NZ Postal Services Group recently chose to adopt Google Apps to provide more innovative and invaluable collaboration tools for its more than 2500 staff. Hear why they decided to go Google, and how they expect Google Apps to transform the way their business operates. Learn more about bringing Google Apps to your organization at http://www.google.co.nz/appsatwork
Posts Tagged ‘google’
NZ Post’s Trace Voice Talks Google Apps [video]
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010Everything You Wanted To Know About Google — But Were Afraid To Search For!
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010[disclosure: I am part of the volunteers helping to create this event]
From Android to Wave, Google Apps for your company to SEO for your website AND everything in between …
http://nzgbc.org
Thursday 25th March, 2010: 8:30am-4pm
Bar Bodega, 101 Ghuznee Street, Wellington [map]
Ticket price: $0
Thursday 25th March, 2010: 8:30am-4pm
Bar Bodega, 101 Ghuznee Street, Wellington [map]
Ticket price: $0
The world’s first free and independent Google-centric barcamp* is being held in Wellington on Thursday 25th March (8:30am-4pm) and we at WaveAdept are chuffed to be amongst the plethora of local, national and international sponsors of this community run event.
Of course a Google-centric conference could probably run for a week trying to cover all aspects of the Google services so we’ll be concentrating WaveAdept’s efforts on how Google Enterprise services save costs and provide value to Kiwi companies.
We won’t, however, be using the event to push our services or Google products (that’s for the more traditional events) but trying to get into the guts of what we in New Zealand think of the Google Enterterprise services (particularly Google Apps). For instance I have popped a proposed topic of, “Support from Google, what it is, what it isn’t and what the gap is (and how to overcome it)” and Dave has just this minute added, “Biggest gaps – what is preventing wider adoption of Google Apps in your opinion, what is missing?”
We hope to not only see you all there (maximum of 150 spaces, over 80 have already been taken) but to have a good old yarn about Google which, let’s be honest, is a fascinating subject on so many levels.
* A barcamp is a normal conference with one major difference, it is run by the attendees. This truly comes into play when the conference schedule is generated by all the attendees during the registration time, so get in early and mold this conference to what you want to talk/hear about.
1 Reason You Shouldn’t Care About Microsoft vs Google In Cloud Approaches
Monday, February 22nd, 2010Having read the ReadWriteWeb’s article on the YouTube posting from Microsoft of their differences between Microsoft vs Google with their online apps offerings (one tried-and-tested, the other still in beta) we tend to agree that it is a little “defensive”. It does go to show, however, that Google is slowly coming under more and more pressure from Redmond as Microsoft focuses on cloud computing as their next generation of applications:
Microsoft has such a strong product in Microsoft Office. Microsoft Corp. President Stephen Elop seems to be someone who understands the interdependency of the Web ecosystem. But he has a tough road ahead if this kind of marketing continues from Microsoft.
We at WaveAdept are less concerned with the technology (as long as it works!) than what it delivers to the companies putting their hard earned dollars on the table to buy them. Once you have the tool set, be it Google Apps, Zoho, Microsoft BPOS or any other cloud offering, the real value comes not in the ’shiny ICT bullet IT’ but in how it both supports and extends the ability of the company to do what it is they are in business to do.
And so, check out the vids and then sit back and ask yourself, “What is it that any technology SHOULD be doing for us!” the features required will then fall out of that thinking and NOT the features themselves being the reason for chosing a toolset.
BTW: For another excellent post on the ongoing differences check out Wekadesign’s, “MS Exchange Local Vs Hosted Vs Google For 10,000 Users”
On with the next vid …
Google Gives You THREE Free Email Addresses Alongside @gmail
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Today I stumbled over this cracking blog post from way back in 2008: Wow! All Gmail Users Are Given Two Separate Email Addresses
When you create a Gmail account, you actually get two email addresses – one is the regular @gmail.com while the second email address has @googlemail.com in the domain.
That is cool and, as we always do at WaveAdept, I shared it on Twitter only to get this back from @Geekpulp:
you know if you have x.y@gmail.com xy@gmail.com also works. At least it does for me.
Wow, that’s another 2 free email addresses, and all without using the old ‘+’ trick.
So for my personal Gmail account I now have:
- miramar.mike@gmail.com – the one I signed up with
- miramar.mike@googlemail.com
- miramarmike@gmail.com
- miramarmike@googlemail.com
And so, does it work with a Google Apps account such as WaveAdept.com? Yes and No.
No, your Google Apps setup won’t do any of it without some simple admin work, darn it.
To get multiple domains (@waveadept.com / @waveadept.co.nz / @waveadepters.com …) your Google Apps administrator can quickly setup domain aliases. Once they have been verified (no, you can’t simply enter @microsoft.com and get their email!) emails for mike.riversdale@waveadepters.com will be automatically piped into the main mike.riversdale@waveadept.com Inbox.
Google Apps help: Domain aliases
Ok, so what about ‘mike.riversdale@’ vs ‘mikeriversdale@’?
Again, an administator can quickly add a “nickname” to the main mail address and you’re done.
Google Apps help: Nicknames
Picture credit: Gina Bianchini, Multiple Personalities
On Being An “Insert technology here” killer
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
All the mainstream tech blogs are going nuts about the recently revealed Google phone and touting it as “An iPhone killer”. This happens whenever there is a dominant technology or brand in any given marketplace. iPod killer was the previous notable one, i have heard twitter killer, and many many others.
The problem with this is that it’s blinkered. If you are aiming at the level of the industry leader, that is as high as you will ever get, and by then they will have moved on. The reason the iPhone has done so well is not because it was aiming at beating the previous incumbent, its because Apple completely ignored what anyone else was doing, started from ground level and basically redefined the playing field. A Microsoft rep I was chatting to a few weeks ago was complaining that the iPhone doesn’t do anything that other devices on the market don’t already do and may have done for quite some time. That’s possibly true, but what Apple did in that way that generally only they can do, is completely change the experience for the consumer. They made everything usable and useful.
One of the reasons we are big fans of the Google Apps product is that it does the same thing for the enterprise. Google are focussed on making it as easy as possible to get data into, and just as importantly out of it. Companies and organisations are now wary of being tied into “walled gardens” as they have been in the past – proprietary data formats, applications that only play well with applications from the same vendor etc. True, some of the Google applications do not have the functional richness of the legacy Microsoft/ lotus/ other apps, no-one is disputing that. The difference is that Google try to make it very easy for you to use their product alongside whatever else you may need.
I still keep up to date with all the major productivity suites on the desktop – i have copies of Microsoft Office and Open Office on this machine, but i find myself using them less and less, as the Google offering and other cloud offerings mature week on week. Having said that, I am excited to see the finished Microsoft online stuff coming in 2010 – if they can:
- Do the collaborative functions well
- Make the interface easy to use
- Promote interoperability with other systems, formats etc
- Not force me to download anything!
Then they will potentially have a fantastic product on their hands. Their major stumbling block may be that they are aiming at where the best cloud offerings are now – rather than aiming to redefine the rulebook again. By the middle of next year, everyone else will have moved on, so will they be playing catchup? Who knows…
To finish, i have high hopes of the Google Phone. So much so, that i have put together a little santa list of features that would make me switch. Don’t get me wrong, i love my iphone – it just works (cliched i know but never mind), but i am not a massive fan of how proprietary and closed Apple have made it. I don’t think the Nexus one will “kill” anything, but it will make the marketplace more open and interesting. So please Santa:
- Include a decent amount of storage or at least provision for it (50GB plus)
- Include a decent MP3 player/ podcast library/ online store so that i can get off itunes
- Good multitasking ability
- Decent on-screen keyboard.
- Give it decent battery life.
I have been very good – I promise! 
