Can someone shed some light on the suite offered by Google for cloud computing? There is the possibility I will be using this in the near future and want to get some feedback from those familiar with it. Is it pretty user friendly? If I have no experience with it can I pick it up fairly easily just by playing around with it? At $50 a year I doesn't sound too bad if it is another plus in services I am able to provide.

Thank you,
Anita

Hi Anita,

Are you talking about Google Apps? If so, I use it constantly when working on projects for myself and clients. It makes it very easy to share documents, calendars and when it comes to email - I can access it from anywhere. In fact, I can access my Google Apps account from my phone, iPad, computer, etc.

It sounds like you may be talking about their Premier Edition - is that correct?

Darlene

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Darlene Victoria Gonzalez
The Voice & Vision Behind Your Business

Hi Darlene,

Yes, Google Apps, thank you. I am submitting a proposal to a PC and one of their preferences is that the VA be knowledgeable in Google "cloud based products". I imagine this is something that I may want to be skilled and knowledgeable about for any other future PCs.

What is the learning curve for this product? I'm usually pretty good with just getting my hands on something and figuring it out. If there is a free version available that is awesome, I can get familiar with it at no initial cost.

Thanks,
Anita

Learning curve is pretty light, IMO. If you have experience with web mail - then managing email in GoogleMail is pretty simple. In addition, if you know how to create a document, spreadsheet, then you should have a pretty good handle using Google Docs. Google Docs allows you to create spreadsheets and documents in Google Apps and then share them with other collaborators. You can also share a calendar with different collaborators. This works out great if you plan on managing a client's calendar. They simply share it with you and you can both access it at any time.

There is a Standard Free Version and a Business version. I am not sure of the terms of use for each. You can compare both versions here: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

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Darlene Victoria Gonzalez
The Voice & Vision Behind Your Business

I believe there is a version of google that not only allows you to make updates but will also allow 2 or 3 people do updates at the same time or be in a conference call with the same people and all can contribute to the document I saw a video some time back, really neat stuff my company is just not big enough to have a need for that service.
Regards
Suave

I use Google Apps with a client of mine, and it is perfect. I have alle the products from MS Office on my own computer so the transfer to Google Apps was easy, and I also have a gmail private mail account.

The one thing I love most is that we have a weekly meeting on Skype and we both see the same meeting-document and I watch him/or he watches me write new things, deliting etc. The best way to talk and discuss new and old subjects when working together.

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Best wishes, Ellen from Norway
Pardon my english!

I too use Google Apps. Needed a solution for my Android and was glad that I chose this one. For $50/year, you cannot beat it. Also I like that they have Outlook Sync so that while I use Outlook my contacts, calendar and mail will all be up-to-date.

There are many add-on apps that you can get to use with your account too.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

So far, I've only used the spreadsheet doc app, but it is very simple if you know Excel, and several people can do updates at the same time. You can actually watch the changes on the document as they are being done.

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Chela Lucia
www.LucentAdminSolutions.com The Bright Choice for Virtual Assistance!

Thank you everyone for the helpful information regarding Google Cloud, I'm going to give the free version a try.

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Anita Virtual Assistant Services

I have used Google Apps in the business version (with a group of people linked in with a domain name etc) and they were very happy with it. I have also used the free Apps such as Google Sites and the Forms, which have been really handy. I love the Forms because you can embed a form on your site and the results on submission are automatically put into a spreadsheet and you can be notified that someone has submitted their form. I simply download the spreadsheet and send to the client (she could access it directly if she had a Gmail account). If you can use the Microsoft products, you can use Google. I have heard of some minor problems with documents opening in Word with incorrect spacing or sometimes the Google calendars play up - but in the majority it's used a lot by VAs. Definitely get a Gmail account and use the Apps to play - you'll be surprised.

Cheers

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Marie Chandler - your virtual assistant
www.officesupportonline.com.au