Strawberryway - Fluent in Business 2.0 - Digital Consultancy & Services

Store and share files in the cloud with Google Docs - via Official Google Enterprise Blog

Let's say you're about to make a very important presentation to a prospective client on the other side of the country. Before you depart on your business trip, you download all of your presentation materials and InDesign® hand-outs onto your trusty thumbdrive. Just in case, you also email the files to yourself.

But while you're in the air, your colleagues back at the office are making last minute edits to the files and your copies are now out of date. Worse yet, when you arrive at your destination, you realize you left your thumbdrive at home.

Sound familiar? The good news is that things are about to become a whole lot easier.

Over the next couple of weeks, we are rolling out the ability for Google Apps users to easily upload and securely share any type of file internally and externally using Google Docs. You get 1 GB of storage per user, and you can upload files up to 250 MB in size.

Now accessing your work files doesn't require a connection to your internal office network. Nor do you need to email files to yourself, carry around a thumbdrive, or use a company network drive – you can access your files using Google Docs from any web-enabled computer.

Combined with shared folders in Google Docs, the upload feature is a great way to collaborate on files with coworkers and external parties. Instead of using cumbersome email attachments, you can upload files to a folder and share it with coworkers, who can then access and edit the files from a single place. You can even have your sales team securely share contracts with external clients for review.

And of course, by using Google Docs, you can quickly and easily search across all your files from one place, getting access to the right file when and where you need it.

Google Apps Premier Edition users can also use the Google Documents List Data API to upload files to Google Docs in batch, or purchase applications offered by third parties that enable you to migrate and sync your files to Google Docs:

  • Memeo Connect for Google Apps is a new desktop application that offers an easy way to access, migrate, and synchronize files to Google Docs across multiple computers. (PC and Mac)
  • Syncplicity allows Google Apps users to synchronize, manage, and backup files across desktops and servers, making it easy to use Google Docs seamlessly with existing applications and files. (PC)
  • Manymoon is an online project management platform that makes it simple to organize and share tasks and documents with coworkers and partners, including uploading files to Google Docs.

  • We're always looking for ways to make it easier for you to access and organize your information online and we hope you find the ability to store, share, and collaborate on files in Google Docs helpful. In the coming months, we will enable Google Apps Premier Edition customers to purchase additional storage for $3.50/GB/yr (or €3.00/gb/yr in the EU). If you'd like to be notified when additional storage can be purchased, please fill out this form and we will contact you as soon as it's available. As always, we’d love your feedback and if you have any questions, please check out our help forum.

    The choices today for business collaboration is such that it's almost criminal not to be using such a system as Google Docs, Box.net or Drop.io etc

    Sharing and collaborating on content is key for improving business productivity by making workflows simpler and working across locations and device platforms easier.

    Get in touch for help in understanding how collaboration tools such as Google Docs can benefit your business.

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    Filed under  //   collaboration   document management   google   news   productivity   products  
    Posted by Dan M 

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    Adding Tasks to a mindmap on MindMeister

    MindMeister is a great tool for collaborating on ideas and projects. For the project side, this is a short tutorial for using Tasks as part of your mindmap.

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    Filed under  //   collaboration   mindmeister   productivity   products   project management   tips   video  
    Posted by Dan M 

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    Close business fast

    Thinking about the impact of the snow today in the UK and one thing that may be affected is the speed of the mail system.

    This need not be an issue though with Echosign. With Echosign you can quickly and easily get agreements signed and deals closed within 42 minutes on average. And it all takes place online with the same legal status of paper agreements.

    So why not take a look at Echosign and use it remover all that paper (good for reducing office costs and helping the environment) and try e-signing with Echosign. http://www.echosign.com/ (affiliate link)

    feature-collage.png

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    Filed under  //   document management   echosign   productivity   products  
    Posted by Dan M 

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    Avoiding lost productivity to #uksnow

    In southern England this morning at least there is some fairly heavy
    snowfall. Based on recent experience this will mean many businesses
    seeing staff working from home and meetings cancelled. This is often
    equated to lost productivity.

    I think different.

    Just because you're not in the office doesn't mean your not able to be
    productive. Here's a quick list of a few tools that may be very
    helpful in keeping your appointments and goals for today on track.

    Presentation - If you were due to deliver a presentation today but
    cannot physically get there take a look at one of the following for
    giving the presentation remotely:

    Present.io - drop.io has dead simple rich web-presentation
    functionality. no registration, no downloads, no installs. You can
    upload your presentation files (documents, pictures, video, audio, and
    more) and be giving your demo or walkthrough in seconds. With a free
    conference call line and rich chat functionality, you have just what
    you need

    http://present.io

    Google Docs - Viewing a presentation together is a breeze, as anyone
    joined in a presentation can automatically follow along with the
    presenter.

    http://docs.google.com

    Collaboratively finalising an asset such as a design graphic or
    document proposal

    Box.net - Turn any folder of content into a shared online workspace
    and invite others to view, edit, or add their own files. Exchange
    feedback using the commenting and discussion features. Create
    wiki-style web documents to share meeting notes, ideas, and manage
    projects. Keep workflow organized by assigning tasks to approve,
    review or update files

    http://www.box.net/strawberryway

    Drop.io - Use drop.io to privately share your files and collaborate in
    real time by web, email, phone, mobile, and more. Create each drop in
    two clicks and share what you want, how you want, with whom you want.

    http://drop.io

    Google Docs - Coworkers can share the same online copy of each doc,
    spreadsheet or presentation. All revisions are saved and recoverable.

    http://docs.google.com

    Cummunication - need to stay in touch but your colleagues aren't at
    their desk phones?

    Skype - Any size of company can use Skype to change the way they
    communicate, collaborate and compete. Real-time communication tools
    allow your business to work better, smarter and more efficiently.
    Skype is a global solution that's easy to implement and manage all
    your communication needs - employees work more productively, customers
    can easily reach your company and your business stays ahead of the
    game.

    http://skype.com

    TinyChat - Your webcam & microphone will just work, no fuss.
    `Gathering friends for a meeting has never been easier. Enjoy high
    quality live audio & video. Try it, you'll like it.

    http://tinychat.com

    So there you go, a few services which is by no means an exhaustive
    list but these are possibly the quickets and easiest to pick up and
    run with if you were to only use for today because of the snow.

    By doing so there really shouldn't be any lost productivity.

    NB we do see the making of snowmen as highly productive and so where
    possible please step away from the internet and make one ;)

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    Filed under  //   collaboration   communication   opinion   productivity   products   uksnow  
    Posted by Dan M 

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    Become a fan on facebook...

    As well as making it easy to keep up to date with posts to the blog, in 2010 special offers on various web apps and services will be promoted through certain channels only ;)

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-United-Kingdom/strawberryway/18647831837

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    Website or web app?

    The idea of a website is very well understood and executed upon a vast number of times here on the internet.

    Web applications although vast in absolute terms are much rarer in relative terms.

    Recently discussing digital strategy for a new business group the question was posed:

    "What shall we do with the website?"

    The answer, thankfully in agreement with me, was to effectively kill it.

    Why? Websites are great for presence and engaging with Leads, Customers and even competitors.

    Well the answer is that a website wasn't what was needed. The requirement at this stage was for community engagement and so the use of LinkedIn was settled upon as the best digital way of doing so.

    I see LinkedIn as a webapp as it does something more than talk at me which is a possibly unfair oversimplification of a website.

    So the new business group will for now be using a webapp, LinkedIn, for it's immediate needs and when a website is needed one shall be duly briefed and developed.

    This was the right conversation with the right outcome. How many businesses though don't go through the process of sanity checking what they need and researching web applications to suit?

    Especially in context of customer experience and engagement. Perhaps the use of a web app would make more sense for complementing your product than a beautiful web page.

    Let us know how we can help you decide on website or web app...

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    Posted by Dan M 

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    Using Drop.io? Try the Manager...

    Strawberryway uses Drop.io for it's real time, collaboration features on projects. If you are using it too then take a look at the Manager product which gives some great functionality for managing all of your drops.

     

    If you're interested in using Drop.io for project collaboration and sharing in your business then let us know :)

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    Filed under  //   collaboration   dropio   productivity   project management   realtime   sharing  
    Posted by Dan M 

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    Freshbooks - simple, easy professional invoicing for your business

    For small teams, freelancers and service providers it's hard to look beyond Freshbooks for estimating, invoicing and time tracking.

    freshbooks468x60-2.gif

    A great web based app it's quick and simple to get going with all the great features:

    • Send and manage invoices online
    • Track time online and on the go with various free add-ons for desktops and mobiles
    • Custom branding for your estimates and invoices
    • Manage contractors painlessly by adding them to your account to track project time for easy invoicing
    • Track expenses and re-bill clients
    Freshbooks is free for a maximum of three concurrent clients after which it's a paid service starting at $19 / month.

    Strawberryway uses Freshbooks withp pleasure. You can sign up via our affiliate link here.

    Let us know any questions on using Freshbooks in your business :)

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    Filed under  //   accounting   freshbooks   invoicing   products  
    Posted by Dan M 

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    Remember The Milk - Getting things done...

    Remember The Milk is one of the best ways to manage your tasks.

    A few of the things you can do include:

    • Manage tasks quickly and easily
    • Thanks to a natural language interface, adding tasks due "next friday" means just that and not fiddling around with a mini calendar
  • Getting reminded, anywhere
    • Reminders can be received pretty much anywhere such as email, SMS, Instant Messengers, Twitter and RSS
  • Organising the way you want to
    • Lists, tags and notes oh my! Remember The Milk has the flexible to power to make it as simple or feature rich as suits
  • Locate your tasks
    • Give tasks a location and see a map of where you need to be getting things done
  • Collaboration
    • Sharing, sending and publishing of tasks makes Remember The Milk an ideal application for project management and collaboration projects
  • Add tasks wherever you are
    • You can add tasks via email, web, twitter, your phone (there is an iPhone app) more. So you don't need to remember to write your task down in your system later!
    Remember The Milk is free and also has a paid Pro version. There's a wealth of integrations in to services such as Google Mail and Calendar. Mobile apps for iPhone and Android are also available.

    Remember The Milk is ideal for using in your business, when used collaboratively, for powerful group wide #gtd.

    Let us know any queries on how to get your business managing it's tasks with Remember The Milk.

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    Filed under  //   gtd   productivity   products   remember the milk  
    Posted by Dan M 

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    Zendesk - Love Your Helpdesk

    Zendesk is a saas-based customer support / help desk product.

    Its features include

    • email ticket tracking
    • providing a customer self service portal
    • and general help desk reporting and tracking
    Here's a quick overview:

     

    Zendesk is a great tool be used by freelancer's to support their client's during and beyond projects.
    Being saas-based also means the product scaled up to support FTSE100 enterprises also. It's uniquely simple to use with a powerful feature set for dealing with any helpdesk environment including ITIL ones.

    Strawberryway uses Zendesk to provide further value to clients by being able to support ongoing usage of other saas-based applications.

    Do you deal with customer support? Could Strawberryway help review the way you work and see if an app like Zendesk can make an improvement? Let us know... theteam at strawberryway dot com

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    Filed under  //   products   saas   zendesk  
    Posted by Dan M 

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