Tuesday, September 23, 2008
What's Different About Appirio's Google Apps Bootcamp?
Its one week before Appirio's free Google Apps Bootcamp, a little experiment we're doing with our partners at Google to hone in on the most effective way to get companies up and running on Google Apps.
Why are we calling an event over breakfast at the W a "bootcamp"? Mostly to distinguish it from the vendor-sponsored events that we've all been to, and all think are a waste of time.
Here's what's going to be different:
| Traditional marketing event | Appirio's Bootcamp Approach |
| 1 day event: You come, have some bad coffee, listen to the presentations, go home-- end of event. | Ongoing experience: You're experience will start right after registration when we invite you to the Bootcamp wiki (powered by Google Sites, of course). And your experience will continue on the wiki afterwards as you continue to engage in the community and content. |
| Goal is a big sales: Wear your budget on your sleeve, because that's how you're going to get the attention of the vendors and get your questions answered | Goal is a pilot: It may sound corny, but we really do think that Google Apps sells itself once an organization starts using it. So our goal is for you to take that first step: pick a part of the portfolio and a part of your organization to get started |
| Meant to woo buyers: Wear your title on your sleeve, because if you can't sign a PO, you wont get much attention. | Meant to build advocates: Google Apps makes its way into the enterprise from multiple angles-- our goal is to turn people who are interested in this technology into advocates who are empowered to make Google Apps a reality in their organization, regardless of their title. |
| Presentation of features: Long presentations by product marketing teams eager to differentiate their new offering from what they showed you last year. | Experience of the offering: You'll be using Google Apps directly throughout the event, and hearing the good AND the bad of real world deployments directly from customers. |
| Eyes on blackberry: Show up, tune out, and eying your blackberry. No reason to stay engaged. | Hands on keyboard: We can't achieve the above if you're sitting back in your seat. So you'll be expected to bring your laptop, get on the wireless, and participate. Google Apps will be powering our entire event, so participation equals education. |
Will it work? We're not sure-- but we invite you to come and join the experience. If you'll be in San Francisco on the morning of October 1, join us for breakfast at the W and participate in our "bootcamp" for Google Apps... a non-traditional approach to build advocates for a non-traditional offering.
Reserve your spot now for this free event
Date: October 1, 2008
Location: W Hotel (map)
Time: 8:30am - 11:00am
Cost: Free!
Labels: Google Apps, Google Bootcamp, Google Sites
Saturday, September 06, 2008
The "Grand Old Party" Gets the New Way of Computing
Mike OBrien
While Appirio will remain decidedly bipartisan for the foreseeable future, we got caught up in the energy and excitement of the Republican National Convention (RNC) this week in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
We were invited to St. Paul to work with RNC's IT team, managing IT systems supporting the convention and serving 4,000 delegates. However, our story starts back in February, when the team at Google tapped us to implement Google Apps for 500 convention staffers.
This was a thrilling assignment for Appirio. Even the "grand old party" recognized the value of using on-demand IT solutions, which we didn't necessarily expect, since their presidential candidate, John McCain, was on the record describing himself as a computer novice. But they saw that software-as-a-service (SaaS) would lower costs and dramatically increase their efficiency. Believe us, there are still plenty of big-company executives who aren't as open to this truth.
Here's where things get interesting. After getting started on the Google Apps rollout, RNC asked Appirio if we could build their delegate registration system. Their concept was a SQLServer database, along with a web server for data entry, reporting, administration, and dashboards. It took us all of 2 seconds to say "no way." We just don't do on-premise software anymore for these kinds of data-driven applications - it makes no sense.
Instead we pitched the idea of building the registration system on Salesforce.com's Force.com platform. It didn't take long to sell RNC on the obvious benefits.
In a few days, Appirio built a fully functional prototype. RNC loved it. RNC CIO Max Everett told us it was light years better than anything they had used in the past, eliminating the need to re-key information and consolidate data from multiple excel spreadsheets and various sources. (They actually used to distribute an 8-page questionnaire in a Word document to delegates.)
Better yet, Force.com gave every RNC staff member immediate access to powerful reporting and analytical capabilities on registered delegate data - the issues they cared about, the committees they wanted to volunteer for, their requests and suggestions.
The RNC was different this year. Staffers used their GOP-branded GMail accounts, shared Google Calendars for event coordination, and mined their delegate registration database in Salesforce.com. Pretty cool, huh? As far as Appirio could tell, things went pretty smoothly!
Labels: Force.com, Google Apps, salesforce.com, Software as a Service
