Why Google Apps for Work?

I thought I’d take a few seconds to talk about Google Apps for Work, and why we feel our client’s benefit from it.

What is Google Apps for Work?

Google Apps is a cloud-based productivity suite that helps you and your team connect and get work done from anywhere on any device. It’s simple to setup, use and manage, allowing you to work smarter and focus on what really matters.

Now, what does that mean?  Well there’s three main parts. Email, Collaboration, Sync.

The first, and most important is Email.  Everyone has it.  The question becomes how they use it.  We like Google’s solution because it allows our clients to harness the security, reliability and effectiveness that Google has continually refined through years of running GMail.  It also allows clients to have their phones, webmail and work computers all with the same email state at the same time.  No more managing sent items between three devices. While this is available through a lot of traditional options, when you consider the costs and the other features outside of email, the value becomes clear.

Collaboration is a big part of today’s workforce.  With remote office, on the go employees, sales, technicians, etc….  the idea of “going to work” is a much different one that it was even 5 years ago.  Google Apps makes having an office or central IT infrastructure  for communication less necessary.  With Hangouts for virtual meetings, shared calendars, delegation controls and the whole Google Docs/Drive suite, coworkers are able to be connected regardless if they’re down the hall or across the world from each other.  Being able to make some last minutes changes to a presentation from the office, while your colleague is about to walk into a sales meeting can be very powerful. Scheduling meetings with your entire office, managing boardroom schedules or just having shared documents available to employees from anywhere are just a few examples of the benefits of Google Apps.

Lastly, and to some, most importantly is the power of syncing .  Gone are the days of plugging your phone into your computer and waiting for iTunes to update your calendar and your contacts.  With Google Apps for Work, your computer and mobile devices are constantly synchronized grabbing and storing all information in the proverbial cloud.  Information on all devices is reliable, current and therefore more valuable to you.  It also makes the device itself less critical.  Lets face it, phones get dropped in bathtubs all too often.  With your data living in the cloud, you’re able to continue working if there’s a failure in one of your devices.  It also give your IT providers, like ZeroPing IT, the ability to remotely secure lost or stolen devices should the unthinkable happen.  All without you missing a meeting.

These are just a few quick reasons we love Google Apps for Work and we’ve been moving clients to the product in droves.  I recommend you take a look at the offering, and give us a call or email to discuss how your organization can benefit.

Windows 10 – Free Upgrade for One Year

Some interesting news out of Microsoft last week.  During a Windows 10 Live event on January 21st, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade to anyone who is currently on Windows 7, 8 or 8.1.  Which is good news for everyone.  These days Windows PCs are a mish-mash of Windows versions, with some computers still running Windows XP, which isn’t even supported by Microsoft anymore. Furthermore, it allows consumers and businesses to buy PCs as needed and not be worried about being left behind.

I’m curious if this is just Microsoft recognizing that having everyone on a similar platform makes sense in today’s world, or if they’re just admitting they let us down with Windows 8 and this is their way of saying sorry. I guess we’ll find out when Windows 11 comes out.

We’ll be looking forward to getting every one of our clients upgraded.  Hopefully the upgrade processes is as relatively painless as a Mac OS X upgrade.  However even they aren’t perfect.

Allow me to share an interesting article with you from Forbes about why this is a great move for everyone, especially Microsoft.

Is your Password Secure?

Courtesy of www.lastpass.com‘s twitter account ( @lastpass ).

I love LastPass and use it all the time. Nothing is perfect, passwords are difficult to deal with, but LastPass makes it easy for those important passwords you can’t afford to get wrong.

B2B Logic.net now ZeroPing IT Services.

Hello friends, clients and passers-by.

For over 10 years, what was initially a temporary plan to operate my business as a trade style of my father’s business and our only customer, B2B Credit Chex, Inc., quickly became the easy thing to do, and 10 years later we were still doing it.  To the annoyance of countless accountants and business managers that we deal with, B2B Logic.net, while it’s own entity was never it’s own business.

Today that changes.

The More Things Change…
I’m proud to announce that finally, we’re our own corporation. Today we begin business as ZeroPing IT Services, Inc.  Naturally there will be an adjustment period, primarily the name change.  The reason for the name change was that we always felt our name didn’t do a good job of describing what it was we did at a quick glance.  Secondly, our domain name and email addresses were always tricky to give out.

“The letter B, the number 2, the letter B… B as in Business…  I’ll email you our contact info”

This quickly became a common conversation when dealing with people we hadn’t dealt with before.

To that end, our new domain name is zeroping.ca and our email addresses will continue to be firstname@zeroping.ca.  Don’t worry, our b2blogic.net domain will continue to forward emails to our new domain… in case you forget to update your address books 🙂

The More They Remain the Same…
Same ownership, employees and commitment to top quality service.

Outside of a name change, a bunch of paperwork, ( and a swath of bank fees ):P, we will continue to be the exact same company we’ve always been. Dedicated to exceeding expectations, providing the best and most reliable service possible at fair and reasonable rates.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for their business through the years, it’s because of you that we’re able to do what we do.

I could never express my gratitude.

I appreciate your understanding and patience while we make these changes and assure you that it will not affect your business or ours negatively in any way.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns you can call email me ( randal@zeroping.ca ) call me ( 416-619-5411) or send a carrier pigeon ( I have no idea ) and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.

Thank you

Randal Santia
President,
ZeroPing IT Services, Inc.