

June 2010: 88% of all email is spam

According to Symantec, in the month of June 2010 88% of all email was spam.

So in other words 88% of the traffic handled by your on-premise email server is unwanted.  Why pay for the wasted bandwidth or manage hardware and software for something that is easily managed externally for a very reasonable cost?

The two major players in hosted spam management and email archival are Symantec MessageLabs and Google Postini.

Our recommendation is Google Postini.  It protects over 18 million users, is straightforward to configure, can be automatically synchronized to your Microsoft Exchange/Active Directory (or LDAP), and costs less.

• Postini TCO calculator

At Interlockit.com we're happy to make the deployment process painless for you.

Interlockit.com and Microsoft BPOS

We've officially become a Microsoft Partner for Microsoft Online Services.  Microsoft BPOS gives your business the powerful productivity of Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online, Office Communications Online, and Office Live Meeting starting at $12.50 per user per month.  All services are hosted in the cloud by Microsoft and are easy to setup without the upfront costs of an on-premise deployment.

This is a natural addition to our cloud computing service offerings at Interlockit.com since we have deep experience in migrating data from legacy systems like Microsoft Exchange or other POP3/IMAP based systems.  We're also experienced in synchronizing user lists from Active Directory to cloud based services eliminating the need to manage users in two places.

Cloud Computing is a disruptive wave that provides cheaper, more convenient, and simpler business solutions that work!

Google Apps Directory Sync: Tips for Microsoft Active Directory

The Google Apps Directory Sync tool really should be installed at any mid to large corporation using a Microsoft Windows Server (or any LDAP compatible directory server).  It eliminates the need to add, change, or delete users in two different places.

LDAP Directory Sync is definitely complex with a steep learning curve.  You need a good understanding of how to create LDAP queries as there are only limited examples in the provided documentation.  However, once it's configured there should be little reason to change it.

It's our experience that in most installations you'll need one configuration file for synchronizing Users, Profiles, and Contacts and another configuration file for Groups.

If you're migrating in batches from an email server such as Exchange Server to Google Apps it's best to synchronize only users that are a member of a Security Group such as "Google Apps Users".  That way the user is created in Google Apps only after they've been made a member of the security group.

Here's a sample LDAP user query: 

(memberOf=CN=Google Apps Users,OU=Security Groups,DC=domainname,DC=local)

Replace OU=Security Groups,... with the appropriate location in your Active directory tree of the security group.

And note that Google Postini has the same ability to synchronize to Microsoft Active Directory or your LDAP directory server.

Or give us a call at Interlockit.com.  We're happy to configure it for you.

Google Apps and Docs misconceptions

The Microsoft camp frequently points out how Microsoft Office has all the features that businesses want right now and therefore wants you to conclude that you don't need Google Apps, but this misses the main point; Google Docs are complementary to Microsoft Office.

Google Docs has been providing rich real-time collaboration to millions of users for nearly four years.  You can edit and share documents from the browser from anywhere in the world.  A growing number of corporations are using it as their primary productivity software but there's no need to.

Google Docs makes Office 2003 and 2007 better because you can store any file in Google's cloud and share them in their original format with anyone on the internet.  No more guessing if you have the latest version.

Google Docs represents a real alternative for companies: a chance to get the collaboration features you need today and end the endless cycle of "upgrades".

Try it out free for 30 days.  The only thing you have to lose is a server or two.

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/05/upgrade-here.html

More applications coming for Google Apps Customers

More applications for Google Apps will reduce customer training time on why their Google Apps accounts don't work on Picasa and other handy Google services.  Currently your Google Apps login id will only work on the core messaging and collaboration applications forcing customers to use a personal gmail account for the rest.

The overhaul is expected this fall.  More details can be found here: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-google-applications-coming-for.html

Last blog post... 4 weeks ago. What kept us busy in April

Lots on the go but having tons of fun.  Here's some of the things that kept us busy in April at Interlockit.com:

• Interlockit.com is mentioned in a PC World Article on Google Apps Sync for Outlook - note our mention of the improved return on investment with the web interface over sticking with outlook.  I am an accountant (CMA) after all...
• Hiring and mentoring of new technical staff members
• Joint presentations with Google Canada on Google Apps to a large group of franchisees in the transportation industry.  It was very successful... We'll share the exciting details in the future
• Lots of client deployments of Google Apps
• Received official Canadian reseller status for a brand of high quality internet routers.  Google Apps shines when we clean up the customer's internet connectivity and massively improve throughput and reliability.  We'll broadcast more details once we have the e-commerce site up and running
• and... my vote for best new feature among many released for Google Apps Premier Edition in April is Drag and drop file attachments

Another Update: Migrating from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps now even easier

I've configured and fixed many Microsoft Exchange email implementations over the years but have never hung out my shingle as a Microsoft Exchange guru.  Having now put the Google apps exchange migration tool through its paces in the wild...

Here is my opinion that I'd enjoy hearing different perspectives on:

Migrating from Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or 2007 to Google Apps Premier Edition is easier and less costly than upgrading to Exchange 2007 or 2010 respectively.

To help out those that currently use Microsoft Exchange:

• Feature debate: Exchange wins in some areas
• Prefer to manage your own in-house servers: Exchange wins
• Entire company loves Outlook: Exchange wins, or maybe not?
• Too much important historic email sitting in Outlook offline email archives: winner?

I'll pause there.  Please comment publicly on blog.  We do moderate all postings but only for politeness, not for opposing opinions.

Update: Migrating from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps now even easier

We've put the new Microsoft Exchange migration tool through its paces and it's definitely delivering beyond expectations.

What is most impressive is the ability to do parallel processing.  It's now feasible for us to migrate hundreds of users in a single night.  Thousands of users could be done over a weekend with lots of time to spare.

This tool will definitely reduce the cost of customer migrations.