• Why did we choose Google Apps? (read this article)

    We looked for an email solution that could provide with us the following benefits:

    • Lower infrastructure costs -- All email will be stored securely on Google servers, eliminates the need to maintain on-site email servers
    • Lower support costs -- Because Google hosts the email and calendar services, there's no more email client software to maintain on your local computer
    • Innovative solutions -- We can leverage the ongoing creative and technical solutions of the Google Apps platform to provide our staff with powerful, easy-to-use tools for getting their work done
    • Highly scalable environment -- With Google Apps, our email capacity will grow automatically as our school grows, and we'll avoid the complexity of internal systems
    • Access to services from anywhere, anytime -- A key benefit of the Google-hosted solution is that we can access email, contacts, and calendar from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection, anywhere in the world
    • More collaboration features -- With Google's next-generation applications, we can collaborate with colleagues, professional experts, and partners more easily and efficiently than ever before

    What exactly does Google Apps include?

    Your new Google Apps account will include the following services: Gmail, Calendar, Groups, Talk, Docs, Sites. Here are some of the key benefits we think you'll enjoy:

    • Lots of storage -- You get a full 25GB of online storage for your email, so you can archive all of your email online. You'll no longer need to worry about deleting messages or saving them in offline folders
    • Enhanced message organization and retrieval -- With Gmail, you'll spend less time managing folders and looking for messages. For example, you can add one or more tags, or "labels," to your messages to organize and store them more efficiently. And with the Google-powered search feature, you can find any message quickly and easily, whether it's in your Inbox or stored in your message archive
    • Easier calendar sharing -- Google Calendar lets you and your team members quickly and easily share your calendars with each other and specify the details you want to show. Calendar sharing is a great way for you and your coworkers to keep each other informed about your schedules. Now it's easier than ever to find out if someone is in a meeting, on a business trip, or on vacation
    • Better mailing lists -- With Google Groups, you can manage your own subscriptions to mailing lists -- called groups. You can even create your own groups for your projects, teams, special-interest groups, and more. Not only do groups make it easier to send email and calendar invitations to groups of people but they also simplify access management for your shared Google documents, sites, videos, and calendars!
    • Integrated chat -- With the Google Talk instant messaging application, you can communicate instantly with your coworkers right from the Email interface. In addition, all your chats are automatically saved in your Email application, so you can always retrieve important information
    • Real-time collaboration -- Using Google Docs, you can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and you and your team members can view and edit them at the same time
    • Easy-to-build team web sites -- With Google Sites, your team can quickly publish a robust internal web site on which to gather all sorts of shared information, such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations, files, and videos. You can even embed Google calendars and other gadgets on your site!