I'm trying to figure out why exactly I would need Google Apps when it seems that I could just use gmail with POP settings and calendars shared with other members of the company but kept private.

Anything big picture that I am missing about this?

2/24/2009 9:44:17 AM

google Apps allows you to use your company's email addresses, not gmail addresses.

So you can have lilwolf@yourcompany.com. To check your email, you would go to mail.yourcompany.com, and calendar at calendar.yourcompany.com, etc. And of course if you're using Outlook or a desktop client, you can use POP3 or IMAP with your Google Apps-hosted email too.

If you're the administrator, you will have a Google Apps dashboard where you can control all your users - add/delete/edit user names and emails, manage quotas, etc.

Basically, if you're doing this inside a company, it's just "not professional" for everyone to use their own gmail addresses and calendars. You want them all under one roof, and you definitely want them to all have @yourcompany.com email addresses, and not gmail addresses

2/24/2009 10:02:09 AM

Well that's what I was thinking, but since we already have branded email addresses that have been added to their own gmail (using pop) and associated with their Google account (so they can login) -- the two girls I have working with me were already very Google oriented -- then is there really much more that apps can offer... other than me having an administrator interface that I can use there instead of on GoDaddy.com (ie: for mail, etc.)?

2/24/2009 10:18:13 AM

well, whatever you want.

but..... it just seems like a bad idea to mix business with pleasure. Plus, I don't know what kind of company you're working in, but any privacy rules or data retention rules will be majorly broken when you start using personal accounts on a hosted service to conduct your business.

2/24/2009 10:24:39 AM

email is just the start of things. Being able to work on docs and have some semblance of version control is the shit. 5 people working on the same doc/spreadsheet/presentatation is usually a nightmare, but much, much easier with Apps. We pilot-tested going that route and just waiting on the OK.

I do 95% of all my work with just Google's stuff now, and I'm not going back to anything else.

2/24/2009 8:08:59 PM

^I do too which is why I'm trying to figure out what the pros/cons are for using Apps vs. just inviting two people who need to share each document each time I create one... know what I mean?

It's small, consulting. Me and two others. No real privacy or data security issues.

2/24/2009 8:39:06 PM

Nothing then

Just professionalism and cool factor of using your own domain

2/24/2009 9:27:04 PM

Quote :

"No real privacy or data security issues."

There are a lot of privacy and data security issues, regardless of size. That you don't care/know about them, doesn't mean they don't exist.

Google Docs is a little scary to me for business. I use it on a side-company and it works "okay". It's free and that's really the selling point. Functionally it's kind of a crappy suite.

2/24/2009 10:27:17 PM

^^ Thank you! (That's what I was looking for - a solid "you need this" / "you don't".)

2/25/2009 11:31:44 PM

.... you should really be thanking ^^, not ^^^.

if the various reasons listed above still don't appeal to you, all I can say is that it's just simply a "bad idea" to attempt to run a business, no matter how small or informal, by bouncing emails around between personal addresses and shared calendars.

2/25/2009 11:37:03 PM

yeah, you should think about security but if you really don't care then you really don't care.

2/26/2009 12:01:25 AM

i mean, beyond security, there are several reasons not to mix personal and work email.

for example..... Gmail uses auto-fill when you're typing names, right? Well, now all your personal and professional contacts are all mixed up. So one day when you're in a hurry and you want to send a note to your friend John Doe about how awesome last night was, and instead, you send it to your client John Boe, because his name popped up first in the auto-fill and you didn't notice.

2/26/2009 9:32:08 AM

Is anyone familiar with adding users via CSV? I don't suppose there is a hidden field that will parse an email and add it to the user as a forward?

3/2/2009 2:38:42 PM

lol

3/2/2009 2:52:47 PM

Quote :

"There are a lot of privacy and data security issues, regardless of size"

Quote :

"you should think about security"

You guys are arguing against adding personal gmails to a hosted domain, not hosting services through google apps in general, right?

3/3/2009 1:20:57 AM