Google Apps for Your Business: The Good, the Bad and the ugly

In case you had not noticed, this is not the world of Bill Gates' again. Of course, Microsoft remains the dominant provider of office software, with 450 million users deployed, according to data from the company. But downcoast rival, Mountain View, California-based Google, Microsoft has broken the lock on the office software products. More than 2 million businesses and 25 million users when dealing with their e-mail, documents and other office tasks using a web-based professional office suite, Google Apps.

And for good reason.

Google Office offers a bewildering variety of cloud-based productivity options for even the smallest company: basically all you do in the workplace is now available anywhere, any time, from any online connection. Better yet, all of this is free for standard versions - or $ 50 per year per user for the Premier version, which includes additional storage and a high-quality, limited support.

And Google has just begun. In April the company quietly overhauled Apps, dramatically change the user interface and improve the core code of the software. New Apps supports the development of a third party even Google Apps Marketplace.

If you do not have access to the web is great, you better off working with a traditional word processor such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice. But if you use the internet and your company is not Google Apps-savvy right at this moment, you make mistakes.

Here are our choices for the big, not-so-great and I really spectacular small business tool:

Big Tool

Google Apps Gmail

What is love:

The foundation of any small business, Google Apps Gmail supports URL of your company and look the same from any web browser or mobile device. For example, it instantly turns your iPod Touch into an even job portals. Plus, Gmail has a lot of e-mail space for each employee, with 25 GB of storage per user (paid Apps account). Employees complete the remote access, and the system requires them to be logged in to do their jobs, total liabilities. Gmail conversations "with yarn," unlike most desktop e-mail client, which means the e-mail subject line are grouped both, which makes it easier to keep track of complex, multi-party exchange.

What is hate:

Google's approach to log in and manage e-mail when complicated identity. Even worse, the employees often have trouble telling if they are logged in to the virtual system company e-mails or their own personal Gmail account. Also, ready to be bombarded by advertising-supported content. Text ads are the core business of Google, so you pretty much always see them. Some may be related, but many companies will be cautious about opening their own company e-mail marketers, even anonymously.

Productivity factors:

Incredible. If you are not using Google Apps Gmail account in Microsoft Outlook, you are either a novice or a fool. But be forewarned: This is not a complete replacement for Outlook.

Google Apps Calendar

What is love:

Apps Calendar to create a common platform on which to schedule appointments and events across the enterprise in real time. It enables the executive assistant to schedule an appointment 'from a remote location, and allows you to update your client meetings because they need to - again, as happens. Quite simply, when it comes to the work of the team, the scheduling tool of God - even generate an e-mail invitation that includes a button to respond. When employees stated they attend, Apps Calendar is automatically added to schedule a meeting with you and them. It also allows you to combine the calendar hiring you to set up your entire team bird's.

What is hate:

Apps such as Gmail, Calendar can be confusing and complex, managing Settings Calendar work evil. And you can expect deploy other applications such as project management or LiquidPlanner Smartsheet really make the scheduling work. Also, permissions and privacy management has become difficult in our test. And, of course, other people arrange their schedules in different ways. Be warned: Integration with Outlook is useless.

Productivity factors:

No other tool out there like that. Scheduling feature alone is a must-have for small businesses. Just do not ask too much.

Google Docs

What is love:

Google Docs has earned the most recent rebuilding of Google Apps, which can solve the previous problem regarding connectivity and collaboration. Offline content creation may actually work. Collaborative word processing feature, which allows multiple parties to make changes at once, is a revelation to any creative team fast speed. Suddenly, a proposal or presentation is a task that almost-light. Forget writer's block: Real-time chat and group feedback comments put on the page, and the changes are saved automatically and frequently. You'll never see to write or edit in the same way again.

What is hate:

As cool as it is, Google Docs does not replace Microsoft Word or OpenOffice it comes to making a smooth, professional-looking documents. More troubling, connectivity is still a problem, the daunting prospect when frozen in the middle Docs store documents. And forget about using e-mail attachments and wild reliable publish-to-web features, they can be stabilized.

Productivity factors:

Docs stone. This is the best collaborative work tool on the market - and you can not beat the price.

Google AdWords

What is love:

Although technically not part of Google Apps, AdWords is still an important part of any business marketing strategy based growing. This forced the company to sterilize the value proposition in the sentence and make for how you follow up on leads from your website.

What is hate:

Do not spend more than $ 100 per month without the help of an online pro-look-long, or you'll burn money fast. AdWords is harder than it looks. Also, competitors such as Facebook and Twitter are breathing the neck leader of the online advertising market. So the market is changing rapidly.

Productivity factors:

AdWords can really work, but be careful not to overspend.

Google Pack

What is love:

It is our sleeper pick for a Google product that works for small businesses - and the first thing you have to download when you get a new computer. The Google Pack is a free office suite that contains starter Google Chrome browser, Google Apps, and Spyware Doctor and Anti-Virus, among other Google software, including third-party applications such as Adobe Reader and Skype.

What is hate:

Not much, really. Yes, it is an obvious promotional vehicle for Google. But it is useful and gets you productive in just a few clicks. Surprisingly cold.

Productivity factors:

Easy to install and well, it's a great way to get quick Google-ized.

Not-so-big Tool

Google Presentations

What is love:

Because they are stored online, the presentation can be updated on the road, and it's nice to find the data in real time. Presentation also makes it relatively easy to enter the base images and video. You get a library of templates to speed quickly, and sharing features that allows you to collect and share feedback with the team quickly, keeping everyone on the same page, literally. The publishing your finished product on the web or embed it in a website is instantaneous, making it easy to reach audiences around the world in an instant.

What is hate:

Google Presentation just do not have the same level of features such as PowerPoint. And for PPoint head, it will make you crazy. Design features are limited. And while you can open PowerPoint files up to 10MB, transliteration may be a clumsy way. In the text box is a poor feature updates, and sometimes get skewed layout. And prepared for the bones in your web coding skills to get the presentation to work properly, especially when working with multiple browsers.

Productivity factors:

PowerPoint 2010 is nothing to worry about.

Google Sites

What is love:

The drag-and-drop development tool useful site for anyone struggling with building websites based team working within your business. If you are building an internal Wiki site store, or struggle with Microsoft SharePoint, the website will save you a ton of time and money. This website is all branded Google Apps domain and easily editable by employees, with permission from the main account. It also integrates information from other Google Apps program as well, which makes it easy to set up Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Calendar deadline, including Gmail messages relevant to the issue at hand.

What is hate:

Despite its flexibility, there are many other ways to develop more effective public space on the web, ie, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Small businesses can find Reader too complicated and busy.

Productivity factors:

Do not throw away your web development tools is not enough. Google Sites can be difficult to store small-tech experience.

Google Voice

What is love:

It is an attempt to reinvent the phone using the concept of a telephone number, with lots of bells and whistles. When a customer calls your Google Voice number, they get a recording while the number listed to find pings you or send it directly to voicemail. Voice also offers transcription, share messages, multiple personal greetings and some international calls cool.

What is hate:

Obviously, it's a whole lot of technology looking for a problem to solve. Ritual use of a business phone remains a respectable aspects of business life. So play around with the incoming business calls in a loop Google-branded service can automatically ticklish business proposition. And there is a problem of quality for international calls and transcription. Novelty can get old.

Productivity factors:

Not much. Your phone customer master 120 years ago. They do not change their practices today.

Google Wave / Google Buzz

What is love:

Google Wave is attempting to create a device agnostic media sharing that allows users to create real-time content to the cloud as no web browser. And Buzz brings social media arsenal products Google by allowing users to collect ideas, clips, pictures and videos online and share them among the group which anyone can comment on them. Both simply amazing technology.

What is hate:

As cutting-edge tools that teams need to understand how they work, most small businesses do not have the time or resources to train their people effectively.

Productivity factors:

Google Apps for experts only.

Terrible tool

Google Spreadsheets

What is love:

Not much. It was a big disappointment for Google Apps. Sure, you get a basic spreadsheet functions and some cool tricks (such as real-time updating of web data and automatic compatibility with Excel and all. Cls file xls or.), But small People here unforgettable. Nice features the autofill function allows you to avoid having to retype the same rule repeatedly, the ability to drag the column to a new location, and featuring a streamlined copy makes a duplicate in a single click.

What is hate:

It seems to work in the spreadsheet is not some holy grail thought it was. After all, most small companies will want only one or two employees to manage the accounting or sales. Also, Google Spreadsheets is actually slower than Excel, Microsoft Office programs may be the best, especially when running in 64-bit environment. Google Spreadsheets Data entry can interfere with the train, the line is sometimes disappear without warning. And freezing and thawing of the panel when complex. Fans of Microsoft Excel, prepare to be disappointed.

Productivity factors:

No. Excel is nothing to worry about.

Netflix Announces $ 100,000 in Prizes for Coders

Netflix last night held a meeting with a spa-like headquarters to 200 or more members Clouderati the engineers to develop the infrastructure of computing where the business is run someday. Netflix (NFLX) has a reputation for pushing the boundaries of cloud computing, many businesses are run in the cloud streaming movie rental Amazon.com 's system. And engineers from around Silicon Valley came to hear about the latest and greatest technical staff concocted.When Netflix technology infrastructure, we live in the age of the absurd. Netflix-like Facebook (FB), LinkedIn (LNKD), Twitter, Yahoo (YHOO), and other Web-celebs open source software that underlies many operations. Put more bluntly, they fought for the right pile of money in the smart engineers, and give their work so that others can build it. Together, all of these companies forge cutting-edge cloud computing technology used by the company in the year of major events come.At, Netflix seem to turbocharge the process. The company has announced $ 100,000 in prizes, $ 10,000 for 10 different awards for volunteer coders to develop an interesting tool based on open-source code Netflix for six months. (The rule here.) Revelation is greeted with gifts of praise is great. Now the race is for people who do not work with Netflix to improve corporate infrastructure.By, all this should happen. Large computing giants such as IBM (IBM), Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), you must set the course for the future of computing. A few years ago, the executives of these companies can organize events and make some broad statements about utility computing wave of new technologies, service-oriented architectures, and auto-management people them seriously and start working. These companies, however, are moving too slowly and think too little. They have a consciousness of what the next generation of computing will look like but can not generate the right or time.The result is that retailers (Amazon (AMZN)), an entertainment company (Netflix), advertisers (Google ( GOOG)), a resume website (LinkedIn), and address book (facebook) ended up shaping the future of infrastructure. This is not to say that every main street businesses require tools to operate on the site. Yet Netflix, for example, pounding on cloud computing services Amazon.com 's to know where the weak points are and what the technology needs to improve. Or LinkedIn developing automated tools to check the health of the software code. All this work is making a solid cloud computing services for the masses is allowed in reasonable then go date.Giving technical intelligence for free and paid volunteer coders makes it perfect for Netflix, says Adrian Cockcroft, a former Sun Microsystems engineer who is now director of cloud computing architecture with Netflix. "We ended up with a good quality code," he said. "And, when it comes to hire people, we can see the people who know our code base and doing interesting things." Netflix has built a large warehouse of open-source cloud computing technology. Tool to install the software package on the server preset Amazon.com 's, reconfigure them, and try them quickly. It has other applications are intentionally trying to wreak havoc on infrastructure in an attempt to find the holes and performance problems. And the code but rather to push the newest and best technology database constraints. Organizations as diverse as the Obama administration and Intel (INTC) has won this package to use in their own operations.Eventually, Netflix would open source the whole instead of releasing cool but other projects "platform." For us to collect the management of the entire cloud system software developers poke and prod and advanced. "What we are hoping that people start eating from one another," says Cockcroft. "We are all building codes to the public here."

Beppe Grillo Waiting for the French? Platform

Grillo left social spending (he wants free internet for all, free tablet for children, and works 20 hours a week), increased environmental regulation, anti-corruption rhetoric, and middle class tax cut. So far, so Sympatico with leftist Democrats Party.But Grillo also want to defer interest payments on the debt of Italy, and to hold a referendum on euro membership. It can oppose E.U. officials attempted to suppress the Italian loan to get money without leaving union., Dylan Matthews, "Everything You Need to Know about Messed-up Italian Elections," WonkBlog, Washington Post, February 25, 2013 " Grillo "is Beppe Grillo. Giuseppe Piero Grillo is a person we need to know. (Again, the elite of the elite can be all they want At some point,. Voice of the people.) I would suggest that glance at the Wikipedia page Grillo. I really never seen anything like it.After its effect on elections earthquake Italy and by direct inference the Italians, I would suggest pages and articles and Essays, and the book is written in comedian Grillo. I do not see any such it.Grillo moved market. Call it the "Flight of Comedy." Yen strength, gold advances, and, yes, I've seen it move size. But bear in the most primitive screams for 20 hours a week? I've never seen anything like it.His 20 hours 35-hour signal Italy France as hard-working.Wait minutes. Is there a waiting Beppe Grillo France? Discuss.

Tesco Monitor Employees At Motorola Armbands

There is a fine line between micromanaging and house arrest, and British store chain Tesco (TSCO) seems determined to cross it. According to the Irish Independent, employee distribution center Dublin company was forced to wear armbands that measure their productivity so severe that the company even know when they take a shower armbands istirahat.Pulau, officially known as the Motorola terminal arm-mounted, This looks like something between Game Boy and Garmin GPS devices. Terminal track how fast and competent employees unpack and scan the goods in the warehouse and give them grades. It also standards for unloading speed that workers are expected to meet. Monitor is turned off during lunch break the workers, but any-bathroom trip, visits fountain-reported lower the cost of their productivity. Tesco did not respond to requests for comment, so it is difficult to know if the arm band is success.In last year, Tesco has ramped up its productivity. From 2007 to 2012, the average number of full-time employees 40,000 square meters of standard Tesco superstore reportedly dropped nearly 18 percent. And in November, the company launched the program in Bangladesh to help the overseas garment workers' increased productivity while improving conditions, "the company put it in a statement time.Unfortunately, it leads to the efficiency does not necessarily translate into quality. Tesco is one of the major retailers are currently involved in a scandal that the European horse meat. As it turns out the box of frozen spaghetti Bolognese meat contains 60 percent of the horse, it does not really matter how fast it is unloaded from the delivery truck.

MBA Job Hunt: Interview Like a Pro

first-year MBA students are put through the paces to prepare for on-campus interviews. This time of year full of excitement, but also a lot of anxiety. Students who puts a large amount of pressure on themselves before process.Let summer internship interview, AOS step back and review some of the basics. My goal is for every job seeker in order to secure the right role. The search for the right job is a bit like finding the exact date. Before you go on a first date, it, AOS wise to inquire about your date, AOS likes and dislikes and the background and check out the place, has Aore dinner.The job search is no different. As you know, be ready for a job interview is key to getting offer.As prepare, here are some items to consider for your interview list: agenda A: What are the three or four most items that you want to bang the interviewer to know about you? How do they fit with the role you are interviewing for Research firm:? You have completed all your research firms? Do you feel comfortable with your knowledge of the organization? If the company is likely to provide a structured internship experience, as long as you think about how you sell your ability to thrive in that kind of environment? Talk to students at schools or other schools about their experiences with the company. Having some insight into the company before you go to the interview will help you to some of the questions you can expect asked.Put get your game face: Recruiters understand this is a stressful process. However, the expectation that you are a professional who can manage the interview insisted. This, AOS is important to try not to be too nervous. If you have a passion for sweaty palms or eyebrows, secretly hides nearby.Smile handkerchief: It sounds so simple, but job seekers often forget to smile in an attempt to show a serious image. But communicating warmth and interest to your smile is important. Keep eye contact with the interview but avoided looking down. Be careful of your body language and make sure the interviewer projecting outcrop. The important thing is to try to connect with the person sitting across you.Use career center: At this time, it is important to use the resources of your career center. They are there to help you achieve your goal.Everyone getting nervous during the interview process. But if you know why you are interviewing for a job, willing to share their experience and knowledge that are relevant, and have done your homework in advance, you can succeed.Join Forum discussions with the Bloomberg Businessweek Business School, visit us on Facebook, and follow on BWbschools Twitter @.

A Liberation Dodd-Frank Regulations 7900 Growth%

In the past two years, regulators and business in which the company grappling derivatives trading must undergo rigorous testing as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform. Credit default swaps and other derivatives, of course, is the main cause of the financial crisis in 2008. During the meeting, reports, hearings, and letters, they are trying to solve problems like "What is a swap dealer?" And "What is meant by 'financial entities? '"-That sounds almost existential question but with real world consequences to $ 700 trillion global derivatives regulator market.Federal make their initial proposal in 2010, said that only a small player ikakalakal less than $ 100 million per year are exempt from rules that require them to hold more capital and to report more information about their trade. Regions Financial (RF) energy giant BP (BP), and other companies that use derivatives to write and retreat. They argue that the exclusion of a broader sense as derivatives trade is highly concentrated. According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the top five banks, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Goldman Sachs (GS) hold almost 96 percent of the notional value of all derivative contracts. In smaller players, arguments become, not be burdened with additional requirements that ultimately increase the costs to counter is consumers.The with little player can still create systemic risk. Before the financial crisis, American International Group (AIG), for example, is not a top-five vendors, but, as we all learned, the pin intertwined world of mortgage derivatives. In fact, the OCC also said (PDF) that the notional value "does not provide a useful measure of either market or credit risk." He said the risk may depend on many different factors, such as leverage, liquidity, and volatility.This week, regulators eventually repay the problem, and the industry generally win. Regulator extended the exception to include companies with less than $ 8 billion in the year to exchange 80 times more than the original proposal. By one estimate, that means exempt 60 percent of the current exchange dealers. These companies, which spans from the bank to the company's energy and agriculture, breathe easier now that they are freed. Want what the new rules mean for market risk, regulators said they reevaluate in five years, when the default limit down to $ 3 billion.