Georgetown University moving to Google Apps

Georgetown University's email service is moving to from University servers to Google Apps for Education

http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2008/10/14/georgetown-moving-email-to-gmail-in-spring/

Google Site Usage: Government

A recent example of the use of Google Sites for Government Institutions is for Washington DC. The have recently made a Google site public for their upcoming job fair:

https://sites.google.com/a/dc.gov/octo-jobs/Home

Washington, D.C. Government Implements Google Apps

When it came time for Washington, D.C., to create a new intranet for city employees, spending US$4 million on a site based on proprietary portal software just didn't seem like a good idea to CTO Vivek Kundra. But using Google Apps did.

Google Apps is not replacing Microsoft Office entirely for the 38,000 municipal employees in Washington D.C. However, more and more government employees will be "migrating to using Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office,". Google's online applications have advantages as far as ease of use and the ability to build new sites for the city's intranet quickly and easily. Washington, D.C., has been piloting the intranet with employees since June 2007. The application, which uses Gmail as its e-mail service and Google Apps for documents and spreadsheets, went live earlier this year and is currently in regular use, Kundra said.

Kundra decided to go with Google Apps as the basis for the new intranet not only because it was less expensive -- the city is paying Google about $475,000 a year in licensing fees -- but because new applications and interfaces can be assembled quickly on Google's platform because of its open nature. When we looked at integration and deployment costs Google Apps was at a lower cost and was a faster way of achieving the same goal.

Take for example a new site the city created for its Fall 2008 Job Fair. On it, Kundra has his managers outlining in YouTube videos the positions for which they're hiring, an example of how easy it is on Google Apps to allow for "voice, video and data integration," he said.

Virginia tech on Google Apps

It seems another educational institution is moving to Google Apps - Virginia tech

http://david.carter-tod.com/wp/2008/09/21/moving-to-google-apps-for-education/

Real Life examples of Google Sites

Dr. Helen Barrett of Washington, United States is an educationist and have recently retired from the faculty of the College of Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has this very impressive Site created using Google Sites.

http://sites.helenbarrett.net/portfolio/Home

Within this Google Site she has a section on "Creating an Interactive Portfolio with Google Sites" which may be helpful to readers.

http://sites.helenbarrett.net/portfolio/how-to

She also conducts professional programs on usage of Google Apps in Education.

Google walks away with a large Microsoft Customer?

Here is the latest word around:

There are rumors of high treason at the court of King Microsoft as the New South Wales Department of Education has turned to Google for its email needs. Said to be the biggest single customer around, with over 1.3 million users under its 'control' the department has ended its 5 year contract with Microsoft and signed a three year deal which will see it use Google's Gmail.

According to the agreement, before the end of the year Google will have set up email accounts for 1.3 million students and teaches and provide them with "a world-class package of services." Snatching the NSW Department of Education from Microsoft's was probably a tough job but represents a big win for the search and ad giant. Still, this victory didn't come cheap as Google is charging $9.5 million for its services while Microsoft got $30 million and for offering some 100 times less storage space per account.

Looks like Google is betting big on "Low Cost" to win new customers

Using Google Apps: Case Study

Jason Slator writes about using Google Apps in his technology blog. Here are few excerpts from posting:

"To gain a level of integration we have to rely on the gadgets/widgets on the start page and, whilst usable, this is where this sort of technology shows its infancy as some widgets are better integrated than others and business widgets are mixed in and available together with the leisure and social widgets."

"We still have to explore Google Web Pages, Sites and Chat but at the moment I can’t see much value in migrating to Google Mail as Exchange Server and Outlook are working well and OWA is our current preferred solution for offsite email access"

"The applications have the benefit of feeling familiar, if a little cluttered at times, but a little more integration and intuitiveness in use would make the system more appealing - for example a plug-in for Office for loading and saving documents. In an ideal world a combination of Google Apps and Office Live Workspace would be an ideal answer. However, we have to remember this is an early example of a platform in development and Google describe the platform well as “a bridge between our business and Google products” and not necessarily a replacement (not yet anyway)."

Read full article

Case Study - A mid size implementation of Google Apps

Was going though a case study published in Computerworld (http://computerworld.co.nz) detailing the experience of a company De Bertoli Wines of using Google Apps in a corporate setup. Here is my take away:

• Company: De Bertoli Wines
• Location: Australia
• Size: 570 employees
  
• Pilot Started: in mid of year 2007 with 10 users
  
• Ramp up: in September 2007 when entire quality department started using apps to collaborate internally and with staff at offshore packaging plants
• Present Status: Trial expanded to 130 core users
  

Positive

• Pleased with Google Apps’s collaboration features and version control
• Impressed with its integrated calendaring capabilities

Negative

• Insufficient back-up on-site (off-site being Google's server)
  
• Low level of support for Standard Edition (of course you need to pay to get support - may be they should have tried with some of the Google Partners)
  

Conclusion

Some great collaboration features here. However they need to understand enterprise market and start working towards that. Onsite backup is something where I think Google can start another offering or tie-up with someone?