Official Google Cloud Blog: partner

Google Apps Is a Hit At Classic Cinemas

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Classic Cinemas has been bringing families, couples, kids and film enthusiasts together in front of the silver screen for more than thirty years – around the time Christopher Reeve donned the famous tights and cape for “Superman” in 1978. Over the years, we’ve grown to 500 employees and over 13 movie theaters in and around Chicago. We’ve also outgrown the film technology we started with. After years of using 35-millimeter film projection systems, we upgraded to 4K Ultra High-Def Digital Projectors. We’re a true 21st century cinema.

When I joined the IT department in 2012, it was clear we were in need of another upgrade – this time, from our Microsoft Exchange server. We had ongoing issues with downtime that cost the company a lot of money and the IT team a lot of time. We looked into cloud-based systems and Google Apps was exactly what we needed – the 99.9 percent uptime sold us.

We switched to Google Apps with the help of Cloud Sherpas in August 2012 and couldn’t have been in better hands. At no point did we ever have a question that they couldn't answer. Data migration? They walked us through each step along the way and made sure we didn't lose a single megabyte. Change management? They ran webinars for all of our employees about moving from Outlook to Gmail, Word to Docs and Folders to Labels. They made switching feel seamless.

We created an employee intranet on Google Sites that houses all our necessary documents – employee schedules, upcoming screenings, movie schedules and parking lists, among others. This means everything important sits in one single place, and everyone on the team can access it. No more wild goose chases over email and no more bothering groups of people with email barrages.

Google Apps also helped us bring our maintenance request system up to date. Before we switched over, people wrote out their problems in a Word doc and emailed them to us, then we printed them out, tracked them on a bulletin board, and took them down one by one as the maintenance team went on-site to handle each issue. With Cloud Sherpas’ help, we built a Google Form on our intranet, so now everyone submits their requests online. The Form automatically feeds into a spreadsheet, which alerts the maintenance team that work needs to be done. We’ve been able to dramatically reduce administration time and boost our productivity to a new level. We now have complete history and statistics capabilities, as well as the ability to identify trends and be more proactive.

Just as digital technology helped us move into the modern era of film, Google Apps has helped us adapt to the future of business. It’s been a smash hit for us - just like “Superman” was back in the day.

Posted by Tristan Dobbs, Managing Director of IT for Classic Cinemas

Editor's note: Our guest blogger this week is Tristan Dobbs, Technical Services Team Guru for Classic Cinemas, a family-owned movie theater chain based in Downers Grove, IL. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

The first annual Google Enterprise Global Partner Summit

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Posted by Mark Hodgson, Head of Global Partner Programs, Google Enterprise

Every day, millions of companies, schools and governments around the world run their organizations on Google’s enterprise solutions, including Google Apps, the Google Search Appliance, Google Maps and Earth, and Google Cloud Platform. We’re committed to helping these organizations succeed, but we can’t do it alone; our partners play a crucial role in ensuring customers get the most out of the technology they use. Companies rely on our partners to provide everything from hands-on deployment and technical support to customized applications that integrate seamlessly with Google’s products.

Today, we kicked off our inaugural Global Partner Summit at our headquarters in Mountain View, CA. More than 400 partner leaders from around the world are joining us for three days of training, planning and sharing best practices. We’ll also take time at the Summit to recognize the great work that so many of our partners have done helping businesses embrace new solutions and move to the cloud.

Googlers joining our partners this week to discuss the state and future of business technology include Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist; Patrick Pichette, Google’s Chief Financial Officer; Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure; Amit Singh, President of Google Enterprise.

Google President of Enterprise, Amit Singh, addresses partners on Day 1

To help partners build their expertise and prepare for certification exams, we’re launching a partner university. The university will feature a combination of self-guided online courses, instructor-led online courses, and in-person classes that can be taken individually or sequentially. We’re also doing more to recognize outstanding resellers across different products. Two years ago, we began recognizing certain Google Apps resellers as premier resellers. Today, we’re adding similar ‘premier’ designations for our top partners in our Search Reseller Program and our brand new Maps for Business Reseller Program.

Finally, for their expertise and dedication to meeting customers’ business and technology needs, we’d like to congratulate our 2012 Global partners of the year:

Google Apps - Customer Acquisition: Softbank (Japan)
Google Apps - Implementation: Cloud Sherpas (USA and APAC)
Enterprise Search: Onix Networking (USA)
Maps for Business: SPH (Korea)
Cloud Platform: PA Consulting (UK & USA)

If you’re a business, check out Enterprise Partner Search to find local experts who can help you move to the cloud. Or if you’re a company interested in joining our partner program, visit this website.

Search. Click. Call. Get connected with your local expert today.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Posted by Amit Singh, Vice President, Google Enterprise

Whether you’re evaluating Google Apps, ready to make the move, or already a current user, we’re making it simpler for you to find the local, specialized, and trusted help you may need with the new Google Enterprise Partner Search. Search, click, and make the call to see how Google Apps Resellers can make your experience with Google Apps even better.

With over 6,000 Google Apps Resellers around the world, Enterprise Partner Search lets you preview the capabilities of a partner and find one that offers the services you’re looking for – from setup and user training, to email migration, management services, and support.

It’s simpler than ever, search for a partner today.

Reselling Google Apps becomes even easier

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Posted by Jaideep Mirchandani, Product Manager, Google Enterprise

Add new customer accounts

Transfer customers

View customer subscription information

MegazoneDeveloper’s Guide

Want to do more with Google Apps? Tap into a community of over 6,000 experts.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Posted by Prajesh Parekh, Google Apps Reseller Teamengage a Google Apps Reseller

Assessing the initial move to cloud-based solutions

Helping set up and manage Google Apps

Training employees to fully explore and use the many features of Google Apps

Data, data, data – migrating data, implementing data policies, managing storage with Google Drive, and more

Integrating Google Apps with other business applications

And more, including support, network and security management, and building Google Sites

Let us know

School of Rock tops the charts with Google Apps for Business and Chromebooks

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Posted by Evan Trent, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Technology, School of RockEditors note: Today’s guest blogger is Evan Trent, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Technology at School of Rock, a national music program headquartered in Burr Ridge, Illinois. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

Cloud SherpasChromebooks

Putting big data on the map: helping customers see location-based information

Friday, July 29, 2011

Rahul Sood, Enterprise Director of PartnershipsGoogle Maps API Premierthis demoGoogle Prediction APIGoogle Storage for Developers

Businesses innovate and scale faster on Google App Engine

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Posted by Gregory D'alesandre, Sr. Product Manager, Google App Engine teamGoogle App Enginenew version of App Engine, our future plans and our new pricing model“Our experience with Google App Engine really changed how we do things. We can use far fewer developers, and we don’t have to spend any time doing system administration or setting up servers, which allows us to focus on the development and testing new ideas.”Google App EngineGoogle I/O siteI/O recap postexciting year ahead

Google Apps Script opens new ways to deliver workflow solutions for businesses

Monday, June 20, 2011

The content submission URL can be shared to any group or published directly on the target Google Site, which represents the end goal on the workflow diagram below. Content may only be submitted by users that are logged into your domain and content can only be published with Approver sanction.

ACA Workflow Diagram

Google Apps Script made it easy

We used a number of Apps Script services to develop this application. Apps Script was an easy choice as it builds on pooled knowledge from the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and uses Javascript syntax. Using Apps Script’s UI Services, we were able build up a working user interface quickly. Google has since introduced a new experimental feature to complement the UI Services, which provides a drag and drop GUI for building screens. We expect this feature to reduce development time required for building future apps, as well as offering a wide range of widgets and controls to improve the user experience. We used a standard Google spreadsheet as a kind of a data store in ACA. It’s worth mentioning that Apps Script’s documentation site has a plethora of tutorials covering everything from simple spreadsheet macros to full help desk applications.

One of Google Apps Scripts’ core features is the ability to seamlessly integrate different services together, in our case this was Google Sites and Spreadsheets, but many other services are accessible, such as Mail and Contacts. It was always the aim to make ACA a powerful tool without unnecessary complexity and thanks to Google Apps Script, we have successfully delivered content approval workflow to Google Sites. ACA represents our third off-the-shelf product to be listed in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Editors note: Guest author John Gale is a developer at Appogee, a Google focused systems integrator in the UK. John helps Appogee customers make the most of the Google platform and is the author of Appogee Bookmarks for Android.Google Apps ScriptAppogee Content Approval for Google SitesThe Solution

The ACA spreadsheet generates a Content Submission Form and any content submitted is routed to a selected approver.

The approver receives an email notification, which they can authorize or reject.

Once authorized, the ACA spreadsheet writes the new content into the target Site using Apps Script’s Sites services. The new content is then visible to anyone with view permissions in the target site.

Approver receives an email containing the submitted content

ACA Workflow Diagram

Google Apps Script made it easyUI ServicestutorialsACAGoogle Apps Marketplace

App Tuesday and Staff Picks help you find apps from the Google Apps Marketplace

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Posted by Harrison Shih, Product Marketing, Google EnterpriseStaff PicksApp TuesdayGoogle Apps Marketplace100% web

Nutshell CRM - a customer management app that helps you manage leads and customers through a unified interface and mobile access

Olark - a customer management app that helps boost sales on your website through a live chat widget

Weebly - a website tool that makes it easy for you to create a great website with no technical expertise

Symphony 440 - an application platform that enables you to create your own apps for CRM, project management and other workflow needs

Mavenlink (slideshow) - a project management solution for professional services delivery

Solve360 (slideshow) - a CRM that integrates with Gmail, Calendar and Docs to help manage client projects

Smartsheet (slideshow) - a project management app based on great functionality, ease of use, and deep integrations with Google Apps

GQueues (slideshow) - a task management app that lets you share lists, assign tasks, get reminders and stay organized

Google Apps Marketplace

Directski.com goes Google

Monday, May 23, 2011

Directski.com have been in business for over ten years, with a mission to make ski holidays more affordable for all. As a 100% web based company, Directski.com doesn’t have glossy brochures, expensive middlemen, high street shops or call centers. We’ve developed a market leading website that has been designed specifically for the sale of ski holidays. We have 30 full time employees and large numbers of seasonal staff that provide ski packages to over 200 European ski destinations.

Effective use of technology has been a key driver and cornerstone of our success. For example, we have used open source products to provide us with scalable, flexible and secure IT systems that have allowed us to grow rapidly but in a cost effective and pragmatic manner. We are always thinking about how technology can simplify and enhance our business processes so that we continually live up to our mission of helping our customers to “ski for less.”

Recently we examined how cloud computing could help us keep this advantage over our competitors. One product that quickly caught our attention was Google Apps and we implemented it across our organisation. The migration to Google Apps was seamless and our employees love it. It’s a huge improvement on our old system and it simply takes care of itself. Our employees find it very intuitive and the combination of Gmail, video sharing, chat and Google Docs allows for great team collaboration across our 5 offices.

Google Apps has numerous advantages for us; it has helped us control our costs, allowing us to focus on the core IT projects that will will add value for our customers, and, in turn, for our business. It is easy to use and offers cutting-edge functionality. Required training is minimal which is very important to us given the large number of seasonal staff we employ. Being a fast-paced, nimble travel company, accessibility is of paramount importance to our team and Google Apps provides this for us.

We’re so impressed with our migration to Google Apps that we’ve put together a quick video to tell you more! We would recommend Google Apps to any faced paced, innovative company.

Posted by Ronan Hughes, CTO at Directski.com

Editor's Note: Next up, we’d like to welcome Ronan Hughes, Chief Technical Officer at Directski.com, a web based travel company based in Dublin. Directski.com migrated to Google Apps six months ago with the help of Google Apps Authorized Reseller, Baker Security & Networks. Learn more about other organizations that have gone Google on our community map or test drive life in the cloud with the Go Google Cloud Calculator.

The Google Apps Marketplace - 1 year and 300 apps later

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Google Apps Marketplace

Web app adoption is accelerating across every business function and need

You value web apps that work together — what we call integrated apps (see video below)

It’s harder than ever to evaluate and select the right app, given the number of new apps coming to market, and their increasing specialization

100% webwas bornBox.netdiscover, purchase and deployannouncedCapsule CRMmake it App TuesdayMailchimpCRMInsightlyProject ManagementSmartsheetAccounting and FinanceOutrightGoogle Apps for Educationeducation categoryLearnBoostideas page

Google Apps Certification Program launches

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Google Apps Authorized ResellersGoogle Apps Certification ProgramGoogle AppsCloud Sherpas100% webcertification.googleapps.com

App Tuesday brings new integrated web apps for your domain

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

We wanted to highlight a few apps in the last month that integrate with users’ Gmail inbox and synchronize with Google Contacts:

Celigo Gmail Sync for NetSuite provides a seamless integration between Gmail and NetSuite, allowing Gmail users to locate, add and edit NetSuite records and quickly attach messages to those records directly from within Gmail.
Zoho Books gives businesses the ability to manage their accounting online with complete visibility of their financial positions and the inflow and outflow of money.
Chronus Mentor enables organizations to run hi-impact mentoring programs in a forward-thinking and cost-effective manner.

Other notable new apps are Zoho Recruit, an easy to use applicant tracking system (ATS), Bookeo, an online meeting scheduler, and Travel Expenses Instant App, an expense reporting app.

Check out the Google Apps Marketplace to explore and install these new apps, or one of the more than 250 additional apps. If you've #gonegoogle and tried the #appsmarketplace, let other users know which apps you recommend via Twitter, or submit your suggestions for additional apps.

Posted by Harrison Shih, Google Apps Marketplace Team

last postGoogle Apps MarketplaceSAP’s StreamWorkeducation category

Celigo Gmail Sync for NetSuite provides a seamless integration between Gmail and NetSuite, allowing Gmail users to locate, add and edit NetSuite records and quickly attach messages to those records directly from within Gmail.

Zoho Books gives businesses the ability to manage their accounting online with complete visibility of their financial positions and the inflow and outflow of money.

Chronus Mentor enables organizations to run hi-impact mentoring programs in a forward-thinking and cost-effective manner.

Zoho RecruitBookeoTravel Expenses Instant AppGoogle Apps Marketplace#gonegoogle#appsmarketplacesuggestions

App Tuesday: Celebrate Google Apps Marketplace’s half birthday with 12 new apps

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

bornintegrated appseasy clicksuniversal navigation barGmail contextual gadgets

Grockit - Social Learning Platform for Students
A social platform for learning that provides students with collaborative, real-time study rooms and relevant coursework to achieve various educational goals.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Google Calendar sync, Google Docs

Elance - Talent Acquisition and Management
An employment platform that offers talent-hungry companies instant access to qualified online workers and the tools to hire, evaluate, and compensate them.
Integrations: Single sign-on

ERPLY - Enterprise Resource Planning
An ERP software that helps you easily manage your points of sale (POS), inventory, relationships and billing by providing real time information.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Google Calendar

Insync - Document Management
A dropbox for Google Apps that bi-directionally syncs Google Docs to Finder and Explorer, allowing a user to work seamlessly across a desktop and browser.
Intergrations: Single sign-on, Google Docs sync, Google Contacts

Rainmaker - Social CRM
A tool to supercharge your contacts by searching a user’s social networks to auto-populate critical information and merging it right into Google Contacts.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Google Contact Sync

Pipeline Deals - Customer Management
A CRM tool to help manage your sales pipeline by overseeing deal flow, tracking leads, and running reports. Current PipelineDeals users manage a combined sales pipeline of $60 billion.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Google Calendar Sync, Google Contacts Sync

Idea2 - Customer Management
A CRM tool that organizes data according to employees’ usage patterns and makes critical data available to them in the most relevant locations.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Gmail, Google Calendar

Kashoo - Accounting and Finance
Accounting software that creates and sends invoices, manages expenses, reconciles bank statements, tracks cash flow, and generates financial reports.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gmail

SimplifyThis - Productivity
A tool to help employees book appointments, manage billing, and track clients through a fluid interface with Google Apps.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Google Calendar

OffiServ - Productivity
An application that supports administrative processes by automating various functions, such as purchase order approval, vacation management, and resource distribution.
Integrations: Single sign-on

Mindquilt - Productivity
An internal question and answer platform for companies to help streamline the process of employee inquiries and knowledge distribution.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Gmail, Google Talk

RecMan - Security and Compliance
A tool that provides transparent records management and compliance features, centralized document access control, and retention, legal holds and disposition policy management.
Integrations: Single sign-on, Google Docs, Gmail

Apps Marketplace#gonegoogle#appsmarketplacesuggestions

You Can Be Lost in Data Without A Map

Friday, September 10, 2010

Editor's note:From time to time, Google likes to highlight partners and customers who have developed interesting and unique applications using our products. Peter Rossiter is a founder and CEO of Integeo, a company whose product leverages Google Maps API Premier. With over thirty years experience in the IT industry, Peter has led many innovative commercial ventures and research projects.Google Maps API Premier

websitewww.integeo.com

App Tuesday: nine new apps announced for the Apps Marketplace to help your business grow

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Posted by Harrison Shih, Google Apps Marketplace Team

150 installable web appsuniversal navigation barwatch this video

DeskAway is a simple, yet powerful web-based project collaboration tool that streamlines the way you and your team work by giving you an accurate view of project progress and tackling some common problems that occur when multiple people are collaborating.

Acunote is an online project management software. It helps you manage projects, products and requirements, track progress, realistically predict completion dates and analyze company productivity.

RescueTime is an automatic time and attention tracker that helps teams work smarter. It is widely used by a range of companies and now has user and team sync for Google Apps accounts, plus a real time stats gadget in Gmail.

ToBeeDo is an online task management service. The familiar, fast and intuitive interface helps you to organize your workflow and it doesn’t require any setup.

Ketera is a network that simultaneously offers savings for business buyers and online sales opportunities for B2B suppliers to help members discover new trading partners and market insights, aiding in billions of dollars in transactions every year.

FormLizard is for when you need paperwork completed properly. You and your customers can complete forms, contracts, and more online, giving you complete, accurate, legible, and professional paperwork every time.

LumoFlow provides social collaboration workspaces for enterprises to manage projects, share documents and keep teams in sync. It also helps connect global business operations and manage joint projects with partners and customers.

MangoSpring Collaboration Suite seamlessly integrates all the MangoApps to provide next generation collaboration experience. Each MangoApp solves an important part of the business workflow.

Backupify provides secure, scalable, and automatic backup for your Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Contacts, and Sites. You can securely access and manage archives of backups from any web browser.

Marketplacelive webinarRegister hereIf you've #gonegoogle and tried the #appsmarketplace, let other users know what you recommend via Twitter or submit your suggestion for additional apps.Posted by Harrison Shih, Google Apps Marketplace Team

Bergelectric on evaluating Microsoft BPOS-S and choosing Google Apps

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Editor’s Note: We invited Kyle Swafford, Director of IT Services for Bergelectric, to share the story of Bergelectric’s evaluation of Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS-S and their subsequent migration from Novell Groupwise to Google Apps using Google Apps Authorized Reseller SADA Systems, Inc.BergelectricGoogle Message DiscoverySADA Systems, Inc.data liberation policyGoogle Apps MarketplaceGoogle App Engine.

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Endurance offers a helping hand to small businesses getting online, using Google Apps