Steve Krull

Why Google Apps? For Gmail of course.
February 9, 2008

Save time and money with Gmail

Time and money are precious and if you would like to save a bit of each, you might want to take a look at outsourcing your email to Google. Yes, I said Google! They have a handy little group of business tools they call “Google Apps”. In this bundle you’ll find Google Calendar, Docs, Talk, Start Page and last but not least Gmail.

By itself, Gmail is worth signing up for Google Apps. There are two simple reasons for this value – Free and Easy. Where I come from Free + Easy always equaled Danger, but not in this case.  Why don’t we take a little time going through the free and easy pieces of Gmail.

Cost if key - Gmail is Free (mostly)

If you don’t need a lot of storage space for your mail or too many bells and whistles, Apps is free. If you are a company that will need to use single sign-on or advanced management tools, then it will cost $50 per user per year. Even at that price, Gmail is still worth it. Check out the feature set between the free and $50 on the Compare Editions page on Google.

Having spent years managing IT and email servers, I look at the idea of free or $50 and think about how much money I spend annually on software licensing, hardware, configuring remote access, security, web mail and user support. Off the top of my head I can find about $30,000 in savings for a group of 20 users over the course of 2 years. Not to mention all of the time I’ve now saved the IT team and the opportunity cost associated with that time.

The Gmail Advantage - Simple User and Admin Tools

On the easy side of this equation, Gmail integrates seamlessly with your Blackberry™, is available anywhere there’s an Internet connection, works with just about any mail client and can even support collecting mail for additional email accounts.

Moving to the administrative side, migration is pretty straightforward, user account can be created in bulk, aliases are easy, and basic mail admin can be done without much fuss.

The features (read flaws) that might drive you a little bit nuts.

Gmail groups conversations together whether you like it or not. It takes some getting used to but eventually you find balance. Here is a snapshot of a message thread.

Next on the list of pet peeves is that Gmail uses labels instead of folders to manage mail. What this means is that mail never leaves the inbox. Click on a label and see everything that matches. It’s handy in one regard because it learns about the labels and tags your mail. However, as a student of the “Getting Things Done” productivity model, I need a clean inbox and this "feature" bothers me. Ok, maybe I am a little too stuck in my ways and should embrace this, but I can’t and I fear you won’t like it either.

The last annoying feature is that each user is responsible for configuring POP/IMAP access. In my opinion this makes it tough to administer larger groups.

More good than bad - give Gmail and Apps a try

Flaws aside, we’ve listed enough good reasons to give Google Apps a try. If you don’t feel like you want to move everything over right away, set up an account and test it out. You might even set up a different domain initially to get a feel for the tools. Worst case is that you don’t like it and don’t migrate.

Before we sign off I should tell you to take a look at the other app features. The Docs integration is good for sharing and collaborating (personally I prefer a good business wiki) and the Calendar is very well done (although for reasons I am not sure of I keep mine in Backpack).

If anyone wants to chat about any technical particulars of Google Apps or Gmail, post a comment or send me an email. Also, I am big fan of feedback, so please post your questions and comments. I hope to be able to use some of your ideas for future posts.

Posted by Steve Krull on February 9, 2008 | Comments (2)