XMR Fire Emergency Services Consulting can assist your fire department, EMS agency, labor group, or other organization adopt and deploy the Google Apps cloud environment.
What can Google Apps do for my fire department or EMS agency?
Google Apps is a cloud-based productivity suite that helps you and your team connect and get work done from anywhere on any device. It's simple to setup, use and manage, allowing you to work smarter and focus on what really matters. It includes these modules in one seamlessly integrated suite:
- Gmail
- Calendar
- Drive
- Docs (Text docs, Sheets, Slides)
- Hangouts
- Sites
- Vault (optional)
What are the benefits of Google Apps?
User benefits include:- Data accessible from anywhere, on any computer platform
- 30GB of storage per user across email and documents with powerful search capability
- Simple and fast collaboration and messaging tools
- Data is never lost, even if your laptop dies or is stolen
- Sharing mechanism within Docs, Sites and Video enables a new level of collaboration
- No hardware or software to install or maintain
- Very low fixed cost per user
- Intuitive applications that many users are already familiar with - little training necessary
- Ability to move users incrementally
- Savings of license fees, hardware and data center costs
- Open platform for integration
- Decreased cost
- Increased employee productivity, enabling faster decision making.
- More flexibility to deploy changes and innovations fast and get on with business
- Focus resources on strategic initiatives instead of operational activities
- Attractive IT environment for the younger generation of employees
How much money can I save with Google Apps?
Most companies have a cost model for provisioning email and productivity applications to employees - usually somewhere between $300 and $1000 per employee.Why Gmail?
Gmail has over 400 million users and growing. With Gmail, your inbox has substantial storage to minimize the need to delete email. Furthermore, there's powerful Google search functionality and email/IM threading. Instant messaging is embedded in Gmail so you can respond to an email in real-time. Priority inbox helps you focus on the most important messages and saves you time. Also, your Gmail is available from any computer so you're no longer limited to answering email at your desk. Gmail is simple to use, but not simplistic in its functionality, which means less time required for user training. You can also use Gmail offline after enabling the offline feature in Gmail Labs.Why Google Calendar?
With Google Calendar, you can view the calendars of co-workers and colleagues from one online calendar. Their appointments are viewable right next to yours which streamlines event planning. Google Calendar also can be integrated with other components of Google Apps. You can communicate, share and collaborate via Gmail, Talk and Calendar to reduce duplicate work and improve output efficiency. Additionally, you decide who can see your calendar details.Why Google Docs?
Google Docs improves the speed and quality of output by enabling collaboration and discussion of a document simultaneously-- multiple people in multiple locations can view, discuss, and edit the same document from anywhere at any time. It also reduces duplicate work and confusing document tracking and version control issues while simultaneously eliminating the concern of exceeding disk space and inbox quotas with the standard back and forth emailing procedure. Furthermore, Google Docs has secure sharing. Each Google Doc has sharing controls so you don't have to worry about information getting into the wrong hands.Why Google Drive?
Google Drive gives you access to your work from anywhere, across your Mac, PC, mobile devices and on the web. Simply download Drive on your Mac or PC to sync files from your computer to the cloud. Update a file on one device and changes are automatically saved to Drive and your other device, so you have the most up-to-date version of your files wherever you need them.Why Google Hangouts?
Hangouts brings online video meetings and chats right to your laptop, mobile phone or tablet. Meet face-to-face with up to 15 colleagues or clients, from anywhere in the world with just a click. Hangouts is integrated with Google’s productivity apps to fit the way you work. It’s easy to schedule a Hangout from your Calendar, or jump right in from your inbox. You can add a doc from Google Drive and work together in real time during the meeting.Why Google Sites?
Businesses use Google Sites to make useful information accessible. Employees can create an intranet or let project teams build sites to capture and share departmental knowledge. File versioning is done automatically, so it's easy for people to make updates and get the latest version. Supported formats include .doc, .xls, .csv, .ppt, .txt, .pdf and more. Users can display Google Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, YouTube videos, Picasa slideshows and gadgets without any programming skills. Google search technology is built-in, so employees can find useful company information as easily as searching the Internet. No coding or system expertise is required to update pages or create new internal sites, so anyone can add to shared knowledge. All of this is hosted by Google allowing users to drive innovation without the concern of justifying hardware and administration expenses.Why Google Vault?
Vault enables seamless archiving, e-discovery and information governance capabilities to your Google Apps environment to protect your business. It is an OPTIONAL module that you can buy on top of the core Google Apps suite. Your email and chat messages are archived and retained according to your policies, preventing inadvertent deletions. Be prepared for litigation and compliance audits with powerful search tools that help you find and retrieve relevant email and chat messages.
Fire Departments and EMS Agencies Using Google Apps
How many government agencies and businesses use Google Apps?
Over 5 million governemnt agencies and businesses have gone Google and use Google Apps. Find out how Google Apps has transformed the businesses of many of our customers worlwide here.Are there any particular industries where Google Apps makes more sense?
Google Apps provides fundamental communication and collaboration capabilities that are essential to every business user. Having said that, we're seeing rapid adoption in industries with mobile workforces, regionally disparate teams separated by timezones and great distances, and companies where IT is challenged with scaling at the speed required by its users. Specific industries include retail, real estate, manufacturing, technology and media.- Users on web/legacy email (ex. retail branches, customer service reps, real estate agents)
- Users with no messaging or collaboration services (manufacturing plants, distribution centers, strategic partners/temporary consultants)
- Dynamic user bases where the need to add and remove users easily is a necessity
- Collaboration users (teams/departments that share spreadsheets, project plans, etc).
Google Apps Compatibility and Coexistence
Is Google Apps compatible with Microsoft products?
Google Docs: Yes, Docs is compatible with Microsoft Office file formats and many other standards such as PDF, OpenOffice, and ODF. Standard Microsoft file formats are supported for import/export from and to all these popular formats. Our products are designed to open standards and are compatible with many other products. Gmail also allows you to read your Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and PDF documents directly from your inbox -- no additional software required.
Messaging and Collaboration: Google Apps are built on an open and extensible platform with extensibility and integration in mind. Google's open API standard, Gdata, provides easy and secure programmatic access to data within applications such as Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gmail, etc. In addition, Google's popular Gadget development platform is ideal for creating enterprise mashups and workflow integrations to serve business needs in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional development environments (e.g., .NET, SOAP). Over 50,000 gadgets have been developed on this platform, many of them are enterprise specific applications such as CRM and ERP integrations as well as workflow management.
Quickoffice: Google Apps for Business includes a free version of Quickoffice, available on Android and iOS. Quickoffice's software allows mobile professionals to view, edit, and create Microsoft® Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents on their mobile device. The Google Apps version seamlessly integrates with Google Drive to provide you with simple access to important content—anytime, anywhere.
Google operates one of the largest networks of distributed data centers in the world, and we go to great lengths to protect the data and intellectual property on these servers. These facilities are protected around the clock and we have a dedicated security operations team which focuses specifically on maintaining the security of our environment. The controls, processes and policies that protect these data have successfully completed a SAS 70 Type II audit. There are three main components to our security practices:
Can you migrate all my mail and calendar events from MSFT Exchange and/or Lotus Notes?
Yes. Google Apps for Business offers a robust set of migration utilities and APIs to pull data from your existing systems and migrate that data to Google Apps. In addition, Google has thousands of partners worldwide who specialize in Google Apps roll out, system migration, implementation and co-existence.When will Google Apps support all the features of Microsoft Office/Exchange?
It's not our intention to try to match those products feature for feature. Our goal is to create a better overall experience and to enable new capabilities based on the unique nature of the Web. While there will always be some level of user uncertainty in moving from last-generation products, we believe that the user experience will be exceptionally strong overall. Additionally, it is likely that pockets of users within an organization such as Finance or Legal may choose to keep Office but we believe Apps meets the needs of a vast majority of users.Google Apps Usability
What about offline capability?
We recognize that offline capabilities are still critical in today's business world. Although broadband connectivity is becoming more ubiquitous, there are still scenarios where users need to be offline (e.g., airplane travel). Google Apps' offline support through the Chrome browser lets you keep working even when you’re disconnected. Gmail Offline capability is provided as a free Chrome web application. Offline access for Google Calendar also allows you to schedule your events while disconnected from the Internet. And with Offline Docs support, you're able to view Google documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings even when you don't have an Internet connection. You're also able to edit Google documents, presentations, and drawings offline.If I decide to stop using Google Apps, can I get my data back?
Yes our solution has open APIs to all applications and you can get email, calendars, and documents back in other industry formats (IMAP, iCal, MS Office) for migration purposes.
Google Apps: Data Security and Reliability
Do I get dedicated servers?
No. Google operates what is called a "multi-tenant" environment. While there is logical separation between users and corporations, storage and compute power are shared across a vast computing array. This is at the heart of Google's architecture and it's what provides the scalability, reliability, and cost effectiveness for which Google is known.What are security advantages to Software-as-a-service?
With traditional software, employees save data to insecure USB drives, discs and laptops for easy access. With Google Apps, because employees can access information securely from anywhere, they're less likely to save sensitive data locally. And with Google Apps' 99.9% uptime guarantee, you can be confident that employees will have access whenever they need it. The 99.9% uptime SLA for Google Apps is offered to organizations using Google Apps for Business, as described in the Google Apps for Business Terms of Service and covers the full range of application services as specified there.Why is Google Apps secure?
Google operates one of the largest networks of distributed data centers in the world, and we go to great lengths to protect the data and intellectual property on these servers. These facilities are protected around the clock and we have a dedicated security operations team which focuses specifically on maintaining the security of our environment. The controls, processes and policies that protect these data have successfully completed a SAS 70 Type II audit. There are three main components to our security practices:
- People – Google employs a full-time information security team including some of the world’s foremost experts in information, application, and network security. This team is responsible for the company’s perimeter defense systems, security review processes, and customized security infrastructure, as well as for developing, documenting, and implementing Google’s security policies and standards.
- Process – Security is part of the Google DNA. Each application is built from the ground up with security in mind. Google applications go through multiple security reviews as part of the Secure Code development process. The application development environment is closely restricted and carefully monitored to maximize security. External security audits are also regularly conducted to provide additional assurance.
- Technology – Google Apps data is fractured and obfuscated across multiple servers and disks, making it human-unreadable. Data is replicated in multiple data centers for redundancy and consistent availability. To reduce exploit risks, each Google server is custom-built with only the necessary software components, and the homogeneous server architecture enables rapid updates and configuration changes across the entire network when necessary.
