User Renamer for Google Apps Success Story: Monkey Mac

User Renamer for Google Apps by SADA Systems helps consulting firm Monkey Mac Consulting Inc. save time and IT resources.

About the application
User Renamer for Google Apps allows Google Apps admins to quickly and easily change usernames/names of Google Apps users. Admins download the User Renamer for Google Apps and enter the old username, enter the new username, and the process is done. Google Apps even keeps the old username as a nickname, so your users will continue receiving messages sent to the old email address.

Customer
Founded in 2006 by Luis Giraldo, Monkey Mac Consulting Inc. was born from a client’s own description of how she felt when trying to figure out her computer. This Mac consulting firm aims to assist Mac-based organizations and individuals increase operational efficiency, increase long-term cost savings and align their business goals with their technology goals. Monkey Mac specializes in Mac OS X Server, Cisco Networks, Daylite, LightSpeed and MoneyWorks and currently serves several dozen clients.

Challenge
Monkey Mac has been using Google Apps since 2004. The web-based office tool suite certainly helped streamline operations and lowered financial overhead with its $50 per user, per year pricing structure. However, Luis Giraldo, President and Technical Director, was not impressed by the tool’s rigidity regarding usernames. Renaming a Google Apps user account was near impossible. A viable workaround consisted of backing up the old user’s Google Docs, exporting calendar items, exporting contacts, downloading email messages, creating a new account, importing Google Docs, importing calendar items, importing contacts, re-downloading email messages and finally deleting old account.

Monkey Mac’s tight IT resources did not allow for tedious and time-consuming tasks. Giraldo searched the Google Apps Marketplace for an application that would:

• Be easy to install and set-up
• Do exactly want he needed it to do

No more, no less.

Solution
Giraldo came upon the User Renamer for Google Apps at the Google Apps Marketplace. Drawn in by the 5 star reviews and low price, Giraldo purchased and implemented the User Renamer.

True to its advertising, the app was able to rename a myriad of Google Apps users. Giraldo comments that “I'd been wanting to change a user over for quite some time, and User Renamer made it absolutely quick and painless. Great value, does what it says it does, and I don't know how I ever lived without it before.”

Results
The User Renamer provides Monkey Mac with long-term functionality as the company or his clients experience turnover that requires continual name changes. While the application has saved Monkey Mac time and allowed staff to focus on business critical issues, Giraldo notes that if the username being changed is an admin, Postini doesn't make the new username a Postini admin automatically.

Because this application is specifically for Google Apps, the customer must plan accordingly and point the system (Postini or another external utility tied to the email), rename the account and make sure the old application points to the new emails.

User Renamer 2.0 is currently in the works and will address this issue and feature additional functionalities such as bulk renaming and more.

Interested in installing the User Renamer for yourself?

About Google Apps Partner and Developer SADA Systems, Inc.
SADA Systems, Inc. is a privately-held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm founded in 2000. SADA started as a Google partner for Enterprise Search, and is proud to be one of the world’s first 10 Google Apps partners. SADA is highly experienced in Google Apps migration, implementation and deployment for the enterprise, education, non profit and government sector. SADA develops custom applications for its Google Apps clients and has recently begun to release its most popular applications to the public.

SADA & Google Apps Success Story: Kansas State Department of Wildlife and Parks

SADA Systems assists state department of wildlife and parks with a Google Apps workaround to comply with strict federal IT guidelines that limited storage to U.S. only data centers.

Customer
The Kansas State Department of Wildlife and Parks oversees more than 30 state parks, nature preserves, and fishing lakes and employs roughly 420 employees in five divisions: Executive Services, Administrative Services, Fisheries and Wildlife, Law Enforcement, and Parks.

Challenge
Before SADA, Kansas State Wildlife had already been a Google Apps customer for a few months and loved the collaboration and communication capabilities. This forward thinking organization was preparing to migrate all of its email users to Google Apps, but ran into a slight hiccup--due to government regulations, Kansas State Wildlife is required to maintain its email storage strictly on U.S. premises. Gmail is stored in hyper secure databases all over the world so the goal was to find a way to limit the organization’s email storage to only route to U.S. data centers. With the help of SADA Systems, the department was able to fine tune a solution.

Solution
After identifying the organization’s specific needs and comprehensively evaluating government regulations for email storage, SADA developed a viable workaround that ensured complete compliance with aforementioned security policies.

1. SADA migrated data from existing Google Apps and legacy email accounts to a secure SADA test domain.
2. Google deleted all data & mailboxes.
3. Google set up the Kansas State Wildlife accounts so emails would be stored in the U.S. only.
4. Afterwards, SADA enables user provisioning and completes the Google Apps email migration.

But what happened to emails sent to users during the migration when Gmail was essentially turned off? SADA modified Google Message Security, powered by Postini, to quarantine and hold all messages sent to Kansas State Wildlife during the migration period. Once the email migration was complete, SADA released all quarantined emails. Because the timestamp was retained, users were able to see each message in the order they were received.

Result
With the help of SADA’s thoroughness and knowledge of the Google Apps suite capabilities, Kansas State Wildlife was able to retain the Google Apps communication and collaboration tools it had come to love.

About Google Apps Partner SADA Systems
SADA Systems, Inc. (http://www.sadasystems.com) is a privately held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm founded in 2000. SADA started as a Google partner for its search technology, and is proud to be one of the world's first 10 Google Apps partner, having participated in the Google Apps official launch campaign in February of 2007. SADA is highly experienced in Google Apps migration, implementation and deployment for the enterprise, education, non profit and government sector.

SADA & Google Apps Success Story: Lyon County, Nevada

SADA Systems helps one of Nevada's largest counties transition their systems to the cloud (while adhering to strict government IT policies).

Customer
Named after Civil War General Nathaniel Lyon, Lyon County is one of the nine original counties in Nevada founded in 1861. Complete with a rich history and beautiful landscape, Lyon County has always been at the forefront for new technologies.

Challenge
The good people at Lyon County, Nevada had been curious about the collaborative powers of Google Apps for a while. Their current system at the time could not keep up with the county’s growing calendaring needs. While Lyon County had considered upgrading its outdated email system, the staff was bound to its legacy email system due to heavy calendar usage and fear of potential IT and end-user downtime.

Although staff was acutely aware of the limited nature of the current email system, many members of the staff were quite accustomed to the UI and experience. The IT department needed to ensure that the Google Apps learning curve was as low as possible to ensure efficiency throughout the bustling county office. SADA’s goal was to implement a seamless transition from legacy email system with trained Google Apps Champions leading the way.

Solution
Lyon County engaged experienced Google Apps Partner SADA Systems to migrate, deploy and train over 300 users. SADA completed the calendar sync, global address book and email migration over a weekend which resulted in a seamless user experience for staff the following work week.

With Google Apps successfully deployed, SADA set off to train Google Champions. Driven by the old proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” SADA provided in-depth webinar training for over 50 staff members from various departments within Lyon County to curtail dependency on the already overwhelmed IT department. End-users and was also given training material, webinar templates and a Google Site customized to Lyon County’s training needs and requirements. Within hours, Lyon County had fully trained Google Champions ready to go on Google Docs, Gmail, Calendar usage and more.

Hazen Adams, IT Director at Lyon County, comments that the “training was awesome.” He also adds that “We moved to Google Apps this summer and were anticipating big problems with the migration. But everything went really well, SADA really came through... I think the thing i am most impressed with was the support always available and willing to help.”

Result
SADA’s migration expertise and savvy Google Apps trainers enabled Lyon County to achieve a sense of IT autonomy and provided staff with the means to hit the ground running after deployment. As a Google Referred Partner for Google Apps Training, SADA

While Lyon County was SADA’s first small government customer, they were certainly not the only. SADA’s experience in migrating various government agencies and deep understanding of the needs of the public sector helped to streamline Lyon County’s transition to Google Apps.

“We moved to Google Apps this summer and were anticipating big problems with the migration. But everything went really well, SADA really came through.”
- Hazen Adams, IT Director, Lyon County, NV

About Google Apps Partner SADA Systems
SADA Systems, Inc. (http://www.sadasystems.com) is a privately held information technology consulting, outsourcing, and development firm founded in 2000. SADA started as a Google partner for its search technology, and is proud to be one of the world's first 10 Google Apps partner, having participated in the Google Apps official launch campaign in February of 2007. SADA is highly experienced in Google Apps migration, implementation and deployment for the enterprise, education, non profit and government sector.

User Renamer for Google Apps Success Story: Knitting Etc.

In developing the User Renamer for Google Apps, SADA had the end-users specifically in mind. From large enterprises to small businesses, we hoped to solve that nasty static username issue so many Google Apps users encounter as quickly and as easily as possible.

Hickory and Steven Lee run a cute little yarn and knitting supplies shop in Ithaca, NY and happily utilize the Google Apps suite for their business needs. However, they ran into a little snag. We'll let Steven from Knitting Etc of Ithaca, Inc. explain the rest:

When my wife bought a little yarn shop in Ithaca, NY back in late 2005, it had no presence on the Internet. We ventured onto the Internet by getting our domain name, and ran a web site and e-mail service on a little low-budget Linux server.

When Google launched Google Apps in 2006, I immediately signed up for an account and started playing with it. It was obvious that the Google cloud was faster, more reliable, and easier to maintain and use than our little Linux server. Soon I migrated the mail service to Google Apps. Today we also use Google Docs heavily for document exchange in our work flow and remote backup for critical business documents.

There was one unfortunate consequence of our rapid and early adaption of Google Apps: when I first signed up for an account to evaluate Google Apps right after its launch, I named it "webmaster" without too much thought. As we started using Google Apps more and more, I really wished I had named the account "steven." Because Google has never provided a mechanism for renaming an account, I couldn't do anything about it until Google Apps Marketplace opened and I found your little "Rename User" app. (the User Renamer for Google Apps)

I read the positive user feedbacks and saw the $10 price tag was right for the budget of a micro business like ours, so I purchased the app. I followed the simple instructions and the app did exactly what I wanted in a few seconds. Thanks SADA!

Aw, thank you Knitting Etc.!

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