Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Advertising with AdWords

Join us next Wednesday to learn how to create a successful lead generation campaign with AdWords. We'll go over keyword selection, landing page development, local targeting, conversion tracking and more.

Next Master Seller Webinar: Advertising with AdWords
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
10:00 am PDT, 1:00 pm EDT
Register

We will also be repeating last week's webinar on the recent Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook and Google Apps Connector for BES announcements. This final webinar is being held to accommodate resellers in the Asia and Asia Pacific time zone.

Leverage New Features to Position Apps against Exchange
Thursday, July 2, 2009
12:00 pm WST and SST, 9:00 pm PDT
Register

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

New! Use Microsoft Outlook with Google Apps

Today we're excited to announce that it's even easier to make the switch to Google Apps with Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. This new feature lets customers use Microsoft Outlook seamlessly with Google Apps Premier or Education Editions.

Many businesses are interested in adopting Google Apps but they've been unable to make the transition because of some employees that do not want to give up the familiar Microsoft Outlook interface. Now with Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, businesses can move forward deploying Google Apps, even if some users want to keep using Outlook. The plug-in enables employees to switch from Outlook to the Gmail interface at their own pace giving them their choice of interface, and IT departments their choice of email infrastructure.

Key features include:

- Email, calendar and contacts synchronization. For email, the plug-in uses the offline Gmail protocol, which is much faster than IMAP or other methods.
- Free/Busy lookup and Global Address List functionality, which makes it easy to schedule meetings with your colleagues, regardless of whether they use Outlook's calendar or Google Calendar.
- A simple, two-click data migration tool which allows employees to easily copy existing data from Exchange or Outlook into Google Apps.

Three key service providers - NuVox, Netfirms and IKANO - have already begun offering Google Apps Sync. NuVox, a leading telecom provider in the Southeast and Midwest, sees "an incredible response to Google Apps from [our] customer base," says CEO Jim Akerhielm. "We’re excited that Google Apps Sync helps our customers stop running Exchange and spend more time focusing on their core business." Netfirms, which powers 1.2m websites in the U.S. and Canada, is launching Google Apps to their customers in concert with Google Apps Sync. George Mitsopoulos, V.P. of DNA Mail (an IKANO company) says, "Google Apps Sync gives our customers even more options while minimizing our deployment effort. It's 'install, launch and you're ready to go."

To help you leverage this feature, and the recently launched Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, to sell Google Apps more effectively, we're holding webinars next week to accommodate our partners in various time zones. This will be the first in a series of Master Seller Webinars aimed at making our partners more successful. For those of you that can't attend, all Master Seller Webinars will be archived on the Solution Providers site so you can access them anytime.

We hope you will be able to join us next week to get live overviews and sales tips from our Product and Marketing Managers.

Webinar Details for North America
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
10:00 am PDT, 1:00 pm EDT
Register

Webinar Details for Europe, Middle East and Africa
Thursday, June 18, 2009
3:00 pm BST, 4:00 pm CET
Register

Webinar Details for Asia and Asia Pacific
TBD - please check the Solution Providers site over the next few weeks for an update

Until then you can review the Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook sales training presentation in the Marketing section of the Solution Providers site. This is the presentation that we will walk you through during the webinar at which time you can also ask questions. To see a demo of how the plug-in works, watch this 3 minute video.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Reflections on the Enterprise Track at Google I/O

The Enterprise team has just posted some reflections on the Enterprise Track at Google I/O on the Google Code Blog, so please take a moment to read up on all the great Enterprise sessions, announcements and events at Google I/O. We hope you enjoyed the conference as much as we did, and we're looking forward to seeing you there next year!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

New Google Apps Script - Limited test available

We're excited to announce a limited test of a new feature which lets people add customization and automation to Google Apps, starting with spreadsheets in Google Docs. We call this feature Google Apps Script.

Google Apps Script provides the ability to automate a variety of spreadsheet actions, such as reading and changing values in cells and ranges, changing formats and formulas, and creating custom functions. It also reaches outside of spreadsheets to allow you to send email or create calendar entries.

You can check out the Google Apps Script overview and watch our example of sending email from Google Spreadsheets. Also, you can get involved in Google Apps Script now by applying to join this limited test phase.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Attract more customers & access usage data through your local business listing on Google

For many of our partners, local visibility is key to attracting new customers and this is an area where Google can help. When users search on Google.com or Google Maps, we want them to be able to find you and access the right information. Now it's even easier for partners to ensure this happens with a dashboard feature that is launching in Local Business Center, also known as LBC.

The LBC is a free tool that allows business owners to control their listings and easily access usage data beyond what can be tracked with their website analytics. Once you claim your listing in the LBC and go through a quick verification process you will be able to view the following data:

Impressions: The number of times your business listing appeared as a result on a Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period.

Actions: The number of times people interacted with your listing; for example, the number of times they clicked through to your website or requested driving directions to the business.

Top search queries: Which queries led customers to your business listing; for example, are they finding the listing for a cafe by searching for "tea" or "coffee"?

Zip codes where driving directions come from: Which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to your location.

To learn more, read our post on the Official Google Blog or watch the video below. To get started, just log in to the Local Business Center at www.google.com/lbc.