[Year 12 IT Apps] Google Apps Team Edition

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Google Apps edition bypasses the IT department
 
IT managers who object to employees using unauthorized software at work 
have another tool to worry about: Google Apps Team Edition, (free) which 
requires no IT participation to implement 

By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service,  February 07, 2008
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/02/07/Google-Apps-edition-bypasses-IT-
department_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-02-07>   

Google is releasing a new edition of its hosted applications suite that 
end-users can bring into the workplace without the involvement of their IT 
department. 

It means that IT managers who fret about employees using unauthorized 
software at work will have another tool to worry about, especially in 
industries where information management is heavily regulated, such as 
health care and finance. 

The new release, called Google Apps Team Edition, is due to be available 
Thursday for free. It is aimed at employees who are interested in using 
Google Apps but whose employers haven't signed up for it, said Rajen 
Sheth, Google Apps senior product manager. 

Team Edition contains the core communication and collaboration services 
and applications from other editions, such as the word processor, the 
spreadsheet, the Start page, Talk instant messaging, and the calendar, but 
not Gmail, which requires IT participation to re-route the company's e-
mail flow. 

So far, more than 500,000 mostly small organizations have signed up for 
Google Apps, but the other versions -- Standard, Education, Partner, and 
Premier -- require IT to implement the suite because its services are 
linked to an organization's Internet domain. 

That changes with the Team Edition, which will let employees set up Google 
Apps workgroups as long as they have valid e-mail addresses with their 
organizations' domains, Sheth said. 

"Google Apps has been, by definition, an IT project, and now we want to 
let people use it without IT involvement," Sheth said.

Once signed up with Team Edition, people can see who else in their 
organization's Internet domain is also a user, and invite those who 
aren't, Sheth said. 

"It provides a quick way for workgroups to start collaborating," he said...
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Cheers, people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia