New features now allow Google Apps administrators to flexibly manage Google Apps within their organizations!

Google listed enhancements from over the past few months that include multi-domain support, new data migration tools, SSL enforcement capabilities, mobile device security controls, and Google Apps customizations with over a hundred applications at the new Google Apps Marketplace.

However, Google really did outdo itself this time with a new release of the much needed administrative feature for the organizational context- Google Apps user policy management.

Now Google Apps administrators can segment their users into organizational units and control the access to these applications for each group. For example, a particular firm might want to give their office workers access to Google Talk, but not their production line employees. ”We work with businesses with 100 to 20,000 employees moving from on-premise solutions to Google Apps. The new user policy management feature helps us tailor Google Apps and provide businesses with granular control for each department within their company”, noted Mayooran Rajan, CTO of Revevol Consulting.

The new controls also allows organizations to pilot test applications for a few specific groups before making them more widely available e.g. the use of Google Wave and its relevant policies. Transition to Google Apps from on-premise environments can be made more acceptable and adaptable. E.g. a business can just only enable collaboration tools like Google Docs and Google sites for users who are still handling old on-premise messaging clients/servers.

A snapshot of the simple Google Apps Admin Interface for managing user policies

To manage these settings , Administrators will simply need to access the ‘Organizations & users’ tab in the ‘Next generation’ control panel. Alternatively, organizations can mirror their existing LDAP organizational schema using Google Apps Directory Sync. Otherwise, they can program to assign users to organizational units using the Google Apps Provisioning API.

This new features will extend to Google Apps Premier and Education edition users for free. To learn more about user policy management on Google Apps, yo can visit the Google Help Center here.

Google Apps Updates for iPhones, Android, Windows Mobile and Nokia users

Last year, we see Google Apps going mobile with new enhancements that help addresses the growing market for mobile productivity.

“In a world focused on improving business productivity, companies look to solutions like Google Apps to provide employees with seamless access to information regardless of location or device. With the rising adoption of Internet-enabled devices, employees increasingly seek access to their email, documents, and other corporate data from their mobile phone,” said Bryan Mawhinney, Google Mobile Software Engineer.

So what have we been seeing till now? Well, the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server was launched to cater to Blackberry users. New web versions of Gmail and Google Calendar, along with updates to Google Docs were also rolled out for Android users. Google Sync for iPhone, Nokia E series, and Windows Mobile devices were also released. Google Apps users can now access and sync their mails, calendars, and contacts from their mobile device from Google’s cloud.

Earlier this February, Google further enhanced Google Apps’ mobile potential by enabling new controls for administrators to ensure corporate policy enforcement across a wide range of mobile devices.

What does this imply? Without the need for additional software or to manage dedicated enterprise mobile servers, both Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators can now manage their users’ iPhone, Nokia E series and Windows Mobile devices directly from the Google Apps administrative control panel.

The new management controls for mobile devices entails that administrators can now:

• Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices
• Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity
• Require a device password on each phone
• Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords
• Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation

Access these features simply via the ‘Mobile’ tab under ‘Service Settings’ in the Google Apps control panel. Once a user starts syncing their devices with Google Apps, the domain administrator will be able to remotely wipe the one’s device data in the case of theft or loss.

Such policies will let employees conveniently access their documents and emails from their phone while allowing IT administrators to manage existing caches of corporate data on mobile devices.

But alas! Google would not just stop there. This month, Google Apps administrators will have even more options as follow to flexibly manage mobile devices from the admin control panel:

• Requiring devices to use data encryption
• Auto-wiping device after specified number of failed password attempts
• Disabling the phone’s camera
• Helping to ensure that old passwords are not reused
• Requiring passwords to be changed after specified time interval
• Disabling of data synchronization when roaming to help reduce wireless overage charges

Currently, the Google Apps editions that feature these new capabilities are the Premier and Education Editions. However, do note that in order to access these options, the Administrator Control Panel needs to be set to ‘Next generation (US English only)’ version under ‘Domain Settings’.

Such mobility of Google Apps will certainly be well-received in small businesses which are highly mobile in general. With the increasing benefits of convenience and pricing for the ubiquitous mobile device, Google is certainly seated at the forefront for implementing mobile management of corporate data security. It is without a doubt that we will see even more enhancements for the mobile in even data backup and monitoring.

Introducing the latest roll-out of the Google Mission- App Inventor for Android – a free web-based software tool meant for the masses or non-developers to realize their own Android applications. Yes, Google is bringing Android App development to the masses with the mobile platforms.

With the support of Google University Relations, the technology has been under development for a year, mainly involving educational organizations. User testing groups ranges from university undergraduates to even sixth graders, high school girls and nursing students. With the introduction of the Android ecosystem to the public as well as the classroom contexts, it may well be a boon for Google in the smartphone-software market. In contrary, Apple adopts a more tightly managed approach to app development for the iPhone via licensing and vetting.

App Inventor allows people to drag and drop blocks of code – displayed as graphical images that represents various app elements– and put them together, almost akin to building Lego blocks.The result is a mobile app made from scratch, making the idea of creating an app potentially well-received. As such, the App Inventor can be likened as a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) app development tool for Android, entailing a possible explosion of new mobile apps on the market. Disregarding the value of these ‘home-made’ apps, the App Inventor can help nurture and train a growing community of young content developers for the Android platform.

However, the App Inventor is currently limited to work only for phones that run on Android software. Being web-based, a sign-up with a Google Gmail account is required. A small software download is also needed to automatically syncs the programs created on a PC, connected to the application inventor website, with an Android smartphone.

New York Times quotes Mr Harold Ableson, both project leader and MIT computer scientist, “The goal is to enable people to become creators, not just consumers, in this mobile world.” A proponent of opening up intellectual and technological resources, Mr Abelson is also a founding director of the Free Software Foundation, Public Knowledge, and the Creative Commons.

The business world today made it paramount to effectively utilize web metrics for ROI in Internet marketing. In response, I will recommend the webinar ”Top 5 Things Marketers Can Do Now“  by Avinash Kaushik to all marketers with regards to web analytics. Avinash Kaushik is well-known as the author of the recently published “Web Analytics 2.0” after his bestseller – “Web Analytics: An Hour A Day“. He is also touted as the Analytics Evangelist for Google in addition to Co-Founder/Chief Education Officer of Market Motive. “Top 5 Things Marketers Can Do Now” feature tips on employing data-driven insights for immediate strategic marketing decisions, improving marketing efficiency and generating greater returns on your marketing investments. Do pardon the lacking audio quality of the video below but be assured that the potential insights are certainly of much value for application in Internet marketing.

In the session, Kaushik started off  by quoting Jan Carlzon on the aggregation of marginal gains; “You cannot improve one thing by 1,000% but you can improve 1,000 little things by 1%” He emphasized the fixing of the many 1%s in order to build a foundation. Hence, with relevance to Internet marketing, the webinar will be focusing on the Company Website. He drew up 3 Outcomes to be expected of the Company Website:

1. Increase Revenue (Regardless of whether your business is a non-profit or for-profit)
2. Reduce Costs (Think about IT support costs, acquisition costs)
3. Improve Customer Satisfaction/Loyalty/Rentention

A web analytics tool such as Google Analytics usually has a built-in dashboard that displays a pie chart featuring the different demographics of your Company Website’s traffic e.g. Direct Traffic, Search Engines, Referring Sites and Others. This alone can sufficiently provide valuable information in measuring your marketing tactics. Kaushik also highlighted the Overall Conversion Rate – usually available in the Report on Google Analytics – which inform sthe user of traffic sources/websites/social streams that has gorwing value or profits. Meanwhile, data comparisons from website traffics and conversion rates also help in identifying potential market segments.

With a mere act of filling in your conversion, lead generation and franchisee application processes on Google Analytics and a ‘click’ on “Save Changes”, Google Analytics will collect the data in each step and you can see the results in the funnel visualization report, with constant updates by Google Analytics.

From more information, you may wish to check out the following video from Google Analytics.

An Example of a Conversion Funnel from Google Analytics

To further illustrate, the conversion funnel as seen above indicates that only about 17% of website traffic actually undergo conversion pinpointing either a potential website design flaw or process delay.

In the later segments of the webinar, Kaushik introduces the Customer Bounce Rate Metric as a helpful indicator of  number of visitors who leave your website entirely without making purchases. More tips on website design will be provided here as well.

Clearly, web analytics will pave the future in quantifying business investments in Internet marketing. Coupled with Google’s continuous drive to innovate new improvements, it is certainly worthwhile to apply Google Analytics free-of-charge!

They may not be able to see eye-to-eye when it comes to the Android and iPhone. But there is a twist in Google’s relationship with Apple around the new Apple iPad. To put it simply, the iPad frenzy has hit Google as well.

Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard had almost devoted  his entire lunch time on the 25th June with journalists in San Francisco to tout iPad’s success and how it will benefit Google. Apparently, Girouard has been attending more meetings with chief information officers who are eager to show their iPads, making it easier for him to demonstrate Google’s office tools bundle - Google Apps. ”Every CIO I meet is carrying an iPad these days,” he said.

Girouard described the iPad as “the ultimate statement of the consumerization of IT to date.” Past meetings with CIOs and IT managers traditionally revolved around queries on how Google Apps match up against Office features e.g. pivot tables, the data summarization tool in Excel. But the Apple iPad helped changed everything.

“Apple’s opened the minds of a lot of IT people” to think beyond the classic Office on a desktop PC model“, Girouard had added. Such enlightening effects of the mobile Apple iPad helps Google to demonstrate the business advantages of cloud-based Google Apps as an Office alternative.

While the iPad may seem lacking as a Google complement due to differences in nature between web-based Google Apps and Apple’s mostly downloadable native apps, Girouard highlighted the iPad as a promising class of devices that are “growing up in the world of the cloud.

Accumulating over a million users as of now, Google Voice - a web-based platform to manage your communications –  will soon revolutionize modern telephony by combining your regular phone service with the latest web technology, irregardless of what phone or carrier you use.

As seen in the figure and introduction video below, Google Voice allows one to communicate in much more ways than ever in telephony’s modern history.

To use Google Voice, you get the choice of using a Google number or non-Google number. Choosing to use a Google number while setting up Google Voice allows you to access a number of extra Google Voice features.  It is not possible to use your existing mobile number with all of Google Voice’s features at this time.

Choosing to use a non-Google number during Google Voice setup allows you to have access to Google voicemail and other select Google Voice features with your existing mobile number.

For more information, check out the Google Voice website to see the tabulated differences between using a Google number and non-Google number.

The revolutionary features of Google Voice include (For more information, you might want to check out Google Voice’s short but greatly informative and creative Feature Videos or http://www.youtube.com/googlevoice):

• Google Voice automatically transcribes your voicemails to text, allowing you to read your voicemail and search through past voicemails
• Use one number to selectively or ring all the phones at once
• Choose personalized voicemail greetings for different people
• Make international calls at very low rates (Calls can be initiated  from the web, your Google Voice number, or the Google Voice mobile app)
• Text messages sent to your Google Voice number can be configured to be sent to your email (You can reply on from your email account to save on outgoing fees)
• You can share voicemail messages with other people, just like emails
• You can also block unwanted callers
• You can now screen your callers before answering, listen in while the voicemail is being left, and ‘jump in’ to engage them
• Google Voice mobile app allows you to place calls featuring your Google Voice number as your outbound caller number, make cheap international calls, and VISUALLY ALTERNATE between voicemail messages.
• Conference calls are now easy with Google Voice on all phones (Just have the participants call your Google Voice number and you’ll be prompted to add them to the call)
• And more upcoming from the works (Sending SMS to multiple recipients, Google Chrome extension, send invites to friends, play voicemails within Gmail, receive & reply to SMS via email, Google Voice keyboard shortcuts to call & send SMS, changing your Google Voice number, etc)

However, Google Voice is currently only open to U.S. only but will be expanded to include other countries in the future, as seen in Google’s reply for a non-U.S. user.

Otherwise, sign in your Google account to experience this purported pinnacle of human communication.

Today, collaborative work can get even easier and manageable.

Google Docs recently made it easier for everyone to share their documents with colleagues and teams via a new simplified interface to control the access to your files.

To see the new interface, check out this video:

Now, documents, spreadsheets and presentations on Google Docs can be identified as “Private”, “Anyone with a link”, or “Public on the web” as settings for access. The earlier Google Docs have all documents start out as “Private” in default.

An example of how the interface looks like (from The Official Google Blog – “Easier sharing in Google Docs”)

The 3 Sharing Settings on Google DocsThese new visibility options will appear as a link next to the title of every Google Docs. Clicking this link or the “Share” button will display the new interface where you can easily see who has access, manage sharing access and invite others to share the Google Docs.

To know more about Google Docs‘s recent roll-outs and how users can share their documents easily within their organization, check out Google‘s post on the Enterprise Blog or  blog post on Technorati.

Today, while reloading the video for last year’s Business of Software conference in Sans Francisco, I found renewed interest in a particular session.

For your information, Business of Software is an annual conference run by Joel Spolsky (CEO, Fog Creek Software) & Neil Davidson (CEO Redgate Software) to impart to people about the business of software.

Paul Kenny, Ocean Learning & Speaker at Business of Software

Paul Kenny, one of UK’s top sales consultant, trainer and speakers, shared his rich experience from customers over 3 continents by speaking on the corporate sales function. Though the context is localized for an IT enterprise, there is a strong parallel and application in all other businesses.

Paul Kenny illustrated the “chasm of misunderstanding” between the sales people and the software/product managers, despite the inhabitation of the same space.

However, he pointed that out that everyone in the company has a sales function, whether you have a sales department or not. After all, both Sales and Software/Product managers do need to talk to their customers, be in over emails, Tweets and phone.

To bridge the gap between the two parties, Paul sees a need to shape the challenge to nurture/seek the Sales Entrepreneur who are both entrepreneurial and salesy.

He has several strong advantages:

• An unparalleled knowledge of the company’s products and technologies
• Market/customer insights
• Sensitivity to feedbacks

What are his/her weaknesses then? Well, they are his/her own strengths in fact. Quite the irony but there is an inherent logic about it. Firstly, a well-versed Sales Entrepreneur may lead to various talking points, regardless of relevancy and at risk of boring the discussion. A Sales Entrepreneur may also at times,  expect the Customers to see and know the way they do.  He/she may expect certain feedback, and due to their sensitivity, bristle when the customers felt otherwise.

Well, his/her own strengths in fact. Quite the irony but there is an inherent logic about it. Firstly, a well-versed Sales Entrepreneur may lead to various talking points, regardless of relevancy and at risk of boring the discussion. A Sales Entrepreneur may also at times,  expect the Customers to see and know the way they do.  He/she may expect certain feedback, and due to their sensitivity, bristle when the customers felt otherwise.

Paul continue to emphasize the shift from job to role to engage their customers beyond mere show and tell; to share while getting interested in the customer’s story as well. This will mark the change in sales focus to customer focus.

Learn to ask questions and tell stories like painting pictures, he said. Stories prove to be more comprehensible and engaging, as compared to circulation figures and demographics. Similarly our cultures also encompass series of stories over decades. Stories highlight what the customer hoped to hear e.g. what the product and service can achieve to help.

When people meet, they converse by sharing stories. Keeping this in mind, we do also need to listen to our customers’ stories. Paul also observed that there is over-reliance on quantification for Sales in medical companies, software and IT enterprise. Simply put, data explains while stories inspire e.g. a success change in one’s life due to a particular product.

To learn more, do catch the upcoming Business of Software 2010 conference, held in Boston from October 4th – 6th 2010.

For a multinational giant as in the case of Konica Minolta, IT and communications systems are usually problematic when coming to terms with alignment and compatibility. Varied communication tools, lag-time and IT burdens during patching and storage management can prove too cumbersome to focus on strategic business functions.

Having positive experiences with cloud-based solutions in the past, Konica Minolta pinpointed Google Apps as a powerful, low-maintenance yet easy email solution conveniently bundled with essential collaborative tools.

Today, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc. has benefited greatly from Google Apps.

Google Apps had helped Konica Minolta to:

• Deliver everything from email, collaboration, security, and spam filters all in one solution
• Continuity in adding value to the business, with Google‘s continuous efforts in innovating
• Able to easily integrate new acquisitions such as Danka
• Align business functions to move Konica Minolta ahead

For first-hand perspectives on Konica Minolta’s metamorphosis from a bulky infrastructure to a strategic business on the forefront or to achieve value from Google Enterprise, do join in this live webcast with Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.’s Cathy Lilli, Director of Infrastructure Services & Chris Henry, Manager of Messaging and IT Security:

Konica Minolta on transforming Enterprise IT through Cloud Computing

Thursday, 17th June 2010

2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 p.m. GMT

Insert text, shapes, arrows, scribbles

Add images from your hard drive or from the Web

Use alignment guides, snap-to-grid, and auto distribution for greater precision

Share drawings just like sharing your documents, spreadsheets and presentations

 

An example of the drawings you can make on Google Docs from The Official Google Docs Blog:



Above: A screenshot of a Google Launch Plan

Don’t forget that you can now edit your drawings even while chatting with your friends and colleagues! See below to check it out.

When done with your drawing, you can copy and paste the drawings into other documents types with the web clipboard to edit them with the embedded drawing editor, publish them as images, insert them into other web pages, or download them as ONGs, JPGs, PDFs and SVG. Otherwise, you can copy and paste the drawing  from one Google Doc to another via the web clipboard.

If you are interested to know more, do come down for our biweekly Google Apps Open Day Seminar! It’s free and we promise its benefits to help draw an even brighter future for your business.