We moved to Google’s software for business or Google apps in 2007 . This was and is the single most significant strategical move we have ever made . We have been in business for 20 years deploying office  technology ( Network, Voice, Data , Video and Audio ), then moving to the cloud was a shift of parading for us .

By doing so, we no longer needed our IT team to spend time on break and fix  and maintenance  issues  . We focused them on business development and new solution deployment . We knew,  we need  talents to work on Internet marketing 1)strategy, 2) technical and 3) its tactical aspects .  We knew,  we have to have clear SEO and Social Media day to day strategy, then having access to our talented and loyal  IT team was very natural and a blessing .

Within a year, we start receiving calls from clients with projects . At first,  we though we got lucky but after receiving calls every day for past 14 months, then we knew our strategies have worked .

Google  and Google Apps has given us three (3) main strategies : 

1. Cloud strategy
• Office application
• Business application
• Cloud storage
• Document writing, collaboration, and text and video communications
• and more
2. Internet and networking strategy
• Web development and design
• SEO and analytic
• Social Media strategy
3. Mobile strategy
• Access all of the above and more via our cell phones
• Available 24x7X365 

 Google’s software for businesses, Google Apps, consists of applications for document writing, collaboration, and text and video communications — all cloud-based, so that none of the software is on an office worker’s computer. Google has been promoting the idea for more than six years, and it seemed that it was going to appeal mostly to small businesses and tech start-ups.

But the notion is catching on with larger enterprises. In the last year Google has scored an impressive string of wins, including at the Swiss drug maker Hoffmann-La Roche, where over 80,000 employees use the package, and at the Interior Department, where 90,000 use it.

One big reason is price. Google charges $50 a year for each person using its product, a price that has not changed since it made its commercial debut, even though Google has added features. In 2012, for example, Google added the ability to work on a computer not connected to the Internet, as well as security and data management that comply with more stringent European standards. That made it much easier to sell the product to multinationals and companies in Europe.

Many companies that sell software over the cloud add features without raising prices, but also break from traditional industry practice by rarely offering discounts from the list price.

Microsoft’s Office suite of software, which does not include e-mail, is installed on a desktop PC or laptop. In 2013, the list price for businesses will be $400 per computer, but many companies pay half that after negotiating a volume deal.

At the same time, Microsoft has built its business on raising prices for extra features and services. The 2013 version of Office, for example, costs up to $50 more than its predecessor.

“Google is getting traction” on Microsoft, said Melissa Webster, an analyst with IDC. “Its ‘good enough’ product has become pretty good. It looks like 2013 is going to be the year for content and collaboration in the cloud.”

Microsoft has also jumped on the office-in-the-cloud trend. In June 2011, it released Office 365, and now offers its software in both a cloud version and a hybrid version that uses cloud computing and conventional servers. Office 365 starts at a list price of $72 a year, per person, and can cost as much as $240 a person annually, in versions that offer many more features and software development capabilities. Microsoft says it offers more than Google for the money, but the product has not won many converts from Google.

In a recent report, Gartner, the information technology research company, called Google “the only strong competitor” to Microsoft in cloud-based business productivity software, though it warned that “enterprise concerns may not be of paramount importance to the search giant.”

Google is tight-lipped about how many people use Google Apps, saying only that in June more than five million businesses were using it, up from four million in late 2011. Almost all these companies are tiny, but in early December Google announced that even companies with fewer than 10 employees, which used to get Google Apps free, would have to pay.

Google’s revenue from Apps, according to a former executive who asked not to be named in order to maintain good relations with Google, amounted to perhaps $1 billion of the $37.9 billion Google earned in 2011.

Shaw Industries, a carpet maker in Dalton, Ga., with about 30,000 employees, switched to Google Apps this year for communication tools like e-mail and videoconferencing. Jim Nielsen, the company’s manager of enterprise technology, calculated that using Google instead of similar Microsoft products would cost, over seven years, about one-thirteenth Microsoft’s price.

Shaw is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, run by Warren E. Buffett, but the close friendship of Mr. Buffett and Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, did not sway Mr. Nielsen. “When you add it up, the numbers are pretty compelling,” he said.

In addition to the lower price, Google has simplicity in pricing. Mr. Nielsen said he had to sort through 11 pricing models to figure out what he would pay Microsoft.

But his prime motive in choosing Google, he said, was online collaboration. “As people in their daily lives become more electronically social, they want to bring that into the office,” Mr. Nielsen said. “Video is more appealing than a written letter.”

Google, he said, is “constantly making it better for teams to work, inside and outside the company, with controlled access.”

Microsoft says it does not yet see a threat. Google “has not yet shown they are truly serious,” said Julia White, a general manager in Microsoft’s business division. “From the outside, they are an advertising company.” In 2011, 96 percent of Google’s revenue came from advertising.

Even though Microsoft sells a similar product, she said most companies did not want to depend exclusively on clouds for documents and communication. Microsoft now has some of its own workers entirely online, she said, while others use both local computers and the cloud, to get a feel for how various companies work.

Although she would not break out numbers, Ms. White said Office 365 was “on track to be our fastest-growing business.” She said that Google, to be a threat, would need to “provide a quality enterprise experience” in areas like “privacy, data handling and security.”

But according to the General Services Administration, out of 42 federal government contracts for which Google and Microsoft competed in 2012, Google won 23 deals, and Microsoft 10. The rest went to another company, Zimbra, which is owned by VMware, a maker of cloud software.

Microsoft’s biggest and most profitable sector, its business division, brought in nearly $24 billion in the 2012 fiscal year that ended in June. Almost none of that came from Office 365, but from the familiar older-style software that depends on computers located within the corporation.

As the two behemoths slug it out in the enterprise market, their cloud-computing software is changing the way businesses operate. Internet-based computing makes it easier to communicate both within and outside a company. Fixing software and adding features can be done automatically, the way consumers get the latest version of Facebook when they go to its site.

“People were looking for cheap e-mail at first, but now it’s about collaboration, calendaring and data storage online,” said Ms. Webster of IDC. Over time, her firm says, software revenue will be at least 50 percent from the cloud, which could challenge the complex way Microsoft prices and discounts its products.

Ms. White, the Microsoft manager, said Google “helped amplify a lot of the conversation around cloud productivity.” That is a far cry from last February, when Microsoft put a video on Google’s YouTube Web site lampooning Google with a parody of the old television show “Moonlighting.”

Google, the video suggested, would automatically change around a buyer’s software. But cloud-based software is supposed to issue automatic updates and feature changes. Microsoft has issued several updates to Office 365, though, unlike Google, it lets customers delay the changes for up to a year.

Getting things done

Getting things done, as they’re sometimes called, manage projects with two essentials tools: lists and reference materials. Lists identify actions necessary for a successful outcome. Calendars are lists in the g etting things done, world: they’re just lists of things that happen on a specific date and/or time. Reference materials are items needed during the course of the project, such as instructions, reports, analysis or articles.

Projects move forward in GTD when “next action” steps are extremely clear. Projects stall when the next action isn’t clearly defined. A clearly defined action consists of a single task that can be completed with available materials, information, and equipment: “Email Larry”, for example.

(Try this: the next time you’re in a meeting that lacks focus, ask “So, what’s the next action?” Keep asking the question until you understand exactly who is to do what and when.)

Google Sites

You can use Google Apps to track and manage your “next action” lists and reference material in various forms:

• Manage task list and budgets with Sheets,
• Manage timelines with Calendars, and
• Track meeting minutes and decisions with Docs.

A Google Site lets you add context to your lists and reference materials at a dedicated project website. Your Site can give an overview of the project, including the timeline, budget and people involved. And you can even discuss all of these items on a Site discussion forum.

Most importantly, you can share access to the project Site with other people. Your project site can be public for the world to see, or restricted to specific people. Be sure to allow time in your workflow to configure the site, and make sure your collaborators can access the Site.

Here’s how to create a basic Google Site for a project using a template:

1. Login to Google Apps, and then click “Sites” in the black menu bar at the top of the screen.

2. Click the “Create” button. (The “Create” button is in nearly the same location on the screen as the “Compose” button within Gmail.)

3. You can either customize your own site format, or use a template. I suggest you use a template (Figure A) for your first site.

Figure A

Initial setup of a Google Site is straightforward

4. Click on “Browse the gallery for more templates”. Click on the “Business Collaboration” in the displayed options, then enter “Project Wiki” in the search box and click the search button. Click on the “Project Wiki” entry (Figure B), then click “Select” to choose this template.

Figure B

Search for templates with the word ‘project’

5. Click the “Create” button to make your Site. The next page you see will be your newly created Site, waiting to be edited.

If you used the “Project Wiki” template, you’ll see the menu items from the template displayed (Figure C). The default pages include a project definition page, to-dos, time tracker, files and benchmark dates. The template also includes an example of an embedded Sheet on the Site home page.

Figure C

The Project Wiki menu items include many essential project management items

6. Edit your Site as needed. The key editing controls (Figure D) for the Site - and pages within the site - are found in the upper right corner.

Figure D

Site and Page options are found in the upper right

7. Create new pages for your Site, as needed. The five page types (Figure E) serve distinct project management purposes: web page, announcements, file cabinet, list, and start page. (SeeGoogle‘s help pages to learn more about each of these page types.)

Figure E

Sites offers five distinct page types

8. Share your site. Click the “Share” button to share your site with others. Note that you can manage site-wide and page-level access permissions. (Learn more about Site sharing optionsfrom Google‘s help pages.)

Make sure your Google Site clearly conveys the “next actions” needed for your project. Project reference material should be easy to find, but your Site should emphasize action. The Google Site for your project should help your team deliver successful, completed projects as painlessly as possible. As David Allen puts it, your Site should help you “get things done.”

Also read:

• Best practices for Going Google: Preparation
• Best practices for Going Google: Configuring and testing the Google Apps suite
• 10 myths about Google Sites debunked and dispelled