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Store and share files in the cloud with Google Docs - via Official Google Enterprise Blog
Let's say you're about to make a very important presentation to a prospective client on the other side of the country. Before you depart on your business trip, you download all of your presentation materials and InDesign® hand-outs onto your trusty thumbdrive. Just in case, you also email the files to yourself.But while you're in the air, your colleagues back at the office are making last minute edits to the files and your copies are now out of date. Worse yet, when you arrive at your destination, you realize you left your thumbdrive at home.
Sound familiar? The good news is that things are about to become a whole lot easier.
Over the next couple of weeks, we are rolling out the ability for Google Apps users to easily upload and securely share any type of file internally and externally using Google Docs. You get 1 GB of storage per user, and you can upload files up to 250 MB in size.
Now accessing your work files doesn't require a connection to your internal office network. Nor do you need to email files to yourself, carry around a thumbdrive, or use a company network drive – you can access your files using Google Docs from any web-enabled computer.
Combined with shared folders in Google Docs, the upload feature is a great way to collaborate on files with coworkers and external parties. Instead of using cumbersome email attachments, you can upload files to a folder and share it with coworkers, who can then access and edit the files from a single place. You can even have your sales team securely share contracts with external clients for review.
And of course, by using Google Docs, you can quickly and easily search across all your files from one place, getting access to the right file when and where you need it.
Google Apps Premier Edition users can also use the Google Documents List Data API to upload files to Google Docs in batch, or purchase applications offered by third parties that enable you to migrate and sync your files to Google Docs:
Memeo Connect for Google Apps is a new desktop application that offers an easy way to access, migrate, and synchronize files to Google Docs across multiple computers. (PC and Mac) Syncplicity allows Google Apps users to synchronize, manage, and backup files across desktops and servers, making it easy to use Google Docs seamlessly with existing applications and files. (PC) Manymoon is an online project management platform that makes it simple to organize and share tasks and documents with coworkers and partners, including uploading files to Google Docs.
We're always looking for ways to make it easier for you to access and organize your information online and we hope you find the ability to store, share, and collaborate on files in Google Docs helpful. In the coming months, we will enable Google Apps Premier Edition customers to purchase additional storage for $3.50/GB/yr (or €3.00/gb/yr in the EU). If you'd like to be notified when additional storage can be purchased, please fill out this form and we will contact you as soon as it's available. As always, we’d love your feedback and if you have any questions, please check out our help forum.
The choices today for business collaboration is such that it's almost criminal not to be using such a system as Google Docs, Box.net or Drop.io etc
Sharing and collaborating on content is key for improving business productivity by making workflows simpler and working across locations and device platforms easier.
Get in touch for help in understanding how collaboration tools such as Google Docs can benefit your business.
Adding Tasks to a mindmap on MindMeister
MindMeister is a great tool for collaborating on ideas and projects. For the project side, this is a short tutorial for using Tasks as part of your mindmap.
Close business fast
Thinking about the impact of the snow today in the UK and one thing that may be affected is the speed of the mail system.
This need not be an issue though with Echosign. With Echosign you can quickly and easily get agreements signed and deals closed within 42 minutes on average. And it all takes place online with the same legal status of paper agreements. So why not take a look at Echosign and use it remover all that paper (good for reducing office costs and helping the environment) and try e-signing with Echosign. http://www.echosign.com/ (affiliate link)
Avoiding lost productivity to #uksnow
In southern England this morning at least there is some fairly heavy
snowfall. Based on recent experience this will mean many businesses
seeing staff working from home and meetings cancelled. This is often
equated to lost productivity.
productive. Here's a quick list of a few tools that may be very
helpful in keeping your appointments and goals for today on track. Presentation - If you were due to deliver a presentation today but
cannot physically get there take a look at one of the following for
giving the presentation remotely: Present.io - drop.io has dead simple rich web-presentation
functionality. no registration, no downloads, no installs. You can
upload your presentation files (documents, pictures, video, audio, and
more) and be giving your demo or walkthrough in seconds. With a free
conference call line and rich chat functionality, you have just what
you need http://present.io Google Docs - Viewing a presentation together is a breeze, as anyone
joined in a presentation can automatically follow along with the
presenter. http://docs.google.com Collaboratively finalising an asset such as a design graphic or
document proposal Box.net - Turn any folder of content into a shared online workspace
and invite others to view, edit, or add their own files. Exchange
feedback using the commenting and discussion features. Create
wiki-style web documents to share meeting notes, ideas, and manage
projects. Keep workflow organized by assigning tasks to approve,
review or update files http://www.box.net/strawberryway Drop.io - Use drop.io to privately share your files and collaborate in
real time by web, email, phone, mobile, and more. Create each drop in
two clicks and share what you want, how you want, with whom you want. http://drop.io Google Docs - Coworkers can share the same online copy of each doc,
spreadsheet or presentation. All revisions are saved and recoverable. http://docs.google.com Cummunication - need to stay in touch but your colleagues aren't at
their desk phones? Skype - Any size of company can use Skype to change the way they
communicate, collaborate and compete. Real-time communication tools
allow your business to work better, smarter and more efficiently.
Skype is a global solution that's easy to implement and manage all
your communication needs - employees work more productively, customers
can easily reach your company and your business stays ahead of the
game. http://skype.com TinyChat - Your webcam & microphone will just work, no fuss.
`Gathering friends for a meeting has never been easier. Enjoy high
quality live audio & video. Try it, you'll like it. http://tinychat.com So there you go, a few services which is by no means an exhaustive
list but these are possibly the quickets and easiest to pick up and
run with if you were to only use for today because of the snow. By doing so there really shouldn't be any lost productivity. NB I do see the making of snowmen as highly productive and so where
possible please step away from the internet and make one ;)
Using Drop.io? Try the Manager...
I use Drop.io for it's real time, collaboration features on projects. If you are using it too then take a look at the Manager product which gives some great functionality for managing all of your drops.
Remember The Milk - Getting things done...
Remember The Milk is one of the best ways to manage your tasks.
- Manage tasks quickly and easily
- Thanks to a natural language interface, adding tasks due "next friday" means just that and not fiddling around with a mini calendar
- Getting reminded, anywhere
- Reminders can be received pretty much anywhere such as email, SMS, Instant Messengers, Twitter and RSS
- Organising the way you want to
- Lists, tags and notes oh my! Remember The Milk has the flexible to power to make it as simple or feature rich as suits
- Locate your tasks
- Give tasks a location and see a map of where you need to be getting things done
- Collaboration
- Sharing, sending and publishing of tasks makes Remember The Milk an ideal application for project management and collaboration projects
- Add tasks wherever you are
- You can add tasks via email, web, twitter, your phone (there is an iPhone app) more. So you don't need to remember to write your task down in your system later!
The web is your Virtual Assistant
Web based applications can be key enablers for business change and improvement work.
The fallacy of email productivity
Background - Email as a productivity tool is, in my opinion, a bad idea and here are some trends / reasons why:
"According to recent analysis by the Online Publishers Association (OPA), more people than ever are spending their time online visiting content sites which provide news, information, and entertainment. Despite the emergence of social networks, and in particular the rapid growth of Facebook, it’s content sites which engage web surfers’ attention the most these days – time spent on these sites is up 88% from only five years ago. That’s not to say social networking community sites haven’t grown too, it’s just that their growth hasn’t come at the expense of content. Instead, people are using traditional communication sites and services (think webmail, IM, and discussion groups) less and less and choosing to use Facebook and other social networks instead."
Source - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_eats_away_at_email_usage_on_tod...
The guys at 37Signals seem to have a similar philosphoy to me given this post http://productblog.37signals.com/products/2009/10/how-can-i-get-my-coworkers-...
- Conversation Threads - yes there is Gmail. But not 100% of the world's email users do so with Gmail. Further in a business context the application there is Outlook which attempts threads but fails. Email lacks the ability to construct and record conversations. Conversations are the interaction between people making decisions for next steps. Critical stuff. Especially in a business context, email is not the right tool for facilitating communications.
- Rich Media - in email, rich media gets dumbed down to attachments. Granted some applications, example again being Gmail, handle rich media so that the message is as the sender intended. This is the exception not the rule though. Messages supplemented by documents, images and video become messages only with attachments which may or may not work with your email application / computer operating system / applications
- Immediacy - email is a tool with inherent lag. I send email. Email response arrives when? It goes in to the ether... There is no framework to manage and progress the attempts of conversation.
Moreover than features are the use cases we have for email. They're insane. For me communications is this:
Business Networking - Linkedin - a rolodex on steroids with messaging built in. When I get a business message via LinkedIn I have so much more context to the sender thus the conversation than a stand alone email.
Home Networking - Skype / Social Media - My grandparents see their great granddaughter when they get in touch. They dont get caught up with email messages and attachments. For short messages we have the common platform of Facebook. If my grandparents are struggling to do something I don't have to decipher what email application they're using nor what file type the attachment is.
Production / Project Management / GTD - Collaboration Platforms such as Box.net - Assets such as documents and images are stored centrally with contextual comments of conversation. Progress is the upload of a new file or completion of an assigned task. I see this as a list of activities in an RSS feed. I do not need to wade through 30emails to work out we've
completed a graphic.
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