Category Archives: Collaboration

The Google Apps Value Prop, Part II

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@hientran hit me up following my original post on The Google Apps Value Proposition. He considered my omission of Google Video and video chat in Google Talk big oversights. So I’m back today to bring you those two pieces to the Google Apps puzzle.

Video
I wasn’t totally surprised by the announcement that Google was made that they have discontinued the ability for the general public to upload video to Google Video, what with YouTube and all. I was also not surprised to see that Google is re-focusing Google Video into an Apps application. It’s really quite brilliant. You can share videos with specific people, or with the public. I could go on and tell you how you can use it, or I can just let you watch how Google uses it.

Video Chat
I can totally see why why @hientran says this is a “cherry on top” feature. I’ll just quote him:

Videochat inside gmail has been great for our org, I can see / talk to my team from without needing to fire up skype or ichat

T

However, there are three things that keep this from being a killer feature for me.

  • Not everyone in my org, or who I chat with, has a video camera on their computer
  • I already have iChat and Skype running
  • It’s web only, so even if you run the official Google Talk app on Windows, it still doesn’t work

That said, if you have a video camera, and don’t already use other chat protocols, then this can be an excellent tool for your organization. And because it is Google, you’ll be able to video chat with anybody who also uses a Google-based web chat — Gmail or another Google Apps account.

The Google Apps Value Prop

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If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I’ve been doing quite a bit with Google Apps recently. One of them is a non-profit that I’m associated with. The friend I’m working with on that (who works at the NPO) asked me today for some “talking points for selling all these services.”

I shot him a quick reply, closing it with a statement about needing to write a blog post about the value proposition of using Google Apps. That question has been rolling through my brain all day long, and it’s time to put thought to keyboard.

Context warning: this is related to this specific org, where they may/will migrate email from a hosted Exchange solution. They are also using Basecamp for project management and collaboration tasks. I will try to make it as generic as possible so as to make it more widely relevant to the broader public.

Email
When looking at replacing Exchange with Gmail, I always come back to one argument … lock-in. With Exchange you are locked into Outlook for a desktop client, and IE for the web version. Any other desktop client — including Entourage — is a second class citizen, IMHO. Same goes for your growing market share of non-IE browsers. Outlook Web Access on anything but IE is pure trash. And if you want good mobile access to your email you are limited to Active Sync devices, or paying for a Blackberry solution.

With Gmail you get an excellent webmail client, whatever your browser of choice. If you want to stay on a desktop client, take your pick, because Google supports them all. Google has also developed an array of mobile access methods, ranging from applications you install on your Java-enabled phone, to push messaging to iPhones.

Calendar
Comparing Exchange’s calendar to Google’s calendar is pretty even. They both allow you to request appointments with other people. They both allow you to check other people’s availability so you can know when to schedule that appointment. They both allow you to share your calendar with other people in your organization, with view or editing rights. Google separates itself from Exchange on two fronts.

First, back on the mobile train. Again, Exchange limits you to Active Sync or BES. Google allows you to wirelessly sync your phone’s calendar for most types of phone. The list includes Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Windows Mobile.

Second, with Exchange you are limited to sharing your calendar within your organization. With Google you can share your calendar with anyone who has a Google Account. For example, I have a work GCal, my wife has a personal GCal, and we have a shared family GCal. I can go to one place and see all of my calendar stuff. To achieve that with Exchange involves a whole lot of synchronizing stuff using various web services — free and pay-for.

Chat
Some people will like this, some won’t. Some people will use it, some won’t. I instant message with my colleagues all day long. My wife is always a short message away from me, and me from her. This one has been in the personal user space for a long time, but is just now being used as a corporate communication tool. I think if more organizations endorsed IM as a valid tool for their employees to use, it would grow in use rapidly. Microsoft doesn’t have a chat client for Exchange, so there is no real comparison here.

Docs
Comparing Google to Basecamp, Docs goes squarely up against Writeboards. They both provide similar functionality, in shared editing of documents. Docs moves ahead because it allows for real-time shared editing, where Writeboards do not allow this.

Beyond word processing, Docs brings you online collaboration on spreadsheets and presentations. It gets my geekiness all excited when I’m sharing a spreadsheet with a handful of other people, watching real-time as the edits are happening. For me, the shared spreadsheets makes Google Apps 110% worth it. With Basecamp, you are relegated to uploading new versions of files, for people to then download locally.

I will say this, if you are a Microsoft Office “power user” — deep into macros, and obscure Excel functions — then you will not view Docs as your total solution, which it isn’t. Don’t discount Docs though, because Google continues to add functionality, and spreadsheet functions, to Docs. It will only get more powerful over time.

Sites
To be perfectly fair, this comparison is a stretch, since Sites is a wiki solution that can be shaped in a project management fashion, and Basecamp is a true project management solution. On with the comparisons, though. Beyond Writeboards, Basecamp gives you messages, to-dos, milestones, chat, time, and files. Their format. Their logic. Their rules. Basecamp just works, and it works very well.

Sites, because it is a wiki, is not limited to project management like Basecamp. Sites can be molded to what you need it to be. Sites can be public, with public edit rights, and they can be private — locked down to a handful of collaborators. You can create lists, where you determine the data fields to track. You can create message logs. You can link in external web pages. You can link in other Google Apps items, such as docs, spreadsheets, calendars, and more.

Closing
I know there is more that I can say about this. I’ll try to sum it up in a nice package for you all. Google Apps gives you all of the same functionality as you get in Microsoft Exchange, and more. Google Apps gives you all of the same functionality as you get in Basecamp, and more. Google will do this for you for free, with the Standard Edition of Google Apps. If the standard edition just isn’t enough for your company, for $50 a year per user you can get the Premier Edition, which gives you more functionality. And if you work for a school or non-profit, you can sign-up for the Education Edition for free, which is comparable to the Premier Edition.

One last thing. While all of these Google services are 100% web-based, many of these services (not all), have the ability to go offline with Google Gears. If you’re about to get on a plane, you can sync your email, calendar, or documents locally, and sync back up when you have connectivity again. I’m a non-traveling desk jockey, so that rates lower on my useful-to-me scale.

Update 3/26/2009 8:00 PDT – @hientran points out that I have omitted Google Video and Video Chat in Google Talk. I will do a follow-up on those two services specifically, hopefully tonight.

We’ll Setup Camp Here

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There are tons of reviews of Basecamp already out there, so I won’t beleaguer the points those reviews go over — at least I’ll try not to.

I did a presentation at a semi-annual board meeting for an organization I’m a part of this weekend about Basecamp, and how we will begin to use that as our place for conducting board specific work online. There are three features I think make Basecamp perfect for a group that infrequently gathers, but wants to be able to continue to collaborate online while apart.

1. RSS Feedability — I know I might have just made the word “feedability” up, but it says what I want it to say. You can subscribe to the general feed, telling you when an item is added or modified, or to a Writeboard feed updating you with the changes made to the document.

2. Messages + To-Dos/Milestones + Files — These three are good features in standalone environments, but putting them together gives you discussion board capabilities, coupled with task/time line management, integrated with file uploading and document sharing. You can upload your PDF and send a message discussing it, all while checking it off of your to-do list.

3. Writeboard — Writeboard is the killer app when it comes to online, collaborative document creation. Sure, wikis are online and collaborative as well, but the killer feature in Writeboard is the ability to do version tracking. With version tracking you can compare any, or all, versions to see when and how the content has been changed, and by whom.

On top of these three things, Basecamp is incredibly simple to learn. Even though there are many non-tech people in this organization, Basecamp is a tool that we will all be able to use successfully to further our work outside of face-to-face meetings. And hopefully this will lessen any need for additional face-to-face meetings outside our normal gatherings.