Using Cloud Technology Solutions for GroupWise to G-Mail Transition. One year ago, Fruitport Community Schools knew the transition from a Novell NetWare environment to a Windows networking environment was inevitable. One of the major issues we were confronted with was “What are we going to do with our e-mail system?” We had been using GroupWise since 1996 and knew we would need to transition to a different e-mail system as a result of the transition to Windows. After much initial research and testing by the technology department, it was decided that Google’s G-Mail was our best solution. Not only did it meet our current district needs, it is designed to take us into the future. It also helped that Google Apps for Education is a free product and in the difficult budget times we are having in Michigan, it also made financial sense.

When that decision was complete, the next logical step was to determine whether or not to move the users existing e-mail, folders, lists, etc. that had been created in GroupWise. After much discussion, we decided that given the amount of time we had been utilizing GroupWise, this was an essential part of the transition and would give our users the best experience possible. The tricky part was to figure out how to accomplish this monumental task. We again did much research trying to determine if it was feasible to move our 415 users manually or if we needed assistance. While it would be possible to move accounts manually, the amount of time and effort required for this task rendered that choice cost prohibitive. We next explored the available software products and tested a few to see which one would best fit our needs. We evaluated three, but determined that the software from Cloud Technology Solutions was the absolute best product on the market. During the testing phase, we found the other programs had issues such as not moving all the mail and not bringing across the folders and converting them to labels. We also found their reporting tools were not very beneficial. When using the Cloud Migrator tool, we were amazed at the ease of the migration process.

We were provided comprehensive reports for each account that included information such as:

• Total number of migrations
• Migration duration
• The number of successful email, calendar, contact and group exports/imports
• The number of failed email, calendar, contact and group exports/imports
• The size of the export and imports

It also went into specifics for each account that was migrated, so we were able to get a big
picture view of the migration as well as a specific view if should there be any issues. To highlight further how well this program works, we were able to migrate 415 people from GroupWise to G-Mail with a 100% success rate. I highly recommend this company and their software to anyone who is contemplating an e-mail migration. It made our transition easy.

With 140 company mail boxes Faber and Faber was operating with a dated version of Microsoft Exchange that had become restrictive to their needs. Looking initially to upgrade their original software they quickly realised it would prove too costly, and the requirement to upgrade would present itself again in due course. Faber and Faber needed a mail server that would support user communication and collaboration. They were looking for an alternative I.T. solution to reduce resource requirements and improve efficiencies. Most importantly they needed to migrate with minimal disruption to the working day, whilst simultaneously revolutionising the way they operated.

After considering various tools they settled on Cloud Technology Solutions Cloud Migrator which would successfully migrate them from their existing on premise applications to Google Apps. Cloud Technology Solutions was able to adapt the solution to meet the requirements of Faber and Faber. One of the most attractive parts of the migration is the ease of deployment – they didn’t need to own, manage, or deploy any software. Performing the migration remotely, Cloud Technology Solutions successfully and swiftly migrated 140 mailboxes to Google Apps for business in a matter of weeks.

With Faber’s new system employees are able to directly log in to their accounts from any device at any time. This allows them to access to all of their emails and calender appointments. Moving forwards Faber and Faber are now looking towards collaboration with the aid of documents and Sites. Remote access takes away the usual restrictions of working in the office 9 to 5 giving Faber and Faber the flexibility they need to run effective, smooth and fruitful operations.

The move to Google Apps for Business dramatically reduced Faber’s I.T costs. An upgrade of Microsoft Exchange along with the costs of running the technology would cost in excess of £30K. A single Google mailbox costs approximately 20% of a Microsoft Exchange License. Google Apps is constantly updating and evolving under the surface and so incurs no add on costs or annual stings. Faber and Faber has become a more productive company with better communication and collaboration, continuing to embrace this technological revolution.

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!

Approximately 22,000 employees will make the move to Google Apps. The state of Utah plan to use Google Apps for emails, calendar and collaboration tools such as Google docs and video chat. In 2010 they saw an opportunity to dramatically cut costs and improves communications through the Google offering. With Google Apps for Government workers ‘on the go’ can have access to their mail, calendar etc through a unique log in. With help from Tempus Nova the State of Utah hopes to have completed the full migration by the end of year 2012.

Both of these large scale migrations were made possible with the use of our CloudMigrator, the world’s leading migration tool. We’re proud of the resilience that this has demonstrated and as our proven track record continues to grow it’s exciting to be a key part of such big projects.

The U.S.A government are moving to the cloud at a high pace and we’re looking forward to the U.K following suit in 2012.

Usually, the decision-making process that goes into such a choice is shrouded in secrecy. But Berkeley decided to be transparent, and published a matrix explaining the pros and cons of both solutions.
In basic terms, Cal decided it could get Google Apps up and running faster and for less money.
Particularly interesting: to move to Office 365, the university would have had to do a double migration — first to an on-premise version of Exchange, then to the online version in Google Apps. This pokes a hole in Microsoft’s claim that Office 365 is a true cloud-based competitor to Office 365. (This double migration wouldn’t be required in all cases, but it’s NEVER required with Google Apps.)

Here’s where Google had the biggest advantages.

Cheaper support during the migration. Because other universities in the UC system have already migrated to Google Apps, Cal can rely on them to provide some support. With Microsoft, it would have to turn to Microsoft Consulting Services “at a significant cost to the project.”

Faster to set up. Deploying Gmail will take six to ten weeks, and the university will be able to keep some recent changes it made to its email routing system. With Office 365, the university has to move from its current system to an on-premises version of Exchange first. Then, it can move from Exchange to Office 365. It will also have to throw out most of the routing infrastructure it just installed.

Works with existing software. Gmail integrates with other Google products that some university departments use, and with the document storage and management system from Box, which the university already bought. Office 365 can work with SharePoint and Lync (which it mistakenly calls Lynx), but it was not interested in those solutions and didn’t even consider them.

Easier to develop on. More people on campus know how to work with Google’s APIs than with Microsoft’s Exchange.

Migration of email groups. Google has a product that could be used to migrate Cal’s existing Mailman mailing lists to Gmail. Microsoft recommended against even trying to migrate Mailman to Exchange.

The solutions were pretty close in other areas, like delegated administration (neither was great, but Google was slightly better), user familiarity (it depends on what product people are using today), and mobile support.
Microsoft won for authentication and the ability to integrate with on-premise systems.

No two customers will have the same needs, but this is a good exercise to show how these decisions are made — and why Gmail increasingly has an advantage among highly cost-conscious organizations like educational institutions and governments.

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.