Last year Norbulk saw an opportunity to revolutionise their operations on land too. With over 100 staff based in their Glasgow office and a further 150 across the world, better communication throughout the company was essential and proving difficult with a legacy Novell GroupWise system. Prior to switching to Google Apps Norbulk were experiencing niggling downtime of servers, occupying a noticeable amount of time and IT resources. Haakon Karlsen, Ship Manager, described this as the ‘tipping point’ and the assurance of more secure and efficient computing with the cloud proved the wise option.

After exploring many avenues Norbulk decided Google Apps for Business would fit best within their company. Acting on Google’s recommendation, Norbulk chose Cloud Technology Solutions to help move their IT systems into the cloud. Cloud Technology Solutions helped plan a strategy for Norbulk Shipping starting with a pilot scheme in the U.K Office. They ran their pilot through various levels of the company for two months. After getting great feedback they rolled out Google Apps for Business throughout the rest of the company. With the use of Cloud Technology Solution’s CloudMigrator, Norbulk Shipping were able to move email, calendars, contacts and appointments from their old mail server to their new cloud based environment.

During and after the migration, our technical support team went to Glasgow to help train the staff with the new software. Stuart Cummings, our deployment specialist, worked one-on-one with a selection of staff, allowing the training to be passed on internally through the company. Our training style at Cloud Technology Solutions has proved successful, working with staff hands on, and showing new users how they can work more efficiently. We bring in real world examples as much as possible, veering away from simply instructing staff how to use it. Haakon Karlsen, Ship Manager, commented on their training with Cloud Technology Solutions

The training with Cloud Technology Solutions was great. The training team were often around during the migration to help users and when they weren’t there they were always available online. The success of the pilot and the training they received meant the staff on the pilot scheme could then go on to do one on one training with new users.

Google Apps for Business was well received by staff. One of the features that Norbulk Shipping greatly benefited from was Google Docs. The collaborative nature of Google Docs allows people to access and work on a document simultaneously at any time. With remote access staff are able to work on the go accessing their data on any device by simply logging in.

Norbulk Shippings’ migration was a great success due to the planning and preparation. Haakon Karlson speaks enthusiastically about moving to the cloud:-

When moving to the cloud you really should research all the services that are out there. Looking at cost comparisons alone there are great savings to be made in a relatively short amount of time. It’s important to look at how it will effect your functionality. Your success depends on how well you do your planning, strategy and implementation. We found an extended pilot including members right up to the top was useful to ensure Google Apps for Business would work throughout the whole company. On the whole the staff reacted positively to the move and now it’s plain sailing!

This is a great addition to our classroom and webcast training provision and gives us a collection of comprehensive self-paced learning tools that are always available and easy to access. It’s ideal for getting new hires up to speed with Google Apps quickly

Further information is available on our Google Apps Online Training courses

Cloud Technology Solutions has an aggressive growth plan as we continue to increase our Cloud business. Our deployment team already had a wealth of in depth knowledge of Google Apps, from working with Google and many large enterprise customers, and professional certification is a great validation of what we already know. It is also important for us to be able to differentiate ourselves from the crowd, showing our customers, future and current, our commitment to provide only the very best Google Apps solutions.

All of the members of the Cloud Technology Solutions deployment team are now certified Google Apps specialists. Stuart Cummings, VP of Google Apps Deployment was one of the first:

Achieving certification as a Google Apps Deployment Specialist helps to demonstrate to our customers that we have the skills and experience to ensure their move to the cloud is in safe hands.

Layering Google Calendars is a great way to see others’ calendars layered on top of your calendar and can be a great time saver. For instance, layering calendars can help you quickly find a time when certain individuals are available for a meeting. In our example, Craig wants to create a one-hour event but isn’t sure when everyone he wants to invite is available.

By layering his co-workers calendars, he can view their events by selecting them from either the Other calendars or My calendars sections. Calendars listed in the My calendars section include those calendars which Craig has been granted authorization to manage or modify. The calendars listed in the Other calendars section are calendars Craig can only view but cannot modify.

After selecting all the calendars of the individuals he wants to invite to the meeting, Craig can now quickly see who is available when and schedule his one-hour meeting in any one-hour block of available time – indicated by the red boxes.

Adding a Co-worker’s Calendar

To add a co-worker’s calendar to the Other calendars section, simply enter their email address in the ‘Add a coworker’s calendar’ field (1) and press Enter. If your co-worker has opted to share his or her calendar, it will display in the list below. If they’ve opted not to share their calendar, the ‘Add a coworker’s calendar’ dialog displays allowing you to request view access to their calendar.

To request access, edit the message in the text field (2) or leave the default message as is and click Send Request (3). Your co-worker will then receive an email indicating you would like to view their calendar. If they then share their calendar with you, you will receive an email indicating you can now add and view their calendar.

Layering calendars

To layer multiple calendars, click once on the calendar or individual listed below the My calendars or Other calendars sections. You can layer multiple calendars over your calendar. Any calendar that displays color behind the calendar or individuals’ name is layered on top of your calendar.

To remove or hide a calendar from being layered on your calendar, click once on the name of the calendar with a solid color in the My calendars or Other calendars sections.

Quick Tip:

If you have multiple calendars layered on top of your calendar, a quick way to show only your calendar, and hide the calendars of others. is to click the down arrow to the left or your name or email address and click Display only this Calendar. This also works with any calendar listed in either section.

Also notice the other options available. From the list you can:

• Display the calendar
• Hide the calendar
• Define or modify the calendar settings
• Create an event on the calendar
• Share the calendar
• Define notifications for the calendar
• Change the display color of the calendar when layered on your calendar Note: The options you see change depending on the authority you have for the calendar.

Event Icons

When creating or receiving events, ever notice the icons at the top of the event? Ever wonder what they mean? Below is a list of the icons you will see and a description of what each icon represents.

1. Indicates you have one or more reminders set for the event.
2. Indicates one or more individuals are invited to the event.
3. Indicates an event to which you have not yet responded, or have responded ‘Maybe’.
4. Indicates the event is private.
5. Indicates the event is recurring or repeats.
6. Indicates the event is a single event moved from a recurring or repeating event.

If you’ve used Google Calendar, you are probably aware that you have your own calendar for work-related events. But did you know that you can create additional calendars to schedule and track other events? For instance, you can create a family calendar to schedule your kids’ soccer games or swim lessons. You can also create a calendar specifically for your team or department at work. Having a team calendar is a great way to track:

• who’s on vacation, or going on vacation, and for how long
• who’s out of the office on a business trip and when they’ll return
• who’s taking a class and where

With all this information tracked in one calendar, it’s then easy to:

• plan team meetings
• determine dates for team outings
• schedule who can handle projects

Let’s get started!

Create your new calendar

There are several ways to create a new calendar, both of which take you to the ‘Create New Calendar’ screen.

• Click Add under ‘My calendars’ (the shortest route! )
• Click Settings, then Calendar settings, then Calendars, and finally Create new calendar. (the longer, sight-seeing route! )

Define your calendar

On the ‘Create New Calendar’ screen, provide the following information:

• Calendar Name: Provide a descriptive name for your calendar as this is what you and others will see in the My calendars section of the main calendar.
• Description: A description is optional, but provides the team with some basic information about the calendar when they view the calendar on the Calendar Settings screen.
• Location: Location is also optional and is really only necessary if your calendar is made public.
• Calendar Time Zone: Select the country and time zone for your calendar.

Share your new calendar

Now it’s time to define who to share the calendar with:

• Share this calendar with others enables you to either share the calendar publicly or share just it within your organization. After making a selection, you can then select what viewers are allowed to see when they view the calendar. The options available are defined by your Google Apps administrator.
• Share with specific people enables you to define a select group of individuals to view, modify or manage the calendar.

For our team calendar, we want everyone within our organization to be able to view the calendar but only a select group to be able to edit or add new events.

To add your team:

1. Enter their email address in the Person field (see image below).
2. Define their permission settings:
• Make changes AND manage sharing: select this option if you want the individual to add or modify event, but also to manage the calendar. With ‘manage’ permissions, the individual can, for instance, add new members to the calendar or add the calendar to a Google Site page.
• Make changes to events: select this option if you want the individual to be able to add and modify events on the calendar.
• See all event details: select this option if you only want the individual to view the events, but not modify or add events.
• See only free/busy (hide details): select this option if you only want the individual to view events as ‘Busy’.
3. Click Add Person.
   (Note, you may discover that as you enter an individual’s email address, their email address auto-completes. After selecting it, it may then appear in a list below. If this is the case, define their permission option at this point and omit step 3.)
4. After adding all your team members and defining their permissions, click Create Calendar.
   Note: If your forget to add an individual or need add a new team member in the future, return to this section and add add them to the list following the steps above. If you need to remove an individual, simply return to this section and click the trash can icon to the right of their listing.

Use the calendar

After creating the calendar, it should now be visible in the ‘My calendars’ section of your main calendar. If it doesn’t display immediately, you may need to refresh your browser window.

Now when you create a new event, you have the option of creating it on your personal calendar or on your new team calendar.

TIP:

It’s easy to display events on one or more calendars. Let’s say you create the event above on your own calendar. You can quickly copy it to the team calendar without having to re-create it.

1. Open the event’s details screen.
2. From the ‘More Actions…’ drop-down menu, select the calendar you wish to copy the event to.
3. Click Save.
4. Now when you view your calendar, you will see the event listed twice – once on your personal calendar and also on the team calendar.

And remember, if you want to hide the team calendar on your personal calendar, simply click its name in the ‘My calendars’ section. To view it again, simply click the name a second time.

Have you tried Google Tasks in Google Mail? If so, you probably already know how beneficial they can be in helping you organize your day. Did you know that Google Tasks are also available in Google Calendar? And, you can use them for more than just work related task. You can even use them to help your get ready for that much needed vacation!

Enabling Tasks in Google Calendar

Enabling tasks is really simple. They’re already incorporated into Google Calendar, it just takes a few click to make them visible.

1. Click Tasks located in the ‘My Calendars’ section.
2. Tasks will display to the right of your calendar.
3. Click Tasks again, or click the small arrow, to minimize the section.

Creating and Modifying Tasks

There are several different ways to create tasks in Google Calendar:

1. Determine the day on which the task should begin and click in the area below the date.
2. Click Task on the pop-up window.
3. Give the task a name and include any notes you wish to add.
4. Optionally, you can create new tasks by clicking the + sign in the task area. However, the task won’t display on the calendar unless you modify it and add a date.

Modifying tasks

To modify the task date or add additional information:

1. Click the > to the right of the task name.
2. Enter the appropriate date, additional information or move the task to a different list.
3. Click Back to list when finished.

Note: Tasks created in Google Calendar are also visible in Google Mail.

Reordering and moving tasks

After creating tasks, you may want to move them or reorder the list. Use the ‘Actions’ menu to reorder your tasks:

1. Click Actions to display the Actions menu.
2. Select Sort by due date. Note that you can also move individual tasks up or down and indent them using the shortcut keys.
3. Your tasks are sorted by the date they are due.
4. Placing your cursor to the left of the check box turns your cursor into a hand. Clicking on the blue-dotted border enables you to drag the task up or down in the list.

Renaming task lists

You can create multiple task lists. The default name for your first list contains your username. To rename it:

1. Click the area to the right of the trash can.
2. Select Rename list. Note you can also create or delete list from this menu as well.
3. Enter a new name for the list and click OK.
4. Your list is renamed.

Completing tasks

After completing a task:

1. Click the task’s checkbox in the calendar, or…
2. Click the task’s checkbox in the list. Clicking one checkbox marks the other as complete as well.

You’ve probably been in this situation before. You scheduled a meeting for a group of your co-workers or your team and then something unexpected comes up requiring you to reschedule the meeting. Well, rather than roaming through everyone’s calendar trying to find a new time when everyone is free – just use the Smart Recheduler lab to find new times for you and your team!

Enabling Smart Scheduler

Smart Scheduler is a Google Calendar lab. Labs in Google Calendar are accessed the same way you access labs in Gmail:

1. If this is the first lab you’re enabling labs in Google Calendar, click Settings > Calendar Settings and select Labs. If you’ve already enabled labs in Google Calendar, then just click the green beaker.
2. Next, enable the ‘Smart Rescheduler’ and save your changes.

Rescheduling The Meeting

Let’s say that you now want to reschedule the meeting below. There are 5 other individuals beside yourself that need to be included in the meeting. And as you can see from their calendar overlays, they all look pretty busy!

1. Open the event in edit mode and click the small arrow at the right of the screen to reveal the enabled lab.
2. There you’ll find the Smart Rescheduler lab. Click Find a new time….



3. On the F’ind a new time’ screen, enter the the length of the meeting and a date and time range if desired. The information to the right will update automatically.
   A. If you find a time that works based on the information in green, click Schedule this….
   B. If there is a conflict (orange or red text) click show details to view the conflict.



In the image below, you can see there is a half-hour conflict in Molly’s calendar.



4. Clicking Schedule this… pops up a confirmation notice. Notice that you have the option whether or not to notify guests. It is always good to notify your guests if you are changing the time. If you are happy with the new time, click Save changes.



5. Looking back at the calendar, it now shows that the meeting has changed. (Note: You may need to refresh the calendar to see the change.) Each attendee will receive an updated email with new date and time. The question marks indicate that the attendees have not yet responded to the change.

Individuals attending the event can also use Smart Rescheduler to suggest a new time for an event. When they click Find a new time…, they receive the following message:

Google Calendar includes two default reminders defined for any new event you create. If your organization hasn’t modified the default values, there should be both a 10 minute email and pop-up reminder defined. You can see the reminders defined in the Options section when viewing the details of a new calendar event.

While you can edit the reminders and add additional reminders using the Add a reminder link in the ‘Options’ section of an event you create, the changes you make apply only to that event. Read on to find out how to access and change the default reminders for all events you create.

Accessing your default reminders

You can access the default reminders two ways:

• A. Click Settings > Calendars. Click Notifications associated with your personal calendar.
• B. Click Settings below My calendars which leads you directly to the Calendars screen. Click Notifications associated with your personal calendar.

Defining your default reminders

Your current default reminders are defined in the ‘Event reminders’ section on the ‘Notifications’ tab. To edit a current default reminder:

1. Select they way you would like to receive the reminder from the reminder type drop-down menu. (Note: You will only see the SMS option if you’ve set up your phone to receive notifications using the ‘Set up your mobile phone to receive notifications’ link located at the bottom of the Notifications screen. (See image A below.))
2. Select either minutes, hours, days or weeks from the second drop down menu.
3. Enter a numeric value in the second field that corresponds with the option selected in step 2.
4. Optionally add additional default reminders using the Add a reminder link.
5. When finished, click Save.

Note: the reminders you set are your personal reminders. Guests will receive reminders for their events based on the personal reminders they set for themselves.

After you’ve set up your new default reminders, they now display when you create a new event. Note that they do not apply to events previously created.

Archiving in Gmail is quite a bit different than the archiving you’re probably used to in other email applications. No longer will you need to compress your old email and then store it on your computer – only to have to decompress it later to view the messages. That form of archiving is a thing of the past!

In Gmail, each and every user has a dedicated storage space allotment for their email. The storage space, also known as the user’s archive, is called All Mail. Different versions of Gmail have different storage allotment sizes:

• Google Apps (the standard consumer version of Gmail): 7 Gigabytes (GB)
• Google Apps for Education: 7 Gigabytes (GB)
• Google Apps for Business: 25 Gigabytes (GB)

25 GB of storage for every Google Apps Business user – that’s roughly 50 times more storage per user than the industry standard!

Does your Inbox consist of more that 100 messages? 500 messages? Maybe even thousands of messages? If so, you’ve got a case of Inbox Bloat!

There’s really no reason to keep all that email in your Inbox. It’s much easier to archive your old messages. Archiving your old email helps in a couple of ways:

• It helps you better manager your Inbox by keeping it neat, tidy, and uncluttered.
• It helps reduce your stress level. Many people tend to feel overwhelmed when their Inbox is full of old messages.
• By reducing your Inbox to only new messages, or those messages you need to take care in the near future, your workload doesn’t seem so insurmountable. Hence, your stress is reduced!
• It also helps provide a sense of accomplishment. Think about it – if your Inbox contained only a few select messages, wouldn’t you feel like you accomplished something?

Archiving Gmail is quite a bit different than the archiving you probably remember from your previous email application. If you’re unclear of how archiving works in Gmail, or have questions about archiving, see our “what is archiving” document.

Now, let’s rid you of Inbox Bloat!

First, note how many messages you currently have in your Inbox by looking at the information at the top right of your Inbox. Looks like we have 137 messages in our Inbox.

Note: If you are currently using ‘Priority Inbox’, either click Inbox, located to the left of your Inbox, or click View Inbox in the ‘Everything else’ section of Priority Inbox to view the count.

1. Before archiving your older messages, determine how old a message should be before you archive it. For our example, we’re going to first search for all messages older than 30 days. When searching for a specific date in Gmail, you must enter it in the following format: yyyy/mm/dd

We also want the search only to concentrate on messages in our Inbox. Therefore, our search would look like this:


The search above first searches only messages in the Inbox (in:inbox) and then only those messages that arrived before September 19, 2010 (before:2010/09/19).

2. Press Enter or click Search Mail to search for messages matching the specified search criteria. Below we can see that the search returned about 120 messages that matched the search.



3. To archive the messages, first click the ‘All’ selection link. Gmail only marks the messages currently visible in the search window. This may be satisfactory if all the messages returned from the search display in the window. If there are more messages than can currently be displayed in the window, click Select all conversations that match this search to select all the messages returned from your search.



4. Click Archive and then OK to the dialog that displays.



5. Return to your Inbox and notice the number of messages in your Inbox. That certainly seems more manageable! But, there are probably still messages in your Inbox that aren’t older than 30 days, but that you’ve already read. You might as well archive those as well.

First, you modify your current search information:

1. Delete ‘before:yyyy/mm/dd’ – or whatever your date was. Your search should now simply be: in:inbox
2. Add a space after ‘in:inbox’ and type in: is:read. ‘is:read’ searches for all messages in your Inbox that you’ve opened or read. Your search should now look like this:



3. Click Search Mail.
4. Now, select all the messages by clicking the selection link ‘All’. Remember to click Select all conversations that match this search to select all the messages.
5. Lastly, click Archive!

There you are. Your Inbox is clean and tidy and no longer has that bloated feeling. Don’t you feel better? Note that we were able to reduce our Inbox to 5 messages. Your results will vary.

Tip:

And finally, here’s a tip to help keep your Inbox from future Inbox Bloat. Access Gmail labs and enable the ‘Send & Archive’ lab. After enabling the lab, you will now see a new button at the bottom of your message whenever you reply to message.

Clicking ‘Send & Archive’ sends the message to the recipient and then automatically archives the message. Clicking ‘Send’ simply sends the message, but keeps the original message in your Inbox.