2nd of 5: Leadership and Google Apps in Your District

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Google EDU Globe
At the NJ Google Apps for Education Summit this month, we had the opportunity to briefly present and discuss the role and impact of Google Apps in K-12 Education with administrators and leaders from several districts.  This post is the 2nd of 5 on Leadership and Google Apps in Your District.

Create an Equitable and Sustainable Ecosystem

Every district and school we work with for Google Apps, Chrome, and/or Play deployments has a population that spans some measure of socio-economic conditions. These socio-economic factors will play a part in funding technology.

As schools move to 1:1 programs, socio-economic differences across the student population can also weigh heavily on students and their families.  Depending on how a district structures its 1:1 program, the district can create an equitable resource for all students or can further exasperate the digital divides.  Poorly crafted 1:1 programs may also lack the financial stability to remain sustainable following the initial equipment purchase or first refresh cycle.

Schools can avoid these hazards with sound, long-term planning guided by a mandate for equitable opportunity and sustainability.

Here are few considerations.

  • 1:1 Programs with BYOD can create a systemic bias based on family wealth, unless the district is willing and able to ensure all students have access to a default device that is comparable in form, function, performance, and reliability to those brought from home.
  • 1:1 Programs in which families purchase specific devices are often a financial hardship for lower and middle-income families, particularly those with multiple children in the system.
  • Districts should consider policies covering if and when students may use applications and resources not provided by the district for school work.
  • Initial 1:1 program plans should look forward through at least 2 equipment refresh cycles, to ensure that funding is stable and equipment life cycles (reliability and usability) are consistent across classes and grades.
  • 1:1 program funding should be a recurring operating expense rather than a discretionary budget item.  Delaying purchases and refresh cycles reduces the effectiveness of the program across the student population and can result in higher overall costs.  Fair market value (FMV) leases help even out annual costs and maintain refresh cycles
  • 1:1 Programs with equipment and applications purchased by the district ensure all students have equal access to resources, but place the greatest potential financial burden on the district.
  • Districts should consider policies related to “Technology Fees” or “1:1 Program Fees” as a means of mitigating 1:1 program costs.  Districts should consider if and when to subsidize or waive fees based on financial need.
  • Professional development for faculty and staff should be an ongoing process that develops skills and sets expectations for technology integration into the learning process.
  • Districts should consider the ability to leverage technology in the classroom as a skill set on par with subject matter expertise and other teaching skills.

With a well-considered, long-term plan and a commitment to equity and sustainability, districts can design and execute 1:1 programs that provide all students with an equivalent learning environment. Schools will always need to deal with socio-economic differences across their populations, and it is impossible to ensure all things are equal.  Solid leadership as districts adopt technologies and methods, however, can ensure equitable access and opportunities to learn.

 

 

into available grants and other sources of funding,  these factors can also weigh heavily on the

1st of 5: Leadership and Google Apps in Your District

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Google EDU Globe
At the NJ Google Apps for Education Summit this month, we had the opportunity to briefly present and discuss the role and impact of Google Apps in K-12 Education with administrators and leaders from several districts.  This post is the 1st of 5 on Leadership and Google Apps in Your District.

Google Apps is a Platform, not a Solution

While this statement seems obvious, we work with many school districts that become so focused on the near term goal of getting Google Apps up and running, and their users and data moved over, that they neglect to consider what comes next.

If your moving to Google Apps simply for email and calendaring, then yes, for the moment, your deployment project is the end of your journey.  If, however, you expect to use Google Apps in the classroom to foster innovation and education results, than your Google Apps deployment is the prep work for your journey.

Yes, Google Apps provides a suite of apps and tools.  How you use these apps and tools is what makes the difference.

Google Apps is also the base of a managed ecosystem.  Through Google Apps for Education, you can manage access to applications, web sites, learning tools, educational content, and services.  You can manage devices — tablets and Chromebooks, with extensive control over the students’ user experience.

Most importantly, Google Apps provides a platform for innovation.  Be it flipped classroom, web-based learning, student portfolios, or self-directed learning, Google Apps provides the core tools, administrative platform, and security envelope you need.

Drive vs Docs = New Google URLs

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google drive
Google Drive and Google Docs are no longer the same thing.  As Google expanded the file service capabilities of Drive, Docs and Drive were separated to better reflect Docs as the office productivity tools and Drive as the secure file service.

Recently, Google made changes to ensure this distinction is evident in the URLs we use to access these services.

  • drive.google.com still points to Google Drive, and drive.google.com/a/<domain> still takes you to your Google Drive page
  • docs.google.com will soon point to a new Google Docs homepage that takes you directly to the Google Doc apps

We recommend updating your bookmarks as well as your custom URL mappings.

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If you need a hand with your custom URL mappings, please let us know.

Cloud Outages: Which Provider has 3 of the 10 biggest so far in 2014?

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CRN Magazine recently published a list of the 10 biggest and most impactful cloud service outages so far in 2010.  Outages happen.  Every vendor has, or will have, an outage at some point in time.  The severity of outages and how well a vendor communicates and recovers, however, point to underlying quality of service issues.

According to CRN, Microsoft’s Lync outage on June 23rd, Exchange outage on June 24th, and no-ip.com seizure outages starting June 30th represent 3 of the 10 biggest outages so far this calendar year.

See the full list of cloud outages.

 

 

Lease vs Buy: Time to Rethink Your Options

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Key for buy and lease
Historically, the “lease versus buy” decision for IT purchases focused on a business’ cash flow and the impact major projects would have on company financial statements.  CFOs would look at leasing options when cash flow was an issue, and to see if the capital expenditures or operating costs would best benefit ROI and other key metrics.

Three factors drive the need to take a fresh look at leasing versus buying:

  1. Trends in End User Devices
  2. Moves to Cloud Computing
  3. Interest Rates & Economy

End User Devices: With organizations moving away from traditional desktops and laptops to Chromebooks, tablets, hybrids, ultra-portables, and smartphones, the life cycle of end-user devices is changing.  These devices are not designed to last as long and compatibility with advancing systems and services is lost more quickly.  The original iPad, for example, was release in early 2010 and became obsolete with the release of iOS 6 in September 2012.

The impact on businesses is that, even though they are much less expensive, refresh and upgrade cycles will need to happen more frequently if devices are to remain connected to applications and systems.

Moves to Cloud Computing: As companies move to cloud computing the need to maintain hardware platforms to support legacy applications is dwindling.  And, the impact of IT as an operating expense versus capital expenditure is advantageous to the vast majority of small and mid-size enterprises.  The concept of monthly recurring fees is generally accepted, although many vendors charge a small premium for monthly versus annual prepaid fees.

The impact on businesses is that the flexibility in licensing and costs, and cash flow benefits come, at a higher price than one-time purchases and annual payments.  Leasing can mitigate these costs.

Interest Rates and the Economy: With a long, slow recovery and continued low interest rates, the finance costs for leasing have rarely been as low as they are currently. Even as the Federal Reserve tapers and ends its bond-buying stimulus, interest rates are expected to remain low as job growth struggles.

The impact for businesses is that the finance costs for most leasing opportunities are probably less than expected.

The Big Opportunity: Fair Market Value Leasing

Fair Market Value, or FMV, leases offer a unique, big opportunity for small and mid-size businesses today.

Win #1: FMV leases assume that you will return the equipment to the finance company and upgrade at the end of the lease.  As such, they match well with planned refresh cycles needed with today’s end user devices.

Win #2: The leasing company assigns a residual value to the assets.  Financing is based on the purchase price less the residual value, lowering the overall cost of the asset.

Win #3: At current interest rates, the interest cost of a 3-year lease may be less than the residual value of the asset, effectively creating a 0% or “Near 0%” financing option.

Win #4: Bundling annual prepaid cloud services lets you get the prepaid savings and still make payments monthly.  At current rates, the you will likely still pay less than monthly plans.

Win #5: You can combine hardware, cloud licenses, and services in your lease, giving you one payment for all services.  Leasing companies are flexible, with monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual payment plans in order to best meet your business’ financial needs.

Granted, leasing is not for every business.  But, it is probably worth some exploration before your next purchase.  Feel free to contact us to discuss your needs and available options.

 

 

Assessing Your Google Apps Security Threats

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The power of Google Apps comes from the variety and scope of its collaboration features.  Unfortunately, the same tools we use to share and to work more efficiently can be used against us. When users set permissions, they may accidentally (or intentionally) over-share, resulting in data leaks, disclosures, policy breaches, and regulatory violations.

With the easy to select and connect 3rd party mobile and web apps to your Google accounts in just a few click, employees can easily and unintentionally grant access to non-trustworthy apps.

How do you protect your users from threats they do not know exist?

Assessing and managing information security within Google Apps warrants a multi-faceted approach.

  1. Education. Make sure employees understand your organization’s privacy and security policies, and any regulations and laws you must follow.
  2. Education. Make sure your users understand the basics of how permissions work within Google Drive and Sites, and how to use settings to comply with policies.
  3. Education. Make sure employees know that 3rd party apps can be dangerous and cause problems.

Beyond Education, many organizations look to deploy data protection and security solutions that support policies, that monitor the Google Apps environment for risks and violations, and that can respond and remediate potential data sharing violations.

Before you invest, however, understand your risk.  By reviewing Drive content and permissions and analyzing the inventory of 3rd party apps accessing your Google Apps domain, you can best assess if and when additional security and administrative tools are warranted.  While this can be time-consuming, tools and services exist that can automate the process of gathering and analyzing Google Apps security threat information.

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Through September 30, 2014, Cumulus Global is partnering with CloudLock, the Google Apps collaboration security company, to offer a comprehensive Google Apps Security Health Check, which will analyze both Drive content and the risk from 3rd party mobile and web apps.  Normally a service costing $1,000 to $5,000, we are offering the assessment for $300 or less.

Click Here for more information and/or to speak with a Cloud Advisor.

 

Bonus: More Ways to Collaborate in Google Apps

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Google Apps is designed for secure sharing and collaborations.  Many users, however, still rely on the back-and-forth of email to get their work done.  Here is bonus (more than our 5th) other way to collaborate in Google Apps.

Suggested Edits in Google Docs

Even die-hard users of that “old school” office suite acknowledge that using Google Docs makes it easier to work in one place.  Sharing a document rather than emailing back and forth is more efficient, more effective, and way more cool.

Sometimes, you don’t want to give other full access to edit; you would rather have them make suggestions that you could accept, reject, or modify.  New to Google Docs, collaborators with “Comment” access to your Docs can now make Suggested Edits.  As the owner, you can then accept or reject the suggestions as part of your document review.

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Want to experience real-time collaboration first-hand?  Contact us and we will setup a solutions site just for you and your team.

5th of 5: More Ways to Collaborate in Google Apps

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Hangouts Icon
Google Apps is designed for secure sharing and collaborations.  Many users, however, still rely on the back-and-forth of email to get their work done.  Here is the 5th of 5 other ways to collaborate in Google Apps.

Use Google Drive with Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts is more than a basic, HD quality, audio and video conferencing system. Hangouts let you conduct one-to-one and group video and chat sessions from your desk, laptop, tablet, or smart phone.

Some project managers  have team members join a Hangout, mute themselves to work independently, and unmute when they need to integrate with team members.

Install the Google Drive script for Google Hangouts and team members can review, edit, and discuss documents during the video meeting.

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Enable your team to do more with Google Apps and get more done.  They will thank you!  Contact us to learn about self-paced, live, and custom training options.

4th of 5: More Ways to Collaborate in Google Apps

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docs
Google Apps is designed for secure sharing and collaborations.  Many users, however, still rely on the back-and-forth of email to get their work done.  Here is the 4th of 5 other ways to collaborate in Google Apps.

Comments and Real-Time Chats in Google Docs

You already know that, with permission, colleagues can view and edit shared documents together in real-time.  They can also engage in real-time chat from directly within the document windows.  Instead of calling a meeting, or setting up a conference call or hangout, team members can ask questions, suggest edits, and provide feedback immediately while working on the document.

If team members are working on the document at different times, they can highlight text and add a comment.  Visible in the margin, fellow collaborators are notified by email of the comments and receive a link that opens the document at the comment.  Comments can be directed to specific team members and team members can respond to directed requests by replying to the email.

Once a comment thread is finished, or the issue resolved, mark the comment as “resolved”. While the comment disappears from view, comments remain part of the document history and can be recalled should questions arise down the road.

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Helping users get the most out of Google Apps is one of the reasons we offer a range of training and professional development services.  Contact us if you want to learn more.

 

3rd of 5: More Ways to Collaborate in Google Apps

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google drive
Google Apps is designed for secure sharing and collaborations.  Many users, however, still rely on the back-and-forth of email to get their work done.  Here is the 3rd of 5 other ways to collaborate in Google Apps.

Shared Folders in Drive

Instead of sharing individual files with users or groups, create a project folder and share the folder with the team.  When you share a folder, all work uploaded to the folder or created within the folder, the file automatically is assigned the same sharing settings as the folder.

Project managers can still set permission levels based on need — view, comment, or edit — and you can override the inherited permissions for individual files and for sub folders as needed.

Training users to find and enter a project folder before working on the project is an easy tip that saves time and effort.

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If you want to help your team get more from Google Apps, Contact us about our training options.