Email Collaboration and Communications Tools from Netfirms
Whether you’re looking to migrate off your outdated, costly Microsoft Exchange, compliment your existing solution with enhanced collaboration tools without the IT headache, or starting up your new business but don’t want the expense of a full desktop application suite - Netfirms is proud to announce availability and support of Google Apps Premier Edition – powered with Google’s latest innovation Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.
You can now spend less time and money managing complex and costly email and other IT services, and focus more on what you do best, whether that’s teaching kids, creating award-winning products, developing creative advertising campaigns or helping non-profits organizations, or growing the next Fortune 500 business. What makes this announcement especially exciting is Netfirms is applying its famous ‘We Care’ Service team to the challenge and will be providing setup and support for all customers subscribing to Google Apps Premier.
At Netfirms we have always been focused on removing the usual tech hassle and cost associated with owning domains and websites. We are keenly aware that today you need to be resourceful, do more with less, and be more selective where you place their trust in purchasing decisions.
Web Hosting Not As Usual
This is an industry first – with a Web Host extending itself to leverage a Cloud Service for its existing domain and hosting customers. This is a big win for our customers. They get industry leading Google Apps backed by Netfirms service and support. This is the first of many new and exciting improvements for our customers this summer.
I have been listening to our customers tell us they want Netfirms to support their productivity goals… not just their websites. So backed by our award winning 24/7 Netfirms customer service, we are offering a seamless solution - right from registering a domain, to building a web site to getting setup with Google Premier Apps we’ve made it all painless for you.
For those of you unfamiliar with Google Apps Premier Edition- it is a “perfect” office suite, e-mail, chat, video, shared calendar, and document management solution for any organization-big or small. One of our Netfirms’ customers has asked us to help him outsource more of his Office & Collaboration needs. As a rapidly growing Toronto realtor - Paul Nagpal (www.teamnagpal.com) didn’t want to be stuck with the IT headaches, costs and ongoing support associated with growing a Microsoft Exchange installation and adding Sharepoint too would be too costly. “The benefits with working with both Google and Netfirms is I get the functionality AND the support from my trusted Web Host. As the CEO, I am too busy to want to be distracted with adding IT staff, investing in hardware, software upgrades or other annoyances that come with going the Microsoft Exchange route” - as Paul said to me when we met at our new global headquarters. “Real estate is a competitive industry – I need the flexibility and features that comes with Google Apps Premier - and I have a person to call from Netfirms whenever I have a change I need made from the road.”Introducing Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook
With over 1.2 million customer domains and associated email accounts – we are one of a handful of Google partners that are announcing availability of Google’s new Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook application today which provides a “drop in” replacement alternative for Microsoft Exchange Outlook. Larger companies looking to save IT costs can now more easily migrate their accounts to “The Cloud” and shed the hassle, expense and headache associated with managing Microsoft Exchange.
One of the primary challenges we find with our customers is their love of the Outlook interface. You know where the buttons are, folders, etc… who has time to learn something new. That’s where the new Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook application comes in – it enables a clean connection between your existing Outlook software directly into the Google Apps Platform serviced by Netfirms.
Netfirms with Google Premier Apps will revolutionize the way you work. The best part, it’s completely seamless to you. You use your existing Netfirms domain name and get some added major benefits:
- Free Setup and Configuration by Netfirms
- No more SPAM! (Well almost no more SPAM but only a couple a week on average isn’t that bad)
- Google Search for your email means you will never lose track of your email again
- Tracking at 99.99[9]% (or better) up-time
- Email and Calendar syncs to your phone or Blackberry perfectly and updates itself in real time
- It works with your existing email client or all through the web (all email clients are supported including MS Outlook, Mail, Thunderbird and more but most people love the Gmail web interface that means that you will never have to call to reconfigure your email client ever again.)
- Shared Calendars (It syncs to your phone or Blackberry perfectly and updates itself in real time)
- Shared Documents (Collaborate on shared Excel or Word documents online in real time with anyone)
- Have a problem – call Netfirms for immediate support with your account – 24/7.
We are very excited to bring this service and support to North America and our many customers.
If you’d like to learn more about this solution from Netfirms visit us at www.netfirms.com/googleapps/ Check it out!
Sounds great, congrats!
But will Netfirms be collaborating with Google in their “ADSENSE FOR DOMAINS” program (allows unused domains to have adsense ads on them)?
See here: http://www.google.com/domainpark/
In May I was looking into this but from all the googling, many NetFirms customers were saying NetFirms wouldn’t allow the @ symbol in the DNS records, etc. So I sort of gave up for the time being.
Let us know if NetFirms hooks up with Google to provide this service. Would love to make a few pennies on unused domains with AdSense ads.
Thanks!
Great point. Money is money right?
We already support Adsense for Domains. Pull the + symbol for your domain name and under the “SOURCE” tab you may enter multiple A records for each domain name as per Google’s instructions. If you can’t find it, send us a quick email to our support department and we’ll help you out.
You don’t have to enter the @ symbol We just give you a bunch of blank fields to enter in multiple A records. Our system takes care of adding the appropriate @
Hi, wow thanks Dan for the quick response! and for the additional info re: NetFirms and Adsense for Domains.
I’ll try what you describe (what I already tried with one of the domains has never worked), so I will try again.
The other reason I didn’t think NetFirms domains would work with Google’s AFD is because NetFirms is not listed on this page where Google gives step-by-step instructions for various “popular registrars”:
See here: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=76049
How’s about NetFirms getting themselves listed on that page with its particular step-by-step instructions? Might save your Techies some extra work if we had the info on the above Google page.
And PS: Are you the same “Daniel” with NetFirms Mgmt. who I emailed several times with back in early May? If so, you were fantastic to work with.
Thanks for pointing that out. I will take care of getting ourselves added to that page of instructions. And yea, if you were communicating with management at Netfirms then “Daniel” is me. Signature on formal support emails is my full name rather than ‘dan’ when I blog
Hi again Dan…
Not to hijack the subject of this particular blog post (maybe you’ll do one specifically for Adsense for Domains?
but, OK, I see under “SOURCE” the “A Record” as you described. Thank you. That part was easy (Google gives four “A Record” addresses to fill in). Done.
But looking at these instructions from Google for “General Instructions for Any Registrar” (since NetFirms is not listed specifically) at this link: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=76049 , I can’t see at my NetFirms Control Panel how to do the CNAME thing that Google described in that link/section.
Searching NetFirms Help, there’s this link: http://support.netfirms.com/article.php?id=665 , but it says to ADD a domain, then under that click on SUB-DOMAIN, and in there is the CNAME section.
But first it says to create a SUB-DOMAIN for whichever domain name (drop-down menu has all my domains). But I don’t think I am wanting to create a Sub-Domain. But only fill in CNAME info per what Google describes in their “General Instructions for Any Registrar” as follows:
[...]
Host Name/Alias: www
Record Type: CNAME (alias)
Value/Destination: pub-xxxxxxxxx.afd.ghs.google.com. (where pub-xxxxxxxxx is your unique ID listed on the AdSense setup page)
[...]
So where (in my NetFirms Control Panel/domain section) do I put all that info?
THANKS MUCHO!
Any answers will help not only me but other people who do a websearch for how to use Adsense for Domains with NetFirms domains. Here’s one thread where people were/are discussing how to use NetFirms with AdSense for Domains: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense/thread?tid=74de0e1139d972b1&hl=en&fid=74de0e1139d972b1000469b82c93b4e0 .
That is what I tried over a month ago, going by what they said at that link, and it didn’t work. The one domain I tried to do this was still “pending” at Google’s Adsense for Domains over a month later (which tonight I went ahead and removed it and will try again when I better understand how to do it).
Some good valid points! Until Google adds us to the support page I will put together a new post today with detailed instructions on configuring the domain settings in our control panel for Adsense with Domains.
Check back in a few hours maybe after lunch time and it’ll be there on the front page
Dan and Daniel! You are the man of the hour! Thank you so much for zooming in on this with your great attitude and answers and willingness to help. Very much appreciated! (esp. for us ditzers who are so new at all of this). And very timely your replies, as well. Five stars!
I came here before checking your blog homepage, so I am headed there next. Can’t wait to try one AFD and see it actually work.
You are a credit to your company, whether as Dan the Blogger, or Daniel at Mgmt. Level!
Let’s be clear: what you’re really getting for your extra $25 (it’s $50 directly from Google) is the support from NetFirms. That’s a good deal for someone who doesn’t want in-house support for their online infrasturcture.
What kind of support do you get from NetFirms above and beyond acting site admin?
You are correct. Google does offer their premier edition of Google Apps at $50 a year/account and the additional $25 to Netfirms includes the support and the complete automation and hands-off integration.
You can pick up the phone and give us a call 24/7 for assistance with working with and using areas of Google Apps. We automatically handle the creation of the necessary CNAME and A record configuration instantly. You benefit from the great services offered by Google with seamless integration to your domain names with Netfirms.
Using a Small Business as an example (5 employees), for that additional $25/year per account you could remove the need for using an Exchange server and having to have an admin to manage that server. If you have questions or problems integrating your Google Apps email account with your Outlook or Thunderbird, we are here to help in real-time