Subject: Using Google Apps in the Organisation

We use it to some extent and have recommended it to dozens of conservation organizations. At ONE/Northwest, we run an exchange server but use Google.com/a for a whole host of collaborative functions. The one challenge I face is that many of us have gmail accounts as well as our onenw.org account. It can be difficult to keep things straight some time.

My experience of google apps is pretty good also. In fact I would go further and say that it's a sin that (especially smaller) charities pay for email and other services (and then pay for upkeep) when google apps will outbeat in terms of speed, resilience and scalability.

We use google docs effectively for collaborate working at TimeBank, and the calendars have proved very useful and flexible.  We have only in the last few months tried to set up the mail with a view to it replacing our ms exchange setup.  However as we wanted to retain some local services and not have to have users use a different password from their local network login to log on to google apps we tried both the single sign-on system http://code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/saml_reference_implementation.html and using LDAP via the api http://code.google.com/apis/apps/gdata_provisioning_api_v2.0_reference_php.html: we could not get this to work as we wanted. The api cannot synchronize login details as they change, it can only do it when you or a script commands it to so you risk being out of sync with your local users - more of an issue though is that if you want to use your windows domain login details you cannot grab the password from windows as it is encrypted (unless you foolishly make it plain text!).

We are still working on getting some kind of single sign-on or sharing of login details but for now have reverted to having separate login details for our local and our goolge systems and this has stopped us moving fully over to google for mail for the time being. It has such great benefits though that we *will* find a way soon!

If I were starting setting up TimeBank's systems from scratch or only had small or minimal current setup, I would go for google apps every time.

Damien

Good to hear others also have a positive experience with Google apps.

Regarding the multiple email addresses, its always an issue, but at least storage space is not a problem and some combination of autoforward or fetch will usually sort it out.

On the Login issues we were pretty much starting from a small/minimal setup and where necessary let the exchange servers work along side for a period, but we will switch these off shortly. 

But we will need to look at the area of  shared sign ons between DBs we have on the SugarCRM platform and on Google apps.

My organization has used Google Apps for about a year and a half now and could hardly imagine using something else. The only wishes we could make is 1) since we are currently (but not for long) using the email for our mass emails to contacts, I wish we could insert images into the body of emails without having to go through a program like Outlook Express or Thunderbird. 2) I wish there were a task list we could all share.

-Windy with WREN
windy@wewetlands.org
Eugene, OR, USA

Windy, Not sure if it is what you are looking for, but you could try this tip for inserting images into the body of a GMail message.

http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/et_inline_image.htm

I haven't tried it out my self though..

http://www.manymoon.com/ may be a possible solution to your shared tasks issue.  Again I havent used it too much, but it does link in with Google Docs and Google Calendar.

Worth a look anyway.

shaydowney:

The tip about inserting images into Google mail messages totally works, you made my day, probably even my whole month! Thank you! I tested out Manymoon, it's not as connected with the Google Calendar as I hoped. For example, I created a couple of tasks, opted to connect with my Google Apps calendar, but then those tasks don't show up in the calendar. May be an error, their FAQ and Help sections aren't extensive.

Cheers!

Windy

Good news on the images!!  Less so on the manymoon..  In any case I don't like the way Manymoon is separate and doesn't integrate intro google apps..  (Even if the google docs and cal links worked as planned)

you never  know.   Google may buy them and integrate it.

This is really interesting. For those that use GoogleApps, what made you decide to do it? What was the key factor?

We at Teach First use the nonprofit/education version of Google Apps extensively and are currently implementing single sign-on with OpenSSO and OpenDS. This will federate sign-on with Salesforce.com, Google Apps and our secure website, which will be based on a proprietary CMS.

Choosing Google Apps was easy, the only real competition being Windows Live@edu, which is only really available to educational institutions. Google do a pretty good job with use cases to persuade you that it's a good solution, which I believe it is. Good, but not perfect...yet. The great thing about on-demand stuff is that improvements happen regularly and you don't have to do anything to access them.