Feronia Inc.: Bringing a Company Together with Google Apps

Founded in 2008, agricultural enterprise Feronia Inc. has spent the last several years pursuing a far-reaching ambition: to develop large-scale, sustainable agriculture in Africa. Based in the Democratic Republic of Congo and with a network covering thousands of square miles, Feronia is a formidable operation that has quickly built itself a prominent reputation within the DRC and beyond— it is not only one of the largest employers in the DRC, but also the first African agri-business to be listed on a North American Stock Exchange.

Of course, overseeing such a large network of 4000 employees spread throughout a developing nation larger than the size of Western Europe that includes three palm oil plantations, a farming operation, and headquarters in Kinshasa, was a sizable task for the company in the beginning.

“There were virtually no communications [systems] on the plantations– it was very ad hoc.” says Bill Dry, Chief Executive Officer of Feronia. Everything from daily operational demands like time logs to “big picture” details like the refurbishment of the plantations were stalled again and again by a lack of a manageable and comprehensive system of communication across the enterprise.

“If you can imagine,” Dry elaborates, “these plantations have been operating for 100 years in very remote locations… to run our business on a daily basis we need information and reporting.”

Making day to day operations manageable… in a country the size of Western Europe

Feronia decided to reach out to Interlockit for a viable and sustainable solution, and found it with Google Apps. “We made a strategic decision to [migrate] on to Google,” says Dry. “It was the best solution for our company and in the region. With 4000 people, we have payrolls to do, cash to move around… we need up-to-date numbers to do our business. In the past, this was a very difficult thing to do. Now, we’ve got the daily input we need to manage our business.” 

The retrofit of the plantations was also facilitated by the transition. “With a big refurbishment program and bringing equipment in from overseas, we have to schedule all of our plans and paperwork… Before, this was taking a long time to filter down to headquarters— now we can get [the information] on a daily basis.”


Enjoying the benefits of communication

An unexpected benefit of migrating to Google Apps was what it did for company morale. Many of Feronia’s managers are based in rural areas on-site at plantations and isolated from their families in the capital city of Kinshasa. The flexibility of Google Apps communication interface has made it dramatically easier for these key players to stay in touch with their families. This has eliminated stress and increased productivity for the company. “In addition to being an excellent communication tool, [Gmail] is also a very good social tool,” says Dry, “It means that our workers are more content working there.”

Plus, with Google Apps the company is able to fulfill an obligation not only to its employees, but also to the 45,000 people who live within the vicinity of their plantations. “We are the only business in those regions… we have a lot of people relying on us. Prior to us taking over, there were no communications in place for those workers.” Now with Google Apps in place, the company is able to support a communication infrastructure for the entire community. This has resulted in some considerable savings for the company, according to Dry. “When you have had zero communication, just the delay of trying to operate on a daily basis has a huge [financial] impact on the business.” Since implementing Google Apps to facilitate daily operations and communications, the company has experienced thousands of dollars in cost savings on a monthly basis. 

Google Apps also helped facilitate relationships with current and potential shareholders outside the DRC, according to Sangeet Sood, President & CEO of Osaka Capital, the firm that handles Feronia’s investor relations. “We track all conversations with investors [with Google Apps] through our CRM,” says Sood, “that’s how we do a lot of our outreach. Everything is connected seamlessly from our email into our database of contacts which is thousands of names, actually. The integration has made it very easy to successfully communicate with our investors.”


Looking to a productive future with a sustainable solution 

In the end, one of the biggest assets for Feronia in partnering with Google Apps is that, as an agri-business focused on sustainability, Feronia was able to align itself with a solution in lockstep with its company ethos. Feronia has always been focused on pursuing a green agenda in its operations across its enterprise and was pleased to be able to eliminate the need (and energy drain) of extensive servers by pursuing an environmentally efficient cloud-based strategy with Google Apps.

Moving forward, Feronia sees Google Apps as the right fit for expanding the company’s business and operations. Plans are in place to grow Feronia’s farming operation using a Brazilian model of farming that is new to the DRC— a user-friendly and comprehensive communication system is just what Feronia needs to make this work. Plus, Google Apps flexibility and user-friendly structure is a system that Feronia knows it can grow with, whether they are relying on young, tech-savvy graduates or older management who are unfamiliar with technology. “We know as we move forward that more people in the company will use it more, understand it more and we’ll benefit more.”

Google Docs copy

Google Docs for your iPad vs iCloud

I've led a few iPad training classes for the Toronto/Mississauga branch of a company with 75,000 users on Google Apps.  They've been lots of fun because gadget guys like me that love to figure out cool ways to get things done get paid to show our tricks.

A common question is how do I easily sync presentations, pictures, pdf's, and documents from my desktop to my iPad and back again with iTunes or iCloud?  Well, don't...  It's easier to use Google Docs to store all your files in the cloud so you don't have to remember to sync and fiddle with iTunes

When you open for example a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet on the iPad from your Google Docs the Google servers automatically image it and display it.  At the bottom you can tap on Download to open the file in your iPad's viewer instead.

Not sure how to access your Google Docs from your iPad?  Install the Google Search App and it provides you with convenient icons to access your Docs, Photos, etc.

With more downloads than Angry Birds, Keynote for the iPad is an extremely popular application.  If you need to import Powerpoint presentations into Keynote for offline presenting first upload them to Google Docs from your desktop and make sure you don't convert it to the Google Presentations format.  On your iPad from Safari (not from the Google Search Apps embedded browser) visit http://docs.google.com.  Open the Powerpoint presentation from your Google Docs, scroll to the bottom and tap the Download link.  Now watch the top right for a black bar to appear with a button to open in Keynote.  If you miss it tap just below the standard Safari grey bar.  Click open in Keynote.  Viola, your presentation is now imported into Keynote and ready to go; no need to sync with iTunes or be anywhere near a computer.

Stating the obvious for regular Google Docs users now... but it's even better when you do everything in Google Documents, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Presentations format because team members can all collaborate on the document at the exact same time.  iPads can even edit Google Documents and Google Spreadsheets in real time.

If your team member made last minute revisions to the Google Presentation you don't need to even ask if you have the latest version.  Just open it from Google Docs on your iPad and start your presentation.

Certainly contact us at Interlockit.com if your team could benefit from our iPad training.

We're blushing... Prescient Power shows off a Solve360 report we built in the forums

We've been building custom reports like this with Google Apps Script in Google Spreadsheets for customers since 2010.  This is the first time our work has shown up in the forums.  Thank you Carl for sharing this!

You can view the forum thread at http://norada.com/forums/viewthread/2663/.  Scroll down to Nov. 20th, 2011

"wow - I guess Interlockit have some wizardry in their team!  Nice report - this is exactly what I need."
   --Q

"These custom reports are a really nice touch. Well done to interlockit for demonstrating this capability."
  --davieboy

"Just superb for management reporting and KPI tracking - forcing the “so what?“ question much more than you might expect."
   --Carl

Lifehacker says "Gmail is the best email client around"

Lifehacker says "Gmail is the best email client around..." and provides some advanced tips in today's posting. Note Google Apps users should install "Google Apps desktop features" from Advanced Tools in your Google Apps Administrator Control Panel instead of the other notifier utilities mentioned for changing your default email client on Windows. Also SmartLabels we think overcomplicates things so not recommended. Otherwise lots of advanced tips to help make you a Gmail Ninja.

http://lifehacker.com/5861810/master-the-new-gmail-with-these-tips-shortcuts-and-add+ons?tag=gmail

Google+

Gmail app for iOS available in the App Store

We've been using this since it was originally released on Nov. 2nd. Definitely recommended for Google Apps users on iPhone or iPad. You get the familiar Gmail user interface both on-line and offline... and this was developed nearby by Canadian Google Engineers.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/introducing-gmail-app-for-iphone-ipad.html

P.S. You can also see this post on Google+ 

More flexible mobile device management with Google Apps

Security and management of mobile devices has been holding back many corporate enterprises from embracing iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

Google just enhanced the ability to manage iOS and Android devices from Google Apps: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-flexible-mobile-device-management.html

No servers required; just turn it on.

You can still use Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) for managing your Blackberry devices with Google Apps.

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.”

Gartner Says Google Gmail has close to 50% of the market for enterprise cloud email.

Gartner Says Google Gmail has close to half of the market for enterprise cloud email.  The enterprise cloud email market is still in its infancy at 3 to 4 percent of the overall enterprise email market.

This estimate is extremely close to an independent estimate we had a peak at recently.  It confirms what we already know that Google Apps is the email platform of the future.  I agree that if you're a big bank like CIBC Gmail might not be ready for you yet but we know that all the major Canadian banks are watching it closely.

We focus on Small and Medium Businesses with the occasional Enterprise Google Apps implementation thrown into the mix.  It's so awesome to every day implement for our customers the email, calendaring, and document collaboration tools the big enterprises are wishing they had today.

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.

Office 365 vs Google Apps

We're implementing both Office 365 and Google Apps for customers and are often asked how do they compare?

A lot depends ultimately on your comfort level with change. Microsoft Office 365 has little impact on your current processes and usage of Outlook and nicely takes away the hassles of managing your own servers. However, if you're working on multiple platforms such as Linux and Mac then those users will have to live without features available only to the Windows based users.

Set aside trying to compare Microsoft Office Word, Excel versus Google Docs, Spreadsheets as they coexist very happily. Your power users will still want the advanced features of Excel and Word but users may find everything they need in Google Docs and organically adapt to its simplicity and collaboration tools that avoid the version nightmare often created by file attachments.

• From a long term cost, simplicity, and reliability standpoint Google Apps wins.
• From the minimizing the costs of change standpoint Microsoft Office 365 wins.
• For Mobile devices Office 365 handles email, calendar, and contacts well across most platforms but Google Apps takes it a step further and provides simple document sharing and even document editing on iPads and Android devices.
• From a rapid innovation, no upgrades/patches to manage, and easy to use collaboration standpoint Google Apps wins.

The Microsoft Cloud Office 365 solution depends heavily on client installed software such as Outlook and Lync for the full experience. Lync for example is ~65 Mb in size and provides the instant messaging, video, audio, and phone calls but doesn't work on the Mac or Linux platform. Google Apps provides a web browser based solution for this that works on most platforms and even mobile devices.

Office 365 is still an excellent step forward and ideal for eliminating some of the costs of managing servers.

As a solution provider focused exclusively on Cloud products we can discuss the pros and cons of each platform relative to your specific needs. We can provide a lengthy detailed document on the differences that can only come from the experience we have implementing both products, but what's most important is which product best aligns to your current needs and long term business goals.

Contact us at Interlockit.com and we'll help you succeed with business technology in the Cloud.

Data Roaming Plans

Since we're constantly configuring our customer's mobile devices to work with Google Apps and Office 365 we're frequently asked for advice on what to do when travelling to the U.S. with your phone.

In February of last year I provided details on how to save money on roaming by swapping your Rogers SIM card for an AT&T SIM card.

MobileSyrup today published the latest data roaming rates from Rogers and it's still extremely expensive; making the hassles of unlocking your phone and swapping your SIM card still worthwhile.

I made 2 recent trips into the U.S. and spent $25 USD for a 500 Mb prepaid data plan on AT&T which would have cost $200 CAD from Rogers. Plus I paid $15 and switched on the $2 per day plan for unlimited voice and text compared to $40 for 40 minutes through Rogers. AT&T only charges you the $2 if you use the phone on that day and you can choose to pay $0.10 per minute instead.

I'm a pretty heavy user of data plans since I make my Android phone a portable Wi-Fi hotspot for my tablet and notebook so 100 Mb doesn't last long on the road.

Contact us at Interlockit.com with any questions about your mobile device so we can keep you highly productive on the go.

Blair Collins from Interlockit.com will be presenting at the Entrepreneurial Masters Program

Blair Collins from Interlockit.com will be presenting at the Entrepreneurial Masters Program at MIT in Boston on June 25th.  The topic is "What Cloud Computing, the next big trend, really means to your business."

The Entrepreneurial Masters Program brings together 65 remarkable entrepreneurs – each a company Founder or Co-Founder who leads a company that grosses more than US$1 million — for four days on a suburban campus of MIT.

For more details on the program visit http://events.eonetwork.org/emp.

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.

Smartphone Services

Future Shop has announced that starting today their ConnectPro team provides Smartphone Services.

The challenge is that you need to understand the nuances of the back end email systems like Google Apps to configure it right the first time.

We've setup hundreds of mobile phones for our customer's and the majority arrive from the store or cell phone carrier configured poorly.  Blackberry, iPhone, Android all can do Calendar and Contact sync over the cell network without having to "plug in".

Get the setup wrong and you can duplicate or corrupt your calendar and contacts easily.  Be cautious hiring your regular computer technician to implement Google Apps as we've cleaned up lots of messes lately.   Doing it right the first time costs less.

We can fully understand why lots of errors are made; on an iPhone you add your Google Apps account with the Microsoft Exchange icon so that it uses ActiveSync.  Not terribly intuitive since there's a Google Mail icon right below it...

Contact us at Interlockit.com for a professional implementation of Google Apps and configuration of your mobile phone for email, calendar, and contacts.  We'll get your entire company and all your devices working in sync.

Google Apps Directory Sync Exclude Organization

With release 2.01 of Google Apps Directory Sync you can exclude organizations within your Google Apps domain from being sychronized.  This avoids having to individually exclude accounts like administrators or any other account that isn't in your LDAP or Active Directory.

However, there is zero documentation provided and we've found that only substring match will work.

Note also that there is an issue we confirmed with Google support that should be fixed in a future release where this exclusion rule will not work on any usernames that contain capital letters.  So if the username is Username@yourdomain.com instead of username@yourdomain.com this exclusion rule won't work on that account.  We had to use the GAM command line tool to rename some accounts to work around this issue for a customer.

If you would like some assistance with Google Apps Directory Sync feel free to contact Interlockit.com.

2nd Interlockit.com team member becomes a Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist

We now have 2 staff members who are officially Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialists.

Once again we have demonstrated our high level of expertise and focus on Google Apps deployments since 2009.

How many Certified Deployment Specialists does your IT provider have?

Interlockit.com team member officially becomes a Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist

Adoption of Google Apps is accelerating around the world with over 3 million businesses that have gone Google.  The Google partner community has more than doubled in the last year to over 2,500 partners in over 70 countries.

As far as we can tell less than 150 people have passed the Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist exam.  Interlockit.com is pleased to be able to further differentiate ourselves in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Interlockit.com has successfully migrated over 2,500 users to Google Apps.  Deploying Google Apps is what we love to do!

Does your current provider have any Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialists on staff?

Blackberry Protect and remote wipe of mobile phones

What would happen if you suddenly lost your phone?  Does your phone auto lock with a PIN?  Can you wipe the data?  Can you remotely locate it?

RIM has just released Blackberry Protect for free to all North American users via the Blackbery App World.  You can use Blackberry Protect to locate, remotely lock, or wipe data from your Blackberry device if it is lost or stolen.  We recommend this software to all blackberry customers that are not running Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES).

Android and Windows Mobile devices can use Lookout Mobile Security which provides similar features.

Your phone has highly valuable personal information.  Grab some piece of mind now by installing one of these utilities on your phone.