I was recently faced with the challenge of providing a small/medium sized church with a new website. Since this was to be their first “domain name” purchase, I saw an opportunity to take this challenge a step further. Knowing the staff pretty well, I began to think of how I could take the way they complete their daily tasks to the next level.
I came to the conclusion that in addition to a new website, I would also provide them a centrally organized way of communication, collaboration & utility. It was obvious that these things were needed, but I was also aware of the tight budget that I was to operate within. Pricey options such as “Windows Server”, “Exchange” etc. were out of the question.
As I started researching cost appropriate solutions, I began to evaluate the state of technology in general. I thought about the ways that I manage my personal documents, emails, etc. It was at this point that I realized that I needed to direct my focus towards cloud computing service offerings.
I find it appropriate to share a little bit about the client and their specific needs, as cloud computing may not be the right choice for every church or organization.
The church is small, with roughly 10 staff members. All staff currently communicate by email and workgroup file sharing from desktop to desktop. Email is provided by their ISP. They use Microsoft Office for all of their weekly preparation and scheduling. That is basically the extent of it.
Their are numerous services out there that would provide everything that this church needs and a lot of stuff that they don’t. I’m going to focus on the one that I choose to go with, Google Apps.
I chose Google Apps for a few reasons.
- Most people/users are familiar with the services that Google offers.
- It has a huge community base.
- It provides all of the essentials (Docs, Storage, Email, Calendaring, Chat)
- Best of all, its free to certified non-profit organizations with a 501(c)(3) status. (They offer an upgrade from “Standard Edition” to “Education Edition” once your organization has been verified.)
Google Apps is a fantastic, cost effective way to provide small (or large) businesses the high powered, effective solutions they need without breaking the bank. Here is how easy it is to set up.
- We purchased their first domain name.
- Signed up at http://www.google.com/apps.
- We were instantly provided access to “Standard Edition“.
- Properly set up CNAMES to forward to Google Servers.
- 2 1/2 weeks later, we were approved for “Education Edition“.
- Migrated all existing email (using tools provided by Google) to Gmail type infrastructure.
- Currently training users on new features 1 step at a time.
Moving to Google Apps was easier than I ever imagined. The documentation is fantastic. You simply can’t go wrong. However, if you do, Google support is right there for you.
Now, this church has made one giant step in the right direction. It is running on a fantastic infrastructure that will provide organization and collaboration like they have never had.
Keep in mind, every organization is different, and every migration will not go as smoothly as this. Users have to be trained, and it will most likely consume a significant amount of time for the “Administrator” until they are comfortable using all of the services.
Given some time, this church will be running like a “well oiled machine”.
I didn’t want to bore you with tons of detail regarding the Apps infrastructure. I simply wanted to make you aware of it, and that it can be a great alternative for just about any sized organization.
Does your church use Google Apps? What are your experiences with the product?
I am currently implementing Apps for the church I attend. I didn’t realize it took a while to get access to the Education Edition, so I’m glad to hear that we will have more functionality in the future. It is working great so far, and I’ve only been working with it a couple of days.
Glad to hear that you guys are implementing Apps.
It took a couple of weeks for them to approve the client that I am working with. They even had to submit additional information to Google to get it approved. However, the Google team was great to work with, and very responsive.
I’m sure you’ll be up and going in no time.
Do you have email and calendar delegation with the Education Edition? That is one thing we really need, as the secretary needs access to the pastor’s email.
Hey Sara –
It seems that Google has just released the email delegation feature, but it is only for “Premiere Edition” customers. They have not mentioned whether they are going to allow “Education Edition” customers to have this or not.
For more information, you can visit this link: Google’s Email Delegation
Calendaring has its own functionality for “delegation” within the domain, so you should be able to work something out with the controls that you already have.
We have implemented google apps for our church. I am impressed thus far. We are looking to upgrade to Education app shortly. Great post dsummers.
John –
Glad to hear you’re enjoying Google Apps in your Church.
I think you will be pleased with the upgrade to Education Edition. It provides some additional functionality that might come in useful.
Thanks for the comment!
It’s really too bad that Google Changed their eligibility reqs so churches are no longer eligible for the free non-profit version…
George –
I completely agree. I was really disappointed to hear that news. It was certainly the easiest solution available, and it worked well.
Still looking for similar solutions. Office365 is a neat product. Microsoft has released some non-profit pricing that isn’t bad, but it’s not too different from Google’s. This makes it a bit of a wash.
Have you found any good replacement solutions worth considering?