Google Apps and Windows 8: An early look

With the release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview yesterday Microsoft has shown that they're all-in when it comes to mobile. The Metro interface is a dead ringer for the recent UI re-invention of Windows Phone and the Xbox 360. We're just now putting the new operating system through its paces so we won't speculate on how consumers and businesses will adopt such a drastically different user interface. In the meantime we've got Windows 8 running on our Samsung Series 7 Slate and because of some smart decisions on Microsoft's part we're very confident that users of Google Apps will like what they see.

Click to read more ...

What we use #3: Google Docs

It might seem counter-productive to some, but the combination of Google Docs and Microsoft Office is a recipe for success. Hear me out. Microsoft Office has been the industry standard for document creation for years due to its powerful features and relative ease of use. Google Docs is making significant headway in enterprise by promoting drop dead simple sharing and collaboration functionality. We use the combination for a few reasons.

Click to read more ...

Microsoft Office 365: Still not for small business

Why is this the only option for Small Businesses?

The only deal-breaker we wrote about in May is now an official feature of the Office 365 for Small Business and Professional Plan. It's crazy that Microsoft does not allow you to keep your own website when using this plan which starts at $6 per month. Instead your company is either forced into the more expensive Enterprise level plans (at $16 to $24 per user per month), or to dump the website you spent time and money on for a cheap replacement with a dozen amateurish templates.

Click to read more ...

What we use #1: Microsoft OneNote

Welcome to the first in our "What We Use" series where our consultants talk about the IT tools they use on a daily basis.  We're constantly being asked about our favorite programs, so prepare yourselves for an ongoing series of posts detailing the software we use and abuse while consulting for TechMinds.

Click to read more ...

Microsoft Office 365: First Impressions

Here at TechMinds we've been ardent supporters of Google Apps for the last couple of years. It's cheap, efficient, and quick to set up. Office 365 is the next evolution of Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite). It's supposed to be Redmond, Washington's answer to Google Apps and we've been using it since it entered open beta last month.

Click to read more ...

Increase your Google Apps Storage for cheap

Announced this morning by the Google Enterprise Blog enterprises which subscribe to Google Apps can now leverage the massive cloud storage capabilities of Google for very little money.  Starting at only $5 per month for 20GB and ranging up to 1TB of storage it's now feasible for an organisation to back up all their documents to a secure cloud, integrated with all of the other services included in Google Apps.  This announcement comes right on the heels of Google Cloud Connect which can automatically back up your documents to Google Docs.  The combination of these two services displays a concentrated effort by Google to innovate and get ahead of the Microsoft Office 365 launch later this year.

Google Cloud Connect is here: Keep your Microsoft Office documents in sync with Google Apps

Until today businesses which have made the transition to Google Apps have had a love/hate relationship with Google Docs.  While the instant collaboration and sharing features are time savers, the compatibility issues between Microsoft Word and Google Docs can be extremely frustrating.  That's why we're excited about the Google Cloud Connect announcement today.

We've been beta testing this program for over a month with some really amazing results.

Click to read more ...