Posted by Salim Parak, Google Enterprise Training

Living on the west coast of the US, I know it is hard (especially in winter) for some of our customers to make their way out to the east coast for training. I often make the 4 hour trip out east to visit my family. So we are really excited to announce our newest Certified Training Partner for Search, Innovent Solutions. Innovent will be teaching Google Search Appliance courses on a regular basis, starting May 14-16th in Irvine, CA. If you are registered, I look forward to meeting you at this course, as I am planning on being there. Don't worry if you cannot attend this class, they will have other sessions in the future.

We know that some of our customers learn better through self-study materials, so don't forget to:
* Browse our library of self-paced training videos (current customers only)
* Explore our online tutorials

Posted by Pamela Saenger, Google Apps Marketing

In our work on the Google Apps team, we come across all sorts of small businesses from around the country that use Google Apps – from tech start-ups to architecture firms to car dealerships to bookstores. As different as these businesses are from one another, each has something important in common with the rest: they're all looking for communication and collaboration tools that will help them work efficiently, save resources, and grow.

And so, to celebrate National Small Business Week, we're going on the road to meet small businesses that leverage innovative technologies. Throughout the week, more than 20 Googlers will be visiting the top entrepreneurial cities in each region of the U.S.* (Washington, D.C. Charlotte, NC, Kansas City, MO, Phoenix, AZ) to talk to small businesses – both current Apps customers as well as the uninitiated – about communicating and collaborating with Google Apps. The events are open to the public (no RSVP is required) so we hope to see you there. For more information, visit http://www.google.com/apps/citiestour.

And even if you don't live near these cities, you can still meet some of the small businesses across the US that are becoming more efficient, successful businesses by using Google Apps – just click play.




*Source: National Policy Research Council, 2006

Posted by Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead; Maureen Bradford, Product Marketing Manager, Google Enterprise

On the Google Apps team we talk a lot about collaboration, and it's usually around user benefits of sharing documents, teamwork on Google Sites, and the like. But we also collaborate with an ecosystem of innovative partners to roll out complementary products that customers are quick to adopt, before asking for more.

One request we often hear is to help streamline customer relationship management, or CRM. Today we're responding in a big way with Salesforce for Google Apps, an integration of two enterprise-class application suites. Available today from Salesforce.com, this new product offers powerful yet easy-to-use productivity tools for smarter management of customers, sales and marketing.

It's natural that we'd collaborate with Salesforce given our shared belief that Enterprise computing's future lies in SaaS. With over a million subscribers, Salesforce brings deep understanding of CRM processes and the market expects this level of integration from the two SaaS leaders. Together we focused on several customer needs:

• Tighter teamwork: Avoid the hassle of version control or attachments by using Google Docs right in Salesforce to jointly craft a proposal in real-time - without leaving the browser.
• Increased efficiency: Log Gmail messages in Salesforce to track customer communications and keep the team in sync.
  
• Faster communication: Instantly communicate during customer service calls with Google Talk right in Salesforce, archiving chats for the rest of the team to reference.
• Simpler coordination: Share and sync sales, marketing, and personal calendars with check-box simplicity and drag-and-drop convenience.
  

To see some of this in action, check out the product tour, or get a quick overview here:



It's easy to get started. Salesforce for Google Apps is now available to all salesforce.com customers at no additional cost, so you can integrate any edition of Google Apps into any edition of salesforce.com for free. Salesforce will also resell Google Apps Premier Edition, giving customers a single point of contact for deployment and support.

By the way, thanks for everyone's ideas. Our collective efforts are driven by requests from our users, and partners such as Appirio and Astadia are listening too. They're among the first companies to take advantage of the new development opportunities from our collective open APIs. You can find their enhancements in Salesforce's App Exchange and the new Google Solutions Marketplace.

Posted by Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead, Google Enterprise

A little over a year ago, we realized there were so many new Google-related solutions being released by 3rd parties that our customers weren't able to keep up. To simplify match-making, we created the Enterprise Solutions Gallery, a simple site to connect our growing Google Enterprise customer base with products and professional services from our expanding developer and partner ecosystem.

Today I'm excited to announce the Google Solutions Marketplace, a site that makes it even easier for our customer and partner ecosystems to find each other and do business. The Marketplace's initial focus is connecting customers of our communications and collaboration products like Google Apps and Enterprise search with 3rd parties that sell complementary products and services. But that's just a start. We expect to grow to fit the needs of an expanding set of Google customers and developers.

For users, the Marketplace has search, browse, and end-user ratings to make it easy to locate and purchase from a vendor that meets their needs.

For developers and partners, the Marketplace makes it easy to create information-rich vendor and product listings to reach new customers and grow sales. And listing is self-service and free -- just sign in with your Google account, create a brief vendor profile, and start adding listings. (Note: your product or service must incorporate a Google API or service to qualify.) See the vendor guide for more info, or better yet, take a quick 2 minute screenshot tour:


Finally, to augment the end-user ratings and reviews associated with each listing, we've set up a companion customer success story blog to make it easier for users to find more in-depth customer stories from marketplace vendors. Click the "story labels" links in the left column to read a collection of customer success stories for a particular vendor, product, or customer scenario.

Posted by Gabriel Cohen, Product Manager - Google Apps

You may have seen the recent announcement of the preview release of Google App Engine, a way to run web applications on Google's infrastructure. Google App Engine makes it easier to get a new app off the ground, and also makes it easier to scale later on when your your business or organization grows. For Google Apps customers, you can associate your application with your domain, restricting the app's usage to your organization.

Currently, this is a preview release, which means there are limitations in terms of the CPU, bandwidth, and storage that an app can use, limitations that equate to around 5 million pageviews/month for a typical app. But we encourage you to try it out -- Google App Engine is open to the first 10,000 developers who sign up.

We're hoping to get as much feedback as possible during this preview phase. If you have particular features you're really interested in seeing, please let us know.