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?"