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Spring Cleaning Past Employee Accounts

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Cover.eBook.Guide to Google Apps License Management
It may be the second day of Spring here in New England, but the kids are home from school and the plows were out early. Nothing like a post-winter snow to trigger the spring cleaning bug in us all. For those that work in the cloud, the start of Spring is a great time to review our licenses and our needs and to make sure we are cleaned up and ready for new growth. If you are using Google Apps For Work (GAFW) or Google Apps Unlimited (GAU), now is a great time to clean out accounts for past employees.

Easier Said Than Done

Google Apps has a simple licensing model.  Pay $50 or $120 per user per year, respectively, and users have access to everything Google Apps has to offer.  The challenge comes in when employees leave. If you want to preserve their data, your options within Google Apps are limited, and can become costly. Specifically, you can expect to pay:

  • $50 per user per year to keep a past employee’s GAFW account
  • $100 per user per year if you also have Vault
  • $120 per user per year to keep a suspended GAU account

You Do Have Options

As noted in our recent eBook, A Guide to Google Apps License Management, we discuss several strategies, including: using an “archive” account, sync & store, and cloud backup.  Both the “archive” and “sync & store” approaches are inexpensive, they are not very cost effective. If you are keeping past employees’ data, you want the information to be easy to find an usable.  These solutions can make finding and retrieving information difficult and can alter the format and formatting of documents.

Our recommended solution uses cloud backup. Backup past users to a 3rd party service that lets you restore the data to any active user if and when you need it.  It is easy to keep calendar entries, contacts, files, and emails. File formats and formatting are preserved. Finding information is easy with robust search tools.

And, the cost is affordable. Backupify for Google Apps lets your create and keep an employee archive for $24 (or less!) per account per year. This is half the cost of protecting active users, and 50% to 80% less than keeping the Google Apps accounts active.  And, you avoid the risk of damaging or losing data while shuffling information to other users or into “archive” accounts.

Contact Us

To learn more about our proven solution, along with current special offers, please contact us.

Cumulus Global Study Shows Technology Professional Development for K-12 Educators is Often Ineffective

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Cumulus Global Publishes Survey Results on the State of Technology Professional Development in K-12 Education

Cover.State of Tech PDOur January 2016 survey finds that 48% of K-12 classroom educators feel that technology professional development (“Tech PD”) is not timely for use in the classroom nearly 60% of educators feel they need more professional development focused on integrating devices, apps, and online content into lesson plans and delivery. The study also found that while most districts are offering more technology professional development, the timeliness, focus, delivery methods, and overall effectiveness of these programs is not meeting the needs of many K-12 classroom educators.

As the use of technology in K-12 classrooms continues to expand, educators face new challenges. More than devices, educators are using new applications, tools, and online content. Teachers need to be capable and comfortable managing all of this tech in the classroom, as well as integrate these resources into their lesson plans.

In our white paper, The State of Technology Professional Development in K-12 Education, we publish the preliminary analysis of survey results from nearly 300 K-12 classroom educators participating in the 2016 Future of Education Technology Conference held in Orlando, Florida in January. The initial analysis of survey results indicates a need for more balance in the focus of Tech PD programs, as 68% want more training on using applications and tools for lesson planning, collaboration with peers, and other activities. The survey also indicates that some of the most common formats for Tech PD are not the most effective.

Classroom educators are on the forefront of the educational technology revolution. By understanding how well, or poorly, our current Tech PD efforts are helping educators, we can design and delivery better training and support services.

Click here to view and download The State of Technology Professional Development in K-12 Education.

 

 

CFO Research Report: The Business Value of Cloud Computing

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In May 2012, CFO Research conducted a survey among senior finance executives at large U.S. companies to examine their views on the business value of cloud computing, as well as their plans and priorities for adopting cloud-based systems in the years ahead.  This report presents the findings from interviews with 310 financial executives across 15 industries.

Reading this report, you will learn:

  • Key motivators driving the move to cloud computing
  • How CFOs view the business advantages of cloud computing
  • How real experiences with cloud computing compare with expectations
  • Which factors CFOs see as the greatest barriers to cloud adoption
  • The role of employee performance in cloud computing decisions