Halloween is for ChromeBOOks

From the scary fast startup times to an undead battery, remember the the Chromebook for everyone this Halloween. 

Contact us to chat about the Chromebooks and how they're different from any other device out there.

Tech Tip: Most Often Missed Gmail Labs

By Steve Chang, Google Apps Certified Deployment Engineer




Customization has always been in my blood from cars, sportbikes, and even PCs. It is a way to personalize something that you own to something that you enjoy. Sometimes when you are given something that is a very useful system like Google Apps for Business, you just want to personalize and squeeze out more performance. That is where you find Google Labs.



As you may know, Google engineers are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time to work on something company-related that interests them personally and that they are passionate about. Although Google Labs has stopped producing new products, many are still available for your Google Mail enjoyment. Here are my top 3 picks of Google Mail Labs currently available to customize your Google Mail accounts, so here we go.

#3: Canned Responses
Within communication in any industry, there has always been a time where you typed the same email over and over again making both the process and the material monotonous. At least with the Canned Responses lab, you reduce some of your time in tedium by building templates you can efficiently revise. This will allow you to build your emails quickly without the need of re-typing or copy/pasting repeatedly. Another great feature of this Lab is that you can create a filter that will use a Canned Response to auto-reply to emails with specific search criteria. Who wouldn’t want that?

#2: Insert Images
For a long time you could not add images in-line with text within an outgoing email and could only attach the file or photo to the email to download first before viewing. Enabling the insert images lab will add a little picture icon across the top of the Compose section that will allow you to embed images into your email. You can insert and attach from your PC or from an URL on a website. Now you can paste those funny Memes to your fellow co-workers quickly and make them readily viewable.

#1: Signature Tweaks
When you first compose your email after creating a Signature in your Email Settings, your signature shows up at the bottom of the email. When you reply to an email, though, your quoted text shows up above the Signature that you thoughtfully made. The recipient will need to scroll down to the bottom of the email in order to find your contact information or to just marvel at your creation. Signature Tweaks under Gmail Labs places the Signature above the Quoted text so that it will always show up to your recipients just below the new email or email response.

There are quite a few more Gmail Labs available in the list presented to you under your Email Settings > Labs tab in your Google Mail account. So what are you waiting for? Go on and enable some Gmail Labs for yourself.

Greenleaf Hospitality Group chooses Google Apps

Greenleaf Hospitality Group, recently named among the 50 Most Engaged Workplaces in the U.S., is a hospitality management company that oversees two hotels, five ice arenas, seven restaurants, two retail shops, a spa, and is currently 800+ employees strong. Their locations and employees are spread out across an entire state, and employees can often be found on the road between locations. Getting them data when they need it is crucial to operations. Recently, Greenleaf was looking at opportunities that would allow them to move away from their aging and undersized IT system, including Exchange.

Michael Cross
Dir. of Technology Services

“We were looking at changing our entire infrastructure, and email was at the top of the list,” explains Michael Cross, Director of Technology Services. “We had explored staying with Exchange, as well as moving to a cloud solution like Office365 or Google Apps.”



Greenleaf was looking at finding better tools for their employees who were always on the go, to help them stay on top of projects and reports at their many locations.

“I was already familiar with the many benefits of Google Apps, and I already knew of Newmind as a Google Apps partner,” Michael continued. “In the end it really boiled down to cost being the most significant factor in our decision. Google Apps was 30% less than the cost of Office365, and only half the cost of using a self-managed Exchange server. When we calculated the ROI, we discovered Apps would pay for itself in only 18 months.”

Greenleaf Hospitality Group decided to make the switchover with a well-planned “rip and replace” strategy. “Only a dozen or so users had been given a preview of the new tools,” Michael said. “But everything went as smoothly as we could have imagined it to go. The Exchange server caused complete data migration to take longer than we would have liked,  but the entire cutover took four hours at the most.”

“Having Newmind Group manage our deployment was a critical success factor,” Michael goes on to say, “Doing it ourselves would have been possible, but there were a lot of ‘gotcha’ moments that would have delayed our efforts. Having Newmind Group involved helped us plan and get those roadblocks out of the way. Newmind’s assistance with training was also essential. They enabled a seamless, smooth process.”

The biggest benefit Greenleaf has seen since their move to Google Apps has been that now all of the employees can access their email from any device, anywhere. “As an IT guy, I really appreciate the freedom I can now give my colleagues to use what they like. The Android people are happy, the iPhone people are happy. Plus, my IT staff are happy now that we no longer have to support old devices that were losing their value and functionality.” Michael explains.

Prior to the switch, Greenleaf employees were locked into using antiquated devices as their only option for handhelds. They were difficult to work on and incapable of performing the functions employees yearned for, but the company was locked in. They had zero choices if they wanted to be able to access their email. If an off-site employee didn’t have a company-issued device they were forced to trudge through a complex vpn connection. One employee recounted a time when, in the legacy system, they were out of the office and needed to check their email. “After an hour of unsuccessfully trying to connect to the Exchange mail server with the vpn, I simply gave up,” the employee said. “When I returned to work the next day I discovered that there had been a crisis in my absence. Because of my inability to access my email, what could have taken seconds to clear up (with Google Apps) instead took days to rectify.”

By harnessing the power of the cloud, Google Apps has enabled Greenleaf Hospitality Group staff members to access their email, calendar, and documents from any device anywhere in the world.
In terms of delving deep into all of their new tools, Greenleaf’s training intentionally only covered the basics, leaving employees with the freedom to explore everything else on their own. “Now we’re starting to see widespread adoption. Chat was the big one to become adopted first, and now we’re starting to see people using forms. A lot of users are not computer savvy, but the fact that they are finding these tools on their own and are using them is amazing,” Michael says. “We’re lucky to have users that are used to and willing to accept change.”

“In hindsight, I can honestly say that every aspect of switching to Google Apps with Newmind went really well. The biggest success factor for me is that on the switchover day our CEO was on vacation and was able to get his email. He was on a boat, in Alaska, in the middle of nowhere, and he was able to get his email and reply to it,” Michael laughs. “In fact, as an organization we decided we should use this project as a tool to measure all future projects on how smooth and painless they should be.”

Newmind Hosts IT Innovation Happy Hour

Newmind Group, a local IT services provider who serves over 800 clients across the US, is hosting a complimentary IT Innovation Happy Hour on October 9 at Webster’s Prime Steakhouse in Downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

Newmind has been assisting IT and business leaders across the country with innovative IT solutions that provide dramatic savings and productivity improvements.  Until now, besides a handful of local clients Newmind has remained fairly unknown in the local community here in West Michigan.  Newmind is hosting this Happy Hour to introduce our innovative solutions to area business and IT leaders in a casual atmosphere. 

“We love our local community here in Kalamazoo” said Daniel Jefferies Newmind Group’s founder. “Until now we haven’t been very good neighbors as far as bringing our innovative and cost saving approaches to local organizations.  This Happy Hour event is our way of inviting people out to meet us and see what we are about.”

The event is free, but seating is limited. Tickets can be reserved at: http://goo.gl/D4SsP or by calling Newmind at 269.492.0469

Tech Tip: Inbox Zero

By Heath Miller, Google Apps Certified Sales & Deployment Specialist

Communication has always been important in both our personal and professional lives. This is because communication is not just about sending and receiving messages: communication is about building and maintaining relationships.

Many years ago, the cornerstones of communication in the business world was mail and memos. In fact, whole departments were devoted to ensure proper flow and delivery of these messages. Recipients had to have a method of filing for record keeping and of course respond to those messages.
As time has gone on, email has taken over as the primary communication method between co-workers, vendors, and clients, but we haven’t changed our method of managing those communications.



Have you ever looked at your inbox and have been anxious by how many messages needed some sort of action?

Have you ever found yourself looking at your folders that originally worked, but because of changes over time, no longer work perfectly and thought to yourself, “I need to re-organize these,” then just never find the time?

You are not alone. With email being an important part of our daily business, it has become necessary to have an efficient method of managing and processing those messages. Without an effective system, email bankruptcy ( aka email fatigue ) becomes a threat and important messages can be missed.

This is where I personally found Inbox Zero plus the tools of email powered by Google Apps to be extremely useful. Instead of having extensive and unwieldy folder trees that require time to maintain. Inbox Zero only needs a small handful of folders (labels).

Between the few folders (labels in Gmail) needed with Inbox Zero and the powerful search tools of Gmail, my inbox is always manageable and clean. I don’t know about you, but I like having a clean inbox.

I had a client not too long ago give Inbox Zero a try. He ran for about two weeks with inbox zero in one of his Google Accounts using the Gmail interface and used his old method of managing email in Outlook with another account. After the trial he informed me that he can no longer take using his old method. He continued by saying he would physically become ill every time he opened up Outlook and how happy he is now with Inbox Zero with Gmail.

So, I have to ask you, do you want to take the challenge and find a new method of managing your email?

Newmind vs. Google: Where should I purchase my Apps?

What's the Difference?

Clients sometimes ask us why they should buy or renew their licenses with Newmind instead of directly from Google? This table below illustrates the advantages of a relationship with Newmind as your Google Partner. You can think of Newmind as that layer of Customer Service for your Google Apps, so it’s kind of like getting two great companies for the price of one.

Where should I buy my Google Apps licenses?
	Google	Newmind
Google's innovative communication and collaboration tools	✓	✓
Allow Credit Card payments	✓	✓
Allow Check payments		✓
Quick and easy resolution to billing questions	maybe	every time
Email based ticket support*	✓	✓
Immediate human support*		✓
Able to escalate support requests		✓
Complimentary User Training Live Webinars		✓
Complimentary Office Hours Q&A Sessions		✓
App Integration Advice		✓
App Integration deployment, customization, and training		✓
Email Archiving and Security	✓	✓
Total Cost Per User	$50	$50

Billing
Google offers automated credit card payments only, whereas with Newmind you can pay and renew with credit card or check. Pay your bill the way your Accounting Department finds most comfortable.

Support
Answers to your questions can be found in forums from time to time, or you can send Google an email and wait. Working with Newmind as your Google Partner allows you to use our connections at Google and "escalate" support requests on your behalf. Newmind also offers enhanced phone support and end user helpdesk support for an additional fee.

Training
Google Apps is an amazing suite of applications that ease communication and collaboration. We adore it and that's why we became a Google Partner. There are two things that Google doesn't do though: Deployments and Training. Newmind offers a variety of training options, so you can choose what's best for your environment and budget: live webinars, on-site training, or eLearning videos and courseware. Even after the deployment is over and you're on your way to becoming an Apps Wizard in your own right, Newmind offers ongoing education for our customers through our training portal. 

Integration Advice
Wondering what Marketplace add-ons would be a good fit for your businesses' need? Just ask. Newmind is happy to provide advice and guidance regarding which additional applications integrate best with Google Apps. We'll also customize, deploy, and train your staff on these applications for an additional fee. 

Google Security and Archiving
You can go to Google directly for security and archiving, but there's a hearty minimum to that order to the tune of $1500. Newmind can offer that same service for organizations with as few as 5 users. 

Office365: Baby I'm Leaving You

Consider what would happen to your business if your ability to email disappeared for a month.

One company who contacted Newmind recently was faced with that exact scenario. Their email was inoperable for an entire month, decimating their main means of communication with their clients and potential clients. We’ve seen companies come to us for different reasons, from a lot of different solutions, but this one really stood out. That solution? Office365.

Stern Estate isn’t a company that exists on computers, it exists in one-on-one relationships with the people they are helping, and their email system is simply a necessary tool they use to get the job done. 



“Stern is a pretty small company.” says Joe Shields. “My mother-in-law, the owner, as well as the four other employees, aren’t particularly tech savvy. Their strengths lie in helping their clients. In fact, they’d probably say they are more comfortable with a pen and paper than a mouse and keyboard. I can get around a computer decently enough so I’ve ended up as the de facto tech go-to guy for the business.”

For a long time, Stern had been using an online Exchange solution (Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, or BPOS)  and were pleased with their choice. In fact, the only time they would even think about the system that supported them was when they’d forget their password and need it reset. It worked for them. They were fine with their system, that is, until the service they were using became Office365, and they were forced to migrate. 


“When Microsoft moved us to Office365 the problems started immediately.” Joe explains. “We couldn’t get it to work on our Macs, in particular, and even our PC users had issues accessing their emails.” Like any rational person, Joe’s first step was to call customer service. “Dealing with the Office365 customer service department was, frankly, laughable. Every time we called we were given a different case number, so each phone call required us to explain and re-explain our issue with each case never properly tracked.” says Joe. Microsoft was nice enough to copy Stern Estate on internal emails discussing the case. Nice, right? Sure, except that the emails they were being copied on were private discussions between Microsoft employees, scolding each other on not handling the Stern case properly. They were unwittingly cc’ing Stern, detailing their own errors!




“After a month of back and forth with the Office365 customer service, we were finally able to figure out that the reason we were having trouble accessing our email was because, apparently, while they could confirm payment of the licenses with billing, they were unable to verify those same licenses in our account, ” Joe continues. “I was relieved to have finally found the issue but at the same time I was pretty frustrated because we had lost a month’s worth of email. Sterns’ revenue was heavily impacted simply because Microsoft couldn’t effectively communicate our purchase of Office365 licenses to the necessary people. We weren’t even new customers. We had a history with them of always paying our bills on time before they made us switch from a hosted Exchange to Office365.”

“Well we finally knew what the issue was, but they still couldn’t get their ducks in a row and we still couldn’t get our emails flowing. We were looking at $80,000 in lost business with no resolution in sight. That was it for me. We contacted Newmind Group and one of their engineers, Steve, got us started on the switch to Google Apps for Business.” says Joe. “The first thing Steve and I had to do was to get Stern Estate’s email backlog out of Office365 and migrated into Google Apps, but we even had problems with the Office365 people there. They basically threw up roadblocks and wouldn’t allow us access to our own data while they ‘tried’ to get it working,” Joe explains. 

In desperation, Joe emailed Bill Gates.

Joe acknowledges that his email likely never made it to Bill Gates, so it may just be a coincidence, but after that email, Microsoft seemed to get their act together a bit. “I finally started to see movement. Steve and I stayed persistent and the Office365 people finally allowed us access to our information,” Joe says.

“I’m relieved and happy to say that after all that, Steve and I were able to get all the Stern employees up and running in Google Apps and finally able to access their email again. And since our migration to Apps, the service has been seamless. Furthermore,” Joe concludes, “we are very happy with the technical skill and experience that Steve and Newmind provided us. Steve made coming out of a very difficult situation much less painful. He explained things clearly and concisely, without any talking down to our less technical staff members.”

Stern Estate contacted Microsoft again, after their exit from Office365, to try and negotiate a reimbursement for the month of lost business that they suffered during the time that 365 was inaccessible. Microsoft was kind enough to offer them a little something for their trouble. Apparently that little something would have roughly covered a round of lattes for the staff. 


Emails from Microsoft are still coming to Joe too. They’re very eager to work out the licensing issue and think they’re thiiiiiiiis close to figuring it out.