Google Atmophere Conference Session 7 Notes
Google held a conference called Atmosphere on Oct.22 in London. They invited several CIOs to talk about Google Apps and Cloud services on the Panel of “Collaboration in the Workplace”. The CIOs participated in this session 7 included:
Paul Cheesbrough – CIO, Telegraph Media Group
Francois Blanc – CIO, Valeo
Todd Pierce – SVP & CIO, Genentech
Andy Beale – CIO, Guardian Media Group
Key Take-aways:
- Real benefits of collaboration; research findings from The Telegraph Media Group
- Consumerization: user expectations and skills are set in the consumer realm
- Adoption: highly intuitive with progressively declining learning curve
- Mobility: enhances collaboration and accelerates time-to-market
- Innovation: users finding unanticipated ways to deliver business value
Here are some notes that we took from this discussion:
Presentation by Telegraph Media Group:
TMG began its transition to Google Apps in July 2008 and completed the migration in July this year. A survey of workers in October this year found that in their first six months of using Gmail about 45 per cent of staff rated it as worse or the same as using Microsoft Outlook as their mail client.
TMG introduced Google Apps with a set of measures to help their employee for sake of a smooth migration, including initial training, deploying migration tool from outlook to Gmail, Open workshops, personal support, etc.
After six months of using the new system, the survey found that 82 per cent of employees rated using Gmail as superior to using Outlook, and 65 per cent of employees feel they are able to work more effectively than they could before the shift to Google Apps.
The survay conducted by a third-party agency also showed that:
From the email and messaging aspect, it showed 0.95 greater efficiency in the first six months adoption, which grew to 1.6 times greater after six months.
From the communication aspect, with the better integration of Google Apps suite, staff started to talk collaboratively, they spent 36% more time to communicate, most of those were recognized to be productive communication.
The Genentech case:
1) Genentech introduced Google Apps without promotion, while it turned out to be huge adoption among the employee. Moving to Google allows users to organize around their works rather than their tools. It helps a lot for employee to share documents within the company and with partners. It lets people to have more control over their information and over their work, to avoid over-communication.
2) Google Calendar with customized mobile application — Finding Your Room (Google API compliant Customized Application) helps to better organize and manage of the hundreds of meeting rooms and spaces.
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日本語抜粋：
イギリスのTeleｇraph Media Group(TMG)より：
TMGは、2008年7月から今年6月まで約一年間かけてGoogle Appsに移行しました。今年10月に行われた従業員向けの調査によると、約45％の従業員はGmailはMicrosoftのOutlookと又はメールクライアントと同じように利用不便とコメントしました。
TMGは、Google Appsを導入する際に従業員がスムーズに移行できるようなソリューションセットを紹介しました。初期トレーニング、OutlookからGmailへの移行ツール、オープンワークショップ、ユーザサポートなどが含まれていました。
Gmail導入の半年後、同じ調査によると、
約82％の従業員はGmailがOutlookより使いやすい、約65％の従業員は自分の効率性はGmail導入前と比べて上がったとコメントしました。
メールとメッセージングからみると、効率性は、導入より6ヶ月内には以前の0.95倍となりましたが、6ヶ月以降は1.6倍上がりました。
コミュニケーションからみると、Google Appsの良くできているインテグレーションによって、スタッフ間の話し合いが始まって、コミュニケーション時間は以前より36％長くなり、ほとんどは効率的なコミュニケーションだと思われます。
Genentechの場合：
①Genentechは販売促進なしでGoogle Appsを導入しましたが、それは従業員の中で巨大な影響があると判明しました。Googleに移行することによって、従業員はツールより自分の仕事に専念できるようになりました。会社内部及びパートナーとのドキュメント共有はもっと簡単にできるようになって、過剰コミュニケーションを避けるために、従業員が自分の情報及び仕事を制御させるようになりました。
②Googleカレンダーとモバイルアプリケーション（部屋を探せ！Google APIによってカスタマイズされたアプリケーション）は、数百のミーティングルーム及びスペースの管理をもっと簡単にできるようにしました。
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The Q&A part:
Q: What is the biggest resistance when moving to Google Apps?
A: The biggest resistance came from the IT department, the IT department has to deal with a lot of transition, partically for the network security issues, then people start to recognize the function benefits.
In Telegraph’s case, the biggest problem is conflicts between the new collaboration pace and the business pace, they are motivated to change their business pace step by step.
Q: How are you addressing collaborations crossing enterprise boundaries as compared to within the enterprise boundary?
A: The cloud really is a good fit for providing flexibility to cooperate with partners or competitors. You do have to rely upon employee to use information responsibly, that’s always the case. The good news is the speed efficiency. You can give the right information to the right collaborator without delay.
Q: Have you abandoned the extra security layer, or do you just rely on the normal approach that we are taking on consumer space , or you added additional security protection on top of what Google does natively?
A: Guardian and Genentech have kept as is their advanced authentication, such as two -factor authentication. Genentech is still only allowing authenticated equipment to access Google Apps and keeping them in house.
Telegraph has abandoned the extra layer with cautious decision.
Update:
Google’s offering within the Gmail suite now includes voice and video services that a typical corporation will find nearly impossible to provide at the Google price. Voice and video features enhance the capabilities of e-mail and instant messaging for Communication and further enable Cooperation within the corporation and beyond.
At the recent Google Atmosphere conference at a Communication and Collaboration panel made up of CIOs of companies having deployed Google Apps the Genetech CIO emphasized that collaboration features of Google Apps allowed them to increase the productivity of their typical user. Users and their partners can for example work together at the same time on the same document regardless of whether they are inside or outside the firewall.
Update:
Silicon.com has a article about Telegraph Media Group’s transition to Google Apps in details. They also mentioned that Telegraph Media Group is hosting their CRM system on salesforce.com and utilizing Amazon EC2 to support their Business Intelligence and analytics work.
Check out this article at businessweek.com
Unicharm and ISR Success Story
International Systems Research (ISR) was one of the first 10 Google Apps for Enterprise partners worldwide. ISR’s CloudGate SSO service currently delivers secure single sign-on software and services with advanced capabilities including two-factor authentication and security policy management to thousands of end users.
Unicharm Corporation, established in 1961, has its head office in Tokyo, Japan and is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of household consumer products. The company has almost 7,000 employees worldwide, and annual sales of 3.9 billion dollars. Unicharm’s products include baby and child care products, feminine care products, health care products, cosmetic products, household products, industrial materials, food-packaging materials and more.
Challenge
With the rapid growth of its global business, Unicharm was looking to unify various inconsistent company systems, reduce the cost of system expansion and reduce the workload related to e-mail management. For this purpose, Unicharm entrusted ISR to provide a solution to deploy Google Apps for 3,500 users.
Solution
First, ISR helped Unicharm determine the specifications for a highly secure system that could be easily managed and that would meet their requirements. These requirements included account management, security policy, and address book for the entire system. It was decided to,
- Unify the domain and mail system for the entire company.
- Implement a shared Address book.
- Restrict external access for increased security.
- Establish a security policy that determines password strength and password expiration for users.
- Generate a log to record who accesses the system, when, and where.
Based on these requirements, ISR provided a solution comprising Google Apps Premier Edition, CloudGate SSO and CloudGate Address Book.
ISR set up Google Apps Premier Edition accounts for Unicharm’s users and deployed the CloudGate single sign-on system with customized functions. A special version of the CloudGate Address Book was developed to fulfill the shared address book requirement with LDAP integration so that employee address book information would be updated automatically and seamlessly.
Results
Thanks to the ISR solution, today more than 3,500 Unicharm users can access all of their web applications securely and reliably. Administration costs are significantly lower, and expansion of the system for new business units can now be made easily and effortlessly.
Check out the original post at 
GDrive Finally Coming?
The long-rumored Google cloud storage service, which was called GDrive sometimes, is finally going to coming as an feature of Google Docs according to the Google Official Blog:
over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. With this change, you’ll be able to upload and access your files from any computer — all you need is an Internet connection.
Instead of emailing files to yourself, which is particularly difficult with large files, you can upload to Google Docs any file up to 250 MB. You’ll have 1 GB of free storage for files you don’t convert into one of the Google Docs formats (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year. This makes it easy to backup more of your key files online, from large graphics and raw photos to unedited home videos taken on your smartphone. You might even be able to replace the USB drive you reserved for those files that are too big to send over email.
A lot of collaboration features are going to be integrated to this service as well, such as Share Folder feature which was launched for Google Docs a while ago.
Read the full story at: Google Docs Official Blog
For enterprise users, you can refer to this post at Google Enterprise Blog, learning that what this coming service can benefit your enterprise collaboration and your business.
WEBMAIL WINS: 70% Prefer Gmail to Outlook
The famous media Mashable made a vote about webmail among its readers last week and here is the result:
This week, we asked you to make a choice about the web’s oldest form of communication: email. We pitted Microsoft’s Outlook, standard-bearer of desktop e-mail software and businesses worldwide, against Google’s Gmail, the webmail software that continues to innovate how we use and manage our inboxes.
After more than 5,000 votes, you’ve spoken loud and clear. The winner ….
… is Gmail (Gmail) by a landslide. With 3,684 votes (a full 70 percent of the vote), Gmail has trounced Microsoft Outlook (Microsoft Outlook), which garnered only 980 ballots (19 percent). The remaining 11 percent of you called the battle a tie.
Read the full story or participate in the discusssion at Mashable.com
Nexus One Reviews
Google anounced its new phone last week: the Nexus One. Engadget get its first hand on for this charming Android 2.1 smartphone and here is some quote of their review.
Hardware
The Nexus One is nothing if not handsome. From its ultra-thin body to sleek, curved edges, the phone is absolutely lustworthy. While it’s unmistakably HTC, there are plenty of design cues that feel authentically Google as well — and it’s that balance which makes the phone such an intriguing piece of hardware.
As you’ve heard, the Nexus One runs atop the much-hyped, rarely seen 1GHz Snapdragon CPU from Qualcomm (the same processor powering the HD2) — really the highlight of this show. The phone also has 512MB of both RAM and ROM, but those hoping for new application storage options will find themselves out of luck yet again — you’re still limited to that small partition for app use. The display is an AMOLED, 480 x 800 capacitive touchscreen, and the handset also contains a light sensor, proximity sensor, and accelerometer, along with an HSPA-capable GSM radio (AWS and euro 2100MHz bands only for 3G — sorry AT&T users), WiFi, the prerequisite AGPS chip, and a microSD slot (which comes loaded with a 4GB card, but is expandable to 32GB).Software
Android 2.1 is in no way dramatically different than the iteration of the OS which is currently running on the Motorola Droid (2.0.1). Still, there ARE changes:
Firstly, the place where Google really seems to have put a lot of its energies has been in the look and feel of homescreen navigation. In 2.1, Google has jettisoned key chunks of the established Android paradigm for how to get around its device.
Additionally Google has expanded the number of homescreens accessible from three to five (following a precedent set by skins like Sense and BLUR), adding a combo of webOS and iPhone style dots to help you keep track of where you’re situated.
Elsewhere, there are nips and tucks that are welcome, such as the improved Gallery application we mentioned previously, which seems to be one of the few areas actually tapping into the Snapdragon’s horsepower.
One other thing. As we mentioned in our impressions post, there’s no multitouch on the Nexus One. Now, we can live with a browser or Google Maps with no pinch-to-zoom, but not having a hardware keyboard hamstrings this device in other ways.
Availability
While the phone is manufactured by HTC and destined for use on T-Mobile’s network, Google will be the one doing the selling of the device. By all appearances, the company will have a new phone portal where buyers can pick between an unsubsidized, unlocked Nexus One for $529.99, or sign up for a two-year agreement with T-Mobile and purchase the phone for $179.99.
Move forward to Engadget.com for the full reviews.
Visit google.com/phone for the official information or order on the web.
New Mind Group’s Story: Why We Chose Google Apps
It started in 2007: New Mind Group, purveyors of managed services to SMBs in the greater Kalamazoo, Mich. area, began to run into severe scalability issues with traditional Microsoft Exchange installations. As businesses grew, so did their computing needs, but they didn’t have the money or facilities to grow proportionately. That’s when New Mind Group decided to help blaze a trail now being followed by the city of Los Angeles and go to Google Apps.
Like many service provider organizations, New Mind Group, founded in the early part of this millennium, started out as a small outsourced IT department to local businesses. It was only in 2007, as e-mail and other web solutions became less novelty and more necessity for even the smallest businesses, that they began focusing on providing SaaS applications, says New Mind Group Founder and President Daniel Jefferies.
Partnering with Google in 2007 was somewhat of a gamble, Jefferies says, because Google Apps didn’t yet offer things like Outlook integration of any kind. They hadn’t even formally launched their partner program. It was worth it, he says, because Google Apps solved every scalability problem their clients had, no data centers required. Moreover, the fact that all these different SaaS applications had a single login was immensely appealing to end-customers. New Mind Group also offers “login federation” so that other SaaS applications they offer, like cloud storage (in Amazon S3 or Rackspace Cloud) or Salesforce, will use that same username and password.
Google hasn’t let down Jefferies faith yet. Rather than wait years between full releases, Google constantly makes little tweaks and adds features on the fly: Jefferies calls this model “innovate and iterate,” and it suits him down to the ground since it means that Google, and New Mind Group by extension, is far more nimble with the products and services it can offer. In fact, Jefferies believes that the current trend towards hybrid legacy/cloud solutions shows that people are starting to accept the Google SaaS model as the correct one.
Read the full story at: mspmentor.com
Google Enterprise Blog- Enhanced security for Google Maps API Premier 02/08/2010
- Lincoln Property Company finds a new home with Google Apps 02/08/2010
- Bringing log search to the cloud: Introducing Message Log Search for Postini 02/04/2010
- Google Apps adds enterprise admin policies for iPhone, Nokia, and Windows Mobile devices 02/04/2010
- Calling All SaaS ISVs: Don't forget to sign up for Google I/O! 02/03/2010
- Google Apps New Features
- Message Security for Google Apps launches Message Log Search 02/05/2010
- Google Apps adds enterprise admin policies for iPhone, Nokia, and Windows Mobile devices 02/05/2010
- New way to subscribe to resource calendars and more in Google Calendar 02/02/2010
- Delegation and Single Sign On support in new version of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook 02/02/2010
- New version of Google Apps Directory Sync tool released 02/01/2010