Gmail for Business and Google Apps

[pmaior]

I have been tasked at my day job to come up with a way for our CEO to commuinicate with all the stores (20) In our company.

All stores have internet access so email would seem to be the obvious answer. But there are restrictions. Only certain email addresses can be received and sent to. This can be done with filtering, but requires a mail server. (Which we don't have. We use a hosted solution).

I found several options for hosting our own server or groupware, but I decided to check the big G. I am now leaning toward that solution.

Google has Gmail for business and Google Apps. I think they had a free version at one time, but now it is $50 per year per user. A free 30 day demo is available but you have to give a credit card number and get billed after 30 days.

Hoping some of you out there are using it or have used it and can give me some feedback.

THIS IS NOT REGULAR GMAIL. This is Gmail for BUSINESS.
Just want to be clear so I don't get feed back for gmail. Which I have and I think it is great, especially for spam protection. I actually forward another account to Gmail address to filter the spam out...

Thanks in advance to anybody that replies. I will update this thread with my review as well if I decide to go with "Gmail for Business"

Pablo

[russell]

I'm not really clear on what exactly you are needing to do.

If its just an email solution, I think google for business it perfect for a small business

[ShannonCherry]

Check the terms of service before opting into any google product. Many say you lose the some rights. (They index everything: email, google docs, etc) even if not public. Would you want your biz secrets out there?

[lynette]

I have been using Google Apps for my own business for several years now. Must say, have not needed to upgrade to paid (I have the free option) yet because it's just me and a handful of people so it's definitely not in the same leagues as your company.

As a software, I love the ability to manage the emails. I do not like email management and email servers at all that's putting it mildly and nicely. So going Apps is certainly the easiest, and even if I paid $50/year for it, I'd do it because there's just so many problems managing emails it's a full time job on its own.

I haven't managed enterprise email server before but have managed an email service (autoresponder, mailing list). Let's just say things can go to hell in a short period of time and cost you to sprout gray hairs instantly sorry for being so dramatic, email management and me is like oil and water we just don't get along so having someone host and manage it for me is a huge peace of mind. I believe it would be for many companies as well.

If you are concerned about Google as a company itself - I was told that Google Apps data is treated differently. In fact, you'll often find neat features in Gmail you won't get on Apps but that's OK with me. Also, sometimes not always, when Gmail goes down, Apps seems to work fine.

They say they have passed an independent 3rd party audit for security and privacy but - like everything else you sign up for, you can only take their word for it. So that part, it's entirely on your court.

By the way, the free version (Standard Edition) seems to be still here
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

For an organization your size, I'm not sure that's a good way to go. Premier customers do get priority.

If Google the company is a big thorn in your side have you looked at Zoho Business? They provide similar services.
http://business.zoho.com/biz/login/login.jsp

[pmaior]

Russell-

I'm not really clear on what exactly you are needing to do.

Say you are CEO and you have 20 stores with 20 managers that you want to be in communications with, but you only want them to be able to email you and other key staff members and only receive mail from same list.
I think it is overly paranoid and controlling, but that is the task.
Unfortunately, that is one thing google apps/gmail for biz does not do at this time. Hopefully they will be adding it soon. I really don't want to learn exchange server right now

Lynette: Thanks for the detailed response, helps greatly.

Thanks to others that posted as well. Keep it coming if you have more

Pablo

[lynette]

I think Google app used for small business only. So better to check terms and conditions before using it.

Not true. Some pretty big businesses and local governments use Apps and I think at one point they actually had a physical Appliance for it but don't quote me on that. My memory isn't the best at time

@pmaior Ah that little important bit slipped my notice. I saw this in the support forum that might help answer the question seem like you can limit email exchange within the domain but you have to have a Premier account which I don't so can't give personal experience.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/...621909f4&hl=en

[pmaior]

Lynnette:

Thanks for that link. I posted a question and will wait for the answer.

I will update here with response.


Side note:
I did find an open source program that would probably allow me to do this, but It was a bear to install and I could not get it working. It is called "Horde Groupware" .
I saw some disturbing results in the error log when trying to install, they had links to web sites. Which indicates, to me, that the code had been modified to include these hidden links. Without checking out every line of code, I am uncomfortable installing this program. The links are probably just for page rank, but you never know.

Pablo