We are pleased to announce that MountainHeart Community Services, Inc. has chosen Google Apps for its new email and calendar platform.  Our IT team has been working on the migration and is looking forward to moving employees from our current webmail and calendar format to the new services in the coming weeks. They'll begin with a group of selected pilot users and then continue phasing in the services with additional groups of employees.

What is Google Apps?

Google Apps is a suite of web-based messaging and collaboration applications that Google hosts on their own servers. Google provides these applications as a "service," rather than as software to download and install. To access these applications, you simply use a web browser on a computer that's connected to the Internet.  

Why did you choose Google Apps?
Based on recent MountainHeart growth and cost trends, we looked for an email and calendar solution that could provide with us the following benefits:

• Innovative solutions -- We can leverage the ongoing creative and technical solutions of the Google Apps platform to provide employees with powerful, easy-to-use tools for getting their work done
• Highly scalable environment -- With Google Apps, our email capacity will grow automatically as MountainHeart grows, and we'll avoid the complexity of internal systems
• Access to services from anywhere, anytime -- A key benefit of the Google-hosted solution is that we can access email, contacts, and calendar from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection, anywhere in the world
• More collaboration features -- With Google's next-generation applications, we can collaborate with colleagues, customers, and partners more easily and efficiently than ever before
• Instant messaging -- Because Google Apps includes Google Talk, we can now implement an instant messaging system for our organization.

What exactly does Google Apps include?
Your new Google Apps account will include the following services:

• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Groups
• Google Talk
• Google Docs
• Google Sites
• Google Video

Here are some of the key benefits we think you'll enjoy:

• Lots of storage -- You get a full 7 GB of online storage for your email (much more than the 250 MB you have now), so you can archive all of your email online. You'll no longer need to worry about deleting messages or saving them in offline folders.
• Enhanced message organization and retrieval -- With Gmail, you'll spend less time managing folders and looking for messages. For example, you can add one or more tags, or "labels," to your messages to organize and store them more efficiently. And with the Google-powered search feature, you can find any message quickly and easily, whether it's in your Inbox or stored in your message archive.
• Easier calendar sharing -- Google Calendar lets you and your team members quickly and easily share your calendars with each other and specify the details you want to show. Calendar sharing is a great way for you and your coworkers to keep each other informed about your schedules. Now it's easier than ever to find out if someone is in a meeting, on a business trip, or on vacation.
• Better mailing lists -- With Google Groups, you can manage your own subscriptions to mailing lists, called groups, without the need to make requests to the IT Department. You can even create your own groups for your projects, teams, etc. Groups make it easier to send email and calendar invitations to groups of people, but you can also use them to share your Google documents, sites, videos, and calendars!
• Integrated chat -- With the Google Talk instant messaging application, you can communicate instantly with your coworkers right from the Email interface. In addition, all your chats are automatically saved in your Email application, so you can always retrieve important information.
• Real-time collaboration -- Using Google Docs, you can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and you and your team members can view and edit them at the same time. You can still use your Microsoft Office products as needed, but now you'll have more options for storing and collaborating on your documents.

I already use Google Apps for my personal email and calendar. Are we getting the same applications?
They are similar, but we'll be using the business-class edition of Google Apps, which provides more features, more support, and an "up-time" guarantee.

Will my email address change?
No, your email address won't change! You'll continue to receive all your email at your current address.

Are you migrating my email and calendar to Google Apps?
Yes, we'll migrate all of your email messages, calendar events, and personal contacts from Microsoft Outlook to Google Apps during non-business hours, so they'll be ready for you when you log in to your new Google Apps account.

Will you provide assistance during the transition?
Members of the IT team will also be available to answer your questions or resolve any issues you encounter.

How much time will it take to set up and learn how to use Google Apps?
You'll be able to master the basics -- sending and receiving email and viewing and scheduling meetings -- very quickly. However, the time required to completely move over to Google Apps can vary.

We think you'll enjoy your new Google Apps services, and we're committed to making this a smooth transition. More information to follow soon!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the MountainHeart Division of Information Technology at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Michael Stafford
IT Supervisor