We are now officially transitioned to Google Apps. Our web site, email, calendar and collaboration is now powered by Google Apps.
Why Google Sites from Google Apps?
We decided to implement Google Sites to power our web site for several reasons. Our web site was developed internally but over time it became difficult to maintain. The web site was developed using PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScripts. The implementation resulted in a clean web site. Unfortunately, the web site could only be updated by our web development staff.
The Google Sites application from Google Apps was designed to be HTML-free and easy to collaborate. This easy-to-maintain and easy-to-update application now allows all of our staff to update our site in a more time-efficient manner which is key as we are planning to post articles and useful tips to our customers and target audience.
Why Gmail from Google Apps?
We decided to implement Gmail as our email solution for its reliability and IMAP functionality. Our previous service provider did not provide high reliability email as Gmail. Also, our previous provider implemented its email in POP and not IMAP. For our needs, keeping track of which emails were read, whether via a browser or an email client, saves us time and effort in managing our email correspondence. This is automatically done in IMAP.
Why Google Calendar from Google Apps?
We decided on Google Calendar to complete the collaboration package. Google Calender from Google Apps allows us to share calendars among all our employees. Also, those calendars can be easily incorporated into our Google Sites pages by using a Google Gadget. Although we have are not using a calendar Google Gadget for our web site, we may implement one to provide photographer availability information. |