Google Apps is seeing a wide and growing adoption rate as of late. We here at SADA applaud New York public schools' adoption of Google Apps! New York is the 5th U.S. state to adopt the Google Apps suite joining Colorado, Iowa, Oregon and Maryland.
The New York Institute of Technology, New York State Teacher Centers, Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, the New York State teacher unions and New York State professional organizations, will all offer Google Apps access, training and support to 697 public school districts, as well as all non-public and charter schools, across New York. Over 3.1 million students will have access to features such as Gmail, Docs, Sites, Calendar and more.
As 1 of the first 10 Google Apps Partners to participate in the 2007 pilot, SADA has been servicing the educational sector and delivering Google Apps EDU products and services to over 200 clients and counting. Past clients include Northwestern University, Kent State University, The Cleveland Institute of Art and many more.
Oregon Department of Education Empowers Student/Teacher Collaboration with Google Apps
Wednesday, April 28th - Today the Oregon Department of Education became the first in the country to announce that it will begin offering Google Apps to all public school districts in the state.
Individual schools migrating to Google Apps are hardly new. SADA has assisted numerous schools, at every level of education, with switching their email and collaboration to Google Apps. What distinguishes this switch is the scope. The Oregon Department of Education will be opening Google Apps for Education to public schools throughout the state.
Although Google and the Oregon Department of Education signed a five-year deal for the program, school participation has not been mandated. Schools in districts throughout the state may participate on a voluntary basis, and discontinue use of Google Apps for Education at any time, for any reason.
The announcement heralds a tremendous and unprecedented step toward integrating technology with the classroom, and providing students, teachers, and parents with a powerful collaboration resource. Students in Oregon elementary, middle, and high schools will be able to work with each other on class projects, in real time, and they will have the ability to collaborate with their teachers and receive valuable input on their work. Students and teachers will also be able to make use of Google Apps create websites, communicate through email and groups, and access their work from any location.
In the wake of funding problems and a worsening financial outlook, the move to Google Apps also promises to save the school district a significant sum of money. "This move is going to save the Department of Education $1.5 million per year," writes Jaime Casap, the Google Apps Education manager. This level of savings promises to be a tremendous boon to the department's ailing budget.
Click on the links below to learn more about the Oregon Department of Education, Google Apps for Education program.
SADA Brings Google Apps to Wireless Pioneer LCC International
As one of the first 10 Google Apps for Enterprise partners worldwide, and an initial contributor to the Google Apps Open Source provisioning toolkit, SADA Systems, Inc. has developed a proven track record in the implementation of Google Apps solutions. SADA works with a diverse client base to create custom, leading-edge solutions that strategically meet client business objectives.
A pioneer in the wireless industry since 1983, LCC International has performed technical services for the largest wireless operators in North and South America, Europe, The Middle East, Africa and Asia. LCC has participated in the success of some of the largest and most sophisticated wireless systems in the world, having worked with all major access technologies, including UMTS, EV-DO, HSDPA, and WiMAX.
Challenges
LCC needed to deploy Google Apps for all of their employees. This included offices both inside and outside the U.S. The total number of users who would be moved over to Google Apps was over 1,100, with most of those employees using various mobile devices. To achieve a successful Google Apps Implementation would require:
SADA deploying dual delivery during the transition period to guarantee email delivery to both MS Exchange 2003 and Google Apps for all users.
SADA and LCC migrating email data from LCC International's existing, on-premise MS Exchange 2003 system. This included a 250 GB mail store shared by all LCC employees.
User provisioning and synchronization of all employee accounts and credentials that were managed through Microsoft Active Directory.
Preservation of existing LCC distribution lists.
Either before or after migration, SADA and LCC would also have to address the subject of training an entrenched workforce including techs who had become accustomed to working with the existing Exchange-based email solution.
Solution
SADA worked closely with LCC to develop a strategy for meeting the goals of the implementation. To meet the needs of LCC's users, SADA worked closely with their IT department to implement Google Apps. Solutions deployed at LCC include:
Email migration and contact sharing in between Google Apps and the identity management system in place at LCC.
Set up the Gmail list tool to maintain distribution lists managed by LCC.
Deployed Enhanced Dual Delivery to maintain messages sent to both accounts (Exchange and Gmail) during the transition period.
Conducted extensive online training via webinars for employees on five continents.
Transitioned LCC International's 1,100 employees to Google Apps from their previous MS Exchange-based system.
Results
With SADA's assistance, extensive collaboration with the LCC sponsor and champion, and the implementation of best-of-breed utilities for the deployment of Google Apps, LCC International was able to smoothly and effectively implement Google Apps for their managers and employees. This implementation of Google Apps allowed LCC International to decommission their existing Microsoft Exchange email system, while continuing to provide their users with email and collaboration services. As a result of the implementation of Google Apps, the client has experienced an increase in productivity from their field-based workers.
"Shortly after we started looking at Google Apps, LCC was introduced to SADA by Google, who noted they had been working closely with SADA since the initial launch of Google Apps," commented John Buckholz, LCC's VP of Information Technology. "The success of LCC's implementation was largely due to SADA's expertise with the Google Apps platform combined with their experience...successfully migrating other large Google customers. We completed the project on time and within budget, with no major surprises along the way. After the implementation, SADA continued to support LCCI's IT team until we were comfortable with the technical and administrative aspects of the new platform."
In the fall of 2008, the University of San Diego embarked on a project to migrate over 13,000 student e-mail accounts from our current system to the branded Google Apps offering: ToreroMail (powered by Google) http://ToreroMail.sandiego.edu The team at SADA Systems hosts this webpage and since going into full production, provides one of the highest levels of reliability and uptime of all our applications.
We partnered with SADA Systems to provide expertise in systems implementation – integrating our on-site authentication system to the suite of Google applications.
Because of our relationship with SADA Systems we were able to use their custom-made tools to allow students to ‘self-migrate’ to the new ToreroMail (powered by Google). Leveraging the Google IMAP migration tool also allowed us to move e-mail and account authentication for as many as 5180 accounts in one week.
The student experience was near seamless and our students never missed one incoming e-mail. After migrating over 13,530 student e-mail accounts to ToreroMail (powered by Google) we have received less than 130 calls into the ITS helpdesk (i.e. less than 0.1% of our client’s ever had issues). At the University of San Diego we consider this a major success! We are grateful to have been able to partner with such a competent team at SADA Systems, Nicky Parseghian and Michael Higby were our go to guys every step of the way and always took our requests seriously and provided a great level of service.
To date, the University of San Diego has over 15,300 student who have “e-mail for life” on the ToreroMail offering, powered by Google Apps.
Wagner College, A Google Apps for Edu Story of Success
Wagner College Located in Staten Island, New York, Wagner College has distinguished itself for over 100 years. Founded in 1883 as a Proseminary for Lutheran ministers, Wagner College has grown into a national leader in Liberal Arts education. Today over 2000 students in over 30 academic programs and four graduate departments attend Wagner.
Challenges
When the project with Wagner College started, SADA worked closely with the client to develop a set of requirements. At the beginning the client had not yet configured a Google Apps Education Edition account, so the first order of business was to assist with the configuration of their account and setting up Google Apps on the client's domain. In the discovery process for the project SADA and the client worked together to determine the following:
The set up of the Google Apps account would require configuring it to work with a pre-existing domain.
The client required a dual delivery configuration during the transition period.
Project coordination required the creation of a Google Site to manage all details.
Solution
After developing a clear set of requirements, SADA worked in partnership with the client to ensure the smooth transition of their existing mail solution to Google Apps. Set up of the Google Apps Education Edition account was completed through SADA's Quickstart service.
Migration of contacts made use of our custom contact migration tool.
Email migration was handled through IMAP.
Calendar information was migrated using Google Calendar Connectors.
To ensure that no messages were missed, SADA enabled dual-delivery to Google Apps and Exchange.
Result
With SADA's assistance and the implementation of best-of-breed utilities for the deployment of Google Apps, Wagner College was able to smoothly and effectively implement Google Apps for their students and faculty. This implementation of Google Apps will allow Wagner College to gradually transition away from their Exchange mail system, while continuing to provide their users with email service.
"Today we concluded the migration to Google Apps, and I wanted to express my sincere gratitude for the hard work and late hours that your engineers put in. They went above and beyond the call of duty on this project. This was a huge deal for us and I always felt that we were in good hands. I know your team lost quite a few nights and a few weekends to get this done on our schedule and I admire the personal responsibility they took to meet our needs."
- Frank Cafasso, Network Operations, Wagner College
Google offers Google Message Security to K-12 Schools for Free
The search giant offers email security to users of the Google Apps Education Edition.
The official announcement came in last week that Google would begin to offer email security free to new and eligible K-12 Google Apps Education edition users. To be eligible for this offer, users must opt-in by July of 2010. Eligible schools that wish to opt-in can learn more about the offer here.
Eligible schools who participate in the offer will be given access to Google's Postini-powered Google Message Security. This system allows administrators to set rules that do the following:
Limit messages, based on the sender, recipient, or content.
Assign rules to groups of users. This is particularly valuable as it allows administrators to separately moderate email content received by students and teachers.
Google also made educational and community resources available to both educators and students. These resources provide a resource for students, their teachers, and school administrators to learn more about Google Apps. Included in the online resources are more than 20 classroom-ready lesson plans.
One of the first 10 Google Apps for Enterprise partners worldwide and initial contributor to the Google Apps Open Source provisioning toolkit, SADA Systems, Inc. has developed a proven track record in implementation of Google Apps solutions. SADA works with a diverse client base to create custom, leading edge solutions that strategically meet client business objectives.
Founded in 1950, Denver Seminary offers a number of masters and doctoral level programs for clergy, counselors and other faith workers. The Seminary is home to nearly 900 current students and has graduated over 4000 alumni.
Challenges
Prior to adopting Google Apps, Denver Seminary did not provide its students with email accounts. Staff and faculty email was served through Microsoft Exchange however the Seminary did not see that as an appropriate solution for student email. Denver Seminary chose to use Google Apps Education Edition to fulfill this need and turned to SADA to help with deployment and implementation.
Solutions
SADA first reviewed Denver Seminary's existing IT environment. They assisted Denver Seminary with the sign up and initial account setup for Google Apps Education Edition. SADA then configured the seminary's MX/DNS records, and set up a Dual Delivery system for staff members already on Microsoft Exchange. SADA deployed its Google Apps User Provisioning/Synchronization and Web Single Sign-On tools. Each of these tools allows Denver Seminary IT staff to provision and synchronize Google Apps accounts through it's Active Directory (AD) and gives the Seminary's users access their Google Apps accounts with their AD credentials.
Results
By implementing Google's and SADA's solutions, Denver Seminary has an email solution that comes with lower IT administration costs, higher user satisfaction, and increased productivity. This peace of mind allows Denver Seminary IT focus on more strategic initiatives.
"SADA Systems was a pleasure to work with," says Jason Adams, Director of IT for Denver Seminary. "I am impressed by their relationship with Google, something I didn't feel other vendors had. They brought experience and knowledge which was extremely important and helpful in getting us up and running."
He continues, "We are using SADA's fully hosted solution - they took care of everything, there was very little for us to do. And with the few resources we have that makes a huge difference - without breaking our bank! I would recommend SADA Systems to everyone looking to deploy Google Apps in their environment."
Kent State on way to Provisioning 120K Google Apps Accounts
This fall, Kent State University is replacing its internally-managed e-mail system with Google E-mail. The change affects all of the university’s students, part-time and emeriti faculty and alumni, a total of more than 120,000 e-mail accounts.
Kent State chose the Google Apps Education Edition for several reasons. Most significant to the decision were the benefits that Google offers to its users in terms of mailbox size; built-in chat and calendaring; and the online suite of document, spreadsheet and presentation applications.
The result to date has been extremely successful. So far, more than 19,000 individuals have chosen to activate their accounts early.
“We’re now able to provide students with access to applications that would be too costly for Kent State to build internally,” Edward Mahon, vice president for information services and chief information officer at Kent State, says. “As a result, the switch to Google offers a cost savings not only to the university, but also to students.”
Because of the scope of the project and the number of individuals across the university who are affected by the change, Kent State’s Google Implementation Team — which includes representatives from Information Services as well as University Communications and Marketing — has been meeting regularly since June to plan for the transition. The team decided early on that it was important to manage effectively the activation of accounts, not only to spread out the impact of the actual account migration, but also to mitigate the volume of calls to the university’s Helpdesk.
"SADA has provided invaluable assistance as an implementation partner" Roberta Sikula-Schwalm
Kent State Associate Vice President of Information Services
For these reasons, the transition plan includes a nearly two-month early activation period, in which individuals are given the option of creating their Google accounts themselves by logging into a Web site, http://google.kent.edu. They simply sign in to the page with their university I.D. and password, which validates that they are eligible for a Google E-mail account.
One of the other important aspects of the plan was allowing users the option to move their old e-mail and contacts list to their new Google account. For this critical component of the project, the university called upon the expertise of SADA Systems to help create a unique opt-in solution that allows users to migrate their e-mail from the same self-service Web site. For the individual user, it’s as simple as checking a box, and their old e-mails and contacts show up automatically in their new Google E-mail accounts.
A comprehensive communications plan was executed to ensure everyone was fully aware of the transition. This included face-to-face meetings with various stakeholder groups; weekly targeted e-mails; story placement in student and internal media outlets; advertising; and postcard mailings. During the kickoff week of Nov. 3, a table was staffed in the university’s student center during lunch hours to activate accounts and answer questions. Viral, word-of-mouth marketing was enhanced through the creation of a Facebook page, distribution of T-shirts with the project logo design and chalk messaging on sidewalks in high-traffic areas on campus. Additionally, the university’s Google Web site included links to multiple tutorials and how-to documents, both those created in-house and supplied by links to Google’s help pages.
According to Kent State Associate Vice President of Information Services Roberta Sikula-Schwalm the result to date has been extremely successful. "So far, more than 19,000 individuals have chosen to activate their accounts early, just two weeks following the project launch. SADA has provided invaluable assistance as an implementation partner in working through technical questions regarding the migration, and the Kent State community seems pleased with the new features they are accessing through their Google E-mail accounts."
Kent State University's eight-campus-system, one of the largest regional systems in the country, serves both the development of a true living/learning approach at the Kent Campus and regional needs on seven other campuses throughout Northeast Ohio. Kent State is ranked among the nation's 77 public research universities demonstrating high-research activity by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
In 2010, Kent State University will celebrate it's 100th anniversary.
This week Kent State officially began their migration to the GoogleApps Education Edition suite of online collboration tools, including the Mountain View, CA based internet company's popular web based email application, Gmail, for their nearly 80,000 users. Last Thursday, as part of a pre-launch test and user outreach effort, the first Kent State Gmail account was issued to student reporter Glennis Siegfried of the University's daily student newspaper, The Kent Stater.
SADA Systems, Inc. is managing the deployment process with Kent State's information technology team. The cornerstone of the project is SADA's development of a unique opt-in solution for Kent's users to migrate email data from the current Kent State service via a self-service web page. At press time over 10,000 students had opted in, and migrated their email and contacts from the legacy system, to Google Apps.
Kent State University joins a growing roster of SADA Google Apps for Education projects that began with Northwestern University in Illinois in 2007. Since then SADA has been engaged for deployments and custom development solutions for educational insitutional such as the Los Angeles Community College District, The Cleveland Institute of Art, Colorado Christian University, the University of San Diego, Louisiana State University, among others. For more information on SADA's Google Apps for Education Services please visit our website at www.sadasystems.com or give us a call at 866.997.0000.
SADA Systems, Inc. (SADA) is a privately held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm founded in 2000. SADA works with its client base to develop innovative technology solutions to business challenges. SADA designs, delivers, deploys and supports a holistic, cutting-edge suite of best-of-breed technologies. This allows organizations to leverage Information Technology to achieve new levels of effectiveness, efficiency, and collaboration. Through years of experience and strategic partnerships with countless business organizations, SADA Systems, Inc. has developed methodologies that lead to solutions that don't just get the job done, but improve processes which give enterprises the maximum competitive edge. As business professionals ourselves we recognize that business rules and practices must dictate how technological solutions are used; not the other way around. SADA is headquartered in North Hollywood, CA, but participates in projects world-wide. For more information, please visit http://www.sadasystems.com.
.gif)
