“True story. I was walking to a business dinner in NYC. Someone told me they were going to start working with a new manager and asked me if I knew him. The name sounded familiar and I thought I had done something with him during the Broadcast.com days. A quick GMail search from my phone and I found 2 emails we had exchanged when he was trying to sell a company he was involved with back in 1996. That’s why I use GMail.” – Mark Cuban
In case you haven’t read Mark Cuban’s blog post, “Am I Living The Google Lifestyle?” it’s a great testimonial on his use of Google Apps. He is using the technology to move fast, get things done and make deals happen. Speed and productivity are the allure. As a platform, working with information, especially on a large scale is much easier to manage with the paradigm of Google Apps. Cuban claimed over 500K emails and an additional 2 Terabytes of storage upgrade. He saves everything for easy search and access later.
Google Apps Strategy Takeaways
Some takeaways for using Google Apps more effectively in your own world:
- Integrate your devices. Your mobile devices, laptops and desktops all work with the cloud. Use them fluidly, quickly and with ease. Ensure they are fast so your searching is quick.
- If in question, save everything. This allows you to have an accessible history of work. Email yourself notes. Treat your Gmail and Google Docs like an archive of your personal search repository.
- Keep voice and text integrated. Google Voice should be used for logging information, accessing it quickly and responding. It becomes part of your searchable archive.
- Value your content. Your inbound and outbound content is valuable to you. It has meaning in your world. Treat it like an asset for business decision making and action. Make it easy for yourself to access anywhere any time.
There are other deductions to make as well. In our Google Apps consulting, we work on best practices, so depending on your use case, the strategies for productivity and collaboration can range quite a bit. Push it to its limits and discover how you can go faster.
What are strategies you have developed in your Google Apps use?
