Google Apps Premier Edition

[Scottish Business Owner]

Just wondering whether anyone is using this? I know many people probably already use Gmail but is it worth upgrading to the premier edition.

Would be grateful to hear any experiences or indeed any thoughts on the subject.

 

[HostThree]

Only if you really need the space/uptime guarantee. We only use the standard package and are more than happy with it.

 

[Gordon N]

Same here, I recently upped to the 'standard' version over your bog standard gmail and google docs etc - very happy so far and 7GB per user is fine for me.

 

[sheilaenn]

Not upgraded yet, but I did enable some of the Google Labs features in the free version of gmail, including 'Offline' which syncs online mail to my pc so I can view it even without a connection.
Sheila Averbuch, ENN

 

[doogie]

I'm happy enough with standard - I use seperate standard accounts for work and personal mail accounts, and I don't need the user increase that premier offers, nor the additional capacity, for now at least!

 

[amplifiedit]

One of the biggest benefits we found by going Premier was the Email Delegation. Being able to access a colleagues inbox when he's out of the office or on holiday has been handy a fair few number of times. Some businesses we've encountered can't be dragged away from Outlook without kicking and screaming so the Sync plug-in that comes with Premier allows them to continue using it without any problems.

For a quick way to see the differences have a look here

 

[Lanarkshire IT Services]

Hi All

Just deployed this for a local non-profit and I must say I'm very impressed with it and so is the client.

It totally out classed the cost, time and on-going maintenance for a dedicated server. Especially with untrained / non-technical staff.

Pros:

Only requirement is a valid domain name
Saves on dedicated Mail Server hardware
Saves on dedicated Mail Server software
Saves on Mail Server support costs
Simple setup and configuration
Builtin calanders / tasks / docs etc with sharing
Builtin video / voice chat
User and groups organisation (AD like)
Store documents online / offsite - Helps with Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP)
Non-profits / Educational organisatons get it FREE with the relevant documentation

Cons:

For this non-profit organisation - NONE so far.

Well impressed.

 

[amplifiedit]

That's exactly the same as what we've found with our clients. We're doing our best to get the word out there about how good Google Apps is, so hearing other businesses are having the same success with it is great.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

I've actually started doing this with one of my ventures and paid for google apps. I have to say i'm pretty impressed so far with just how good it is. As I start to scale things up I really can see how scaleable apps is. I'd love to know what sort of take up it has with smaller type businesses.

I also notice that they have a number of big businesses using it as well. I know alot of people are very suspicious about how much data google can glean from things and I think what might hold it back is people thinking this is just another way to get information from it's users.

I guess time will tell and if I do have issues with it it will be interesting to see what the support is like. Good so far though

 

[Canary Dwarf]

Google Apps just keeps getting better and better, and I expect the real support will come from the community that builds up around it.

The biggest issue for me at the moment and I don't know whether Google has this covered is that if their servers are in the USA, they are subject to US privacy laws which are a lot slacker than the UK.

I use various products from Amazon Web Services and can choose where my (or my clients) data is stored in Europe or America for this very reason.

 

[amplifiedit]

,

Glad to see you've made the switch with one of your ventures. As for support, we've found the system to be very robust and most the businesses we've deployed have never had to contact Google. If you have any questions let us know.

Canary Dwarf

We've encountered the privacy issue before with some establishments, the fact that Google is covered by Safe Harbour agreement has eased a lot of fears. Of course it will depend on the company but for the vast majority it should not be any problem.