Apple’s launch of MobileMe is notable. Is it relevant for small business?
Hard to say, as it hasn’t been released, just announced.
But in a nutshell, no, it is not suitable for small business. Apple could (and probably will) address this in the future however.
I’ve discussed recently that we use Google Apps for our business mail and calendaring. For a whole bunch of reasons mentioned in Simplify your Email Life, so I won’t go into them here.
Apple say that MobileMe is Exchange for the rest of us. Curious. An individual is a lot further away from Exchange than a small business.
MobileMe is an extension of the .mac service, which has never been aimed at small business.
With MobileMe, Apple give us a new browser based email interface. But also calendaring and address book. Sort of like Google Apps.
Apple’s MobileMe service syncs to Mac Mail and Outlook. You also get integration with the Gallery features we have had in Mac, which make it easy to publish galleries of photos to the web.
It runs from me.com, which is a cool domain to be sure.
But it is not a small business application. Businesses want to run their own domain email, such as joe@joesdomain.com. And they need an easy way to manage multiple emails.
Have Apple addressed spam? One of the biggest reasons for going with Google Mail is the spam filtering. If Apple can do as well as Google on this front, then they will earn loyal users of their mail service.
Having used .mac and sync services for some time, I am sceptical that it will be a smooth experience to replicate data across iPhones, Macs and PCs.
And having stopped using desktop mail and calendar apps, I no longer see any reason to replicate information around. Just keeping my mail box and calendar in one place makes sense, all I want is to get to it from anywhere.
My guess is that once people start to use browser mail and calendaring on their iPhone, a lot more people will make this move.
One final thing from a comparative perspective - Google Apps is free. MobileMe costs around $99/year, per user.
The iPhone is a huge device for business, and I will get one when it finally arrives in Australia. It will let me run my Google Apps based mail and calendar.
One day, Apple might offer a small business oriented version of MobileMe. But we aren’t there yet.
MobileMe looks like an incredible consumer application, and I look forward to it thriving.
Email is so very important to business. And yet working with a lot of different small businesses, I am regularly amazed at how much of a problem it can be.
Recently Deryck, MD of Boshack (one of our OM4Tourism clients) migrated his business to Google Apps - he paid $45 (that is $42 in USD) to make it happen. With Google Apps, he now has his Gmail running from consolidated email addresses at his own domain, calendaring, docs and other applications to run his business from Google - all with a single login for each person and at zero ongoing cost.
I decided to interview Deryck about his experience because it is a great example of how easy the move can be. Even where a small business doesn’t have its own technical expert. Note we have an article providing guidance on email hosting called Simplify Your Email Life, so if you want to do what Deryck did, all the information you need is there.
Deryck Brockhurst is the Managing Director of Boshack, a unique tourist experience one and a half hours drive from Perth, Western Australia. Boshack has been featured on Getaway, and is a popular destination for travellers wanting to experience the Australian outback, see a working wheat/sheep farm, eat bush tucker, see native Australian wildlife and learn about the Aboriginal dreamtime.
Glenn: Hi Deryck, I’ve got a few questions for you about your recent move to Google Apps. Many small businesses find email difficult and expensive, and don’t have tech experts on hand to manage it. On a scale of 1 to 10, how good are your technical skills?
Deryck: Two - what an embarrassing question.
Glenn: Why did you shift your email to Google Apps?
Deryck: I had 4 different email addresses and 2 of these with Gmail. Passwords alone were sending me crazy. Also on our main booking Gmail account (jointly monitored by my daughter and myself for bookings), I was always deleting stuff I shouldn’t have been. Since we have swapped over she now talks to me.
Glenn: What is different about using Google Apps?
Deryck: Very simply, consolidation. Easy access to my email from any computer.
Glenn: What are the best/worst aspects of it compared to what you did before?
Deryck: The best - consolidation. A time saver definitely, I can see it will be an easy way to gradually delete an email address of mine. And with Gmail the storage/filing system.
The worst, a little slower.
Glenn: You started using Gmail for a bit before going to Google Apps. Did you experience problems with email before moving to Google, and have they been resolved?
Deryck: I guess the systems we were using were getting antiquated as we had used for years. Spam wasn’t controlled or monitored as well as in Gmail. I am now very happy and more importantly so is my daughter/business partner. Spam is a lot better controlled.
Glenn: You used one of Google’s services partners (based in India) to do the setup for you - what was it like?
Deryck: I can’t speak highly enough of him. To help someone like me (with a technical ranking of 2 out of 10) he had to be very patient. This he was and very direct with very simple answers. Sunil was the man, although I think they pick a name and others answer on his behalf. But all very good.
Ed. Link to Sunil in Google Apps Solution Marketplace: Dhruvsoft
Glenn: What are the costs involved in moving to Google Apps and then running email with them??
Deryck: Setup $45 and no other costs.
Glenn: Were there any unexpected costs?
Deryck: Nothing extra was asked for or charged.
Glenn: Other than Mail, do you use any of the other parts of Google Apps?
Deryck: We moved to Google Docs about 6 months ago and this is also an amazing program as we run our business from 4 different locations with 3 different people needing to access emails and spreadsheets. We now have one log in each for all of this with our email included.
Glenn: Any tips for small business operators regarding Google Apps?
Deryck: Definitely the way to go for simplicty, accessibility and especially if you need to share docos or emails.
Glenn: Any further comments on Google Apps?
Deryck: One about sending addresses. I want people to know that using Google Apps your email is sent using whichever of your email addresses that you choose. There is a default address it sends from (initially the address you received the email at). But the option is there to change it to another address. For me I can now consolidate two email addresses over a period.
And another about the Personalized Start Page you get with Google Apps. I have just started on mine.
It is once again a consolidation of everything you want plus extra if you require. With the one login, you simply design your Start Web Page - here is what I put on mine: first 10 emails, special folders, Weather, Aussie News, World News, Calendar, The Frog, Facebook. You can put pretty well anything you want on the one page.
Glenn: Any concerns?
Deryck: I just wonder how we should back ourselves up as we have an awful lot of info on there, although there is less chance of a virus getting to it on Google than if I was keeping myself.
I guess the scary part is such a big company has so much info, and not only mine.
Glenn: So what back up procedures do you use.
Deryck: None.
Glenn: I’ll look into writing up some options for backing up Gmail. Thanks Deryck.
For the record, OM4 uses Google Apps. Neither OM4 or Boshack get any payment for promoting any of the products or services referred to in this interview.
