subject: Cpa Website Design: Workteam Collaboration Suite Pt 2 [print this page] CPA Site Solutions is a company that builds websites for accounting firms and provides a standard Workteam Collaboration Suite Email solution as part of their basic service. This is part 2 of two videos they produced for their clients, but this system is powered by Google so it should prove very informative for just about any newbie Gmail or Google Apps user.
In this installment Allison tells us about some of the the Instant Messaging and Shared Document features.
The shared document feature is one of my favorites. It enables you to not only see one another's documents, but to work on them together and see each others work in real time. Your documents are now available around the clock from anywhere you have an internet connection!
The Instant Messenger, or "IM" client, is regarded by a lot of people as something of a toy. IMing earned something of a shady reputation back when it was a teen fad, but it's surprisingly useful in a business setting. I've noticed a marked improvement in my own office efficiency since we started using it. I spend a lot less time dawdling in doorways waiting for people to get off the phone, and I'm much less likely to get distracted by office goings on if I can just type my message and get back to work. The message just sits on top of the recipients email interface until he or she has time to respond, and I get more work done!
Just to be clear, while the Workteam Collaboration Suite is branded to CPA Site Solutions and included as part of their accounting website design package, but it's powered by Google. You do not need to be a CPA Site Solutions customer to use these tools, nor do you need to use Gmail. If you have your own domain name and you want to use it with Google as your email solution you can. The service you're looking for is called "Google Apps".
There are two service levels available for Google Apps. The standard service is free. It includes 7GB of email storage and all the same bells and whistles as the premium version, but it does not include support. If you know what "DNS" is or what "C-Name Records" are (or if you have someone on staff who does) you're probably fine with the standard service. The premium service offers a larger mailbox, but more importantly it includes technical support. If the sentence "upload a text file into your root directory with the name Google8945hy456.txt" makes you scratch your head you might want to consider paying for the premium service.
