Email is the center of our workflow.  We communicate quickly and efficiently with the killer app.  Google Apps makes this both an increase in personal productivity and a strategic hub for group collaboration.  Even more so, after organizations experience the immediate benefits, they soon see how Google Apps is a strategic platform which can be extended.

Understanding the Platform Benefits of Google Apps

Google’s suite of applications is continually changing.  This software-as-a-service allows you to focus on getting things done while Google’s engineers continually improve the system for your benefit.  New features and add-ons are tested and added for use within your discretionary workflow.

Google Mail Labs

The Gmail Labs area has an array of additional features which you can activate to augment your Gmail experience.  Canned Responses, Right-side Chat, and SMS Text are among the many features.  This is continually updated as new development features are brought forth.  Simply look inside your Settings>Labs tab to see which ones might be of interest.

Google Apps Marketplace

The Google Apps Marketplace is filled with third-party applications developed by independent software companies and developers.  This allows you to extend the functionality of your system and integrate any of the core Google Apps products with relevant applications.

While many businesses dream of having one application to run their entire operations, this is both elusive and unrealistic.  Like the mechanic who has a toolbox full of specialty tools to do specific jobs, knowledge workers and teams require various specialty tools and systems to manage business processes.  Google Apps can be integrated with your other core applications via a custom software development project or by implementing one of the apps in the marketplace.  Thus, Google Apps becomes an integral building block for a continuous business process.

Growing Your Business

Google Apps is pervasive in the workflow of businesses that apply it strategically.  It is a platform for supporting the movement of data across various systems.  Growing your business comes from the advantages of its extensibility and feature-rich, yet usable interface.  Think through how it can drive deeper into your business processes by thinking of it as a platform.