Posts Tagged ‘Google Apps’

Jamie Rosenberg, Google’s Director of Digital Content, recently posted on Google’s official blog about the new Google Play integrated service.  It allows you to store your books, movies, apps and games on the cloud, and then lets you access them from whatever Google device you desire.  This is a smart move that not only helps remove the frustration of copying files from one place to another, but also helps Google future-proof against privacy — once users are using Cloud systems more often it will be easier for Google to ensure that you’re using paid-for apps and movies.

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Even if Google Apps users are already signed up with a Google Plus account, they have an option to import their current Google Plus account over to their Google Apps account.

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Microsoft accuses Google of being a liar. Google calls Microsoft a dastardly cur, sullying Google’s good name. Sure, they were never good friends, but here’s the hoop-la that’s made them what seem to be soap opera type enemies and the latest scuffle that’s kicking up a whole lot of dust.

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Manymoon co-founder and CEO Amit Kulkarni used his presentation at Freemium Summit East in New York Monday, “Leveraging Other Platforms to Build a Freemium Business,” to discuss how his company was able to leverage relationships with Google Apps and LinkedIn.

Kulkarni described Manymoon as a “social-productivity tool — I know that sounds like an oxymoron to a lot of people,” adding that it brings a social element to tasks, projects, and work flows, and helps users organize information. He added that some 30,000 businesses have signed up for Manymoon.

On leveraging other platforms in general, Kulkarni said, “Platform users are starving for added-value applications. Platform users are already accustomed to the self-service model. They find us. It cuts out a lot of resources. They are also used to providing support on their own.”

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Google Apps partner lead Scott McMullan used a panel titled “Lessons from Leaders at Scale” at Freemium Summit East in New York Monday morning to discuss how Google Apps has gone from zero users in 2007 to more than 30 million currently.

He described Google Apps as a “messaging and collaboration suite, sold to organizations and businesses,” along with Google Postini Services, pay products related to the suite.

Google Apps for Business is available in a Standard Edition, which accommodates up to 50 users and including messaging apps (Gmail, Google Calendar) and collaboration apps (Google Docs, Google Sites), as well as a Premier Edition, which has no user limit and adds features including Google Video, Google Groups, and 25 gigabytes of email storage per user.

In terms of the growth experienced by Google Apps, McMullan said it is signing up more than 3,000 new businesses daily, with a total of more than 3 million, adding that 10 million of its 30 million users are free, EDU (student) users. Google Apps has five editions (EDU, Standard, Premium, government, partner) supported by five sales teams (business development, online sales, telesales, field sales for enterprises, and field sales for federal, state, and local governments and Internet-service providers). Field sales target organizations with more than 3,000 users; telesales those with 100-3,000; and online focuses on those with 1-100.

The challenge McMullan mentioned was that the online sales team is competing with the free apps, but the bright spot: Google Apps’ diverse customer base brings more opportunity for add-ons, and its self-service DNA makes pilots easier and cheaper.

He concluded by mentioning two companies as case studies from its marketplace: Smartsheet, which has seen its conversion rate soar to three times that of pay-per-click advertising, and which has found cloud-savvy users easier to sell to and support; and SlideRocket, which has seen conversion rates of 2.5 times that of pay-per-click ads and a fivefold increase in seats per company, meaning the average company size of its buyers is larger.

One of the best new Google releases over the last few years has been Google Voice. The service provides you with a phone number and the ability to route one number to all your phones, or voice mail that routes to your Google account to make sure you can access it. The service is now available to all customers across the United States, no matter what carrier you want.

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