SADA Systems and Northwestern University

SADA Systems, Inc. is an information technology consulting, outsourcing and development firm founded in 2000. Northwestern University is a private institution with campuses in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois.

CHALLENGES
Northwestern University needed a seamless and integrated way to allow their students to "opt-in" to Google Apps email accounts via their own intranet system. This would have to be done in a way that would produce the least administrative overhead on their end, and allow students to provision and manage accounts themselves. The provisioning process would be based on various eligibility parameters pre-determined by Northwestern University.

They also needed a system to flag users who have opted in for FERPA protection – a federal mandate which protects the identity of students so that the accounts created for these students take a different form than those who have not selected such protection.

SOLUTION
SADA used Google Apps APIs to create an opt-in process to check and validate a requestor's eligibility, create the account if eligible, choose a password, and create nicknames. SADA's application had to query Northwestern University’s LDAP and make a CGI call to determine eligibility and determine usernames for Apps. Northwestern University required an intricate process by which our system would check for duplicates and create names based on a schema they developed. There is also a management interface that allows the student to manage their account after it has been created.

RESULT

All incoming and existing students will have the ability to create their own Google Apps accounts. Also, the existing Northwestern University identity management systems are fully integrated with the Apps account management process. They dictate from a central, non-Google Apps interface the parameters under which students can create accounts, and track back in their systems when and if these accounts are created.

This will allow Northwestern University to have Google Apps as their primary platform for delivering email services to all of their eligible students, and to greatly reduce the administrative overhead of managing email in an on-premise system.

"I just wanted to let you know that we feel that SADA is doing a very good job on the Law School and Single Sign-on projects for Northwestern. The quality of the development work is very good and I have found very few issues during testing. Both [SADA’s Director of Web Development] and [SADA’s lead developer] are sticking to the schedule as planned and we anticipate a very smooth deployment with these three new web pages before the next semester begins at Northwestern. Thanks for the good work." - Ron Blitz, Northwestern University Technical Services Analyst

LTech and WildBlue Communications

Company Overview
LTech Consulting has been solving problems for both large enterprises and startup companies since 2001. Our team of dedicated search, collaboration, and web engineers empower businesses with innovative technologies such as Google Apps and the Google Search Appliance. WildBlue Communications is a satellite Internet Service Provider with more than 250,000 customers. Started in 2005 and based in Colorado, WildBlue offers satellite broadband Internet services to homes and businesses across the United States.

Challenges
After a detailed analysis of available email options including single-sign on and provisioning, WildBlue decided to move their entire customer base from their current provider to Google Apps Partner Edition. This would allow them to see significant cost savings and provide their users with the power of Google Apps. WildBlue knew from the onset that they would need an experienced partner to set up the Google Apps configuration, handle provisioning and single sign on, as well as the critical migration of e-mails and contacts for all of their customers.

Solution LTech remotely completed this Google Apps custom set up, including Google Gadget creation, and many other custom "bells and whistles" to make Google Apps fit all of WildBlue's custom needs. LTech's SyncSuite Hosted Edition was chosen for the project. Project highlights include:

• Design and implementation of a High-Availability Customer Directory to support operations, Customer Care, Client Account Management and Google Apps Authentication.Full support for separation and aggregation of core business and wholesale customers - including "skin-able" interfaces and logical customer account management.
• Design and creation of a browser based Customer Management portal allowing customers to provision their own accounts, update and view account information.Design and creation of a browser based Customer Care portal providing core business and wholesale care agents with a robust account management interface.Creation of an XML interface to allow peripheral resources to provision and update core business and wholesale accounts as well as synchronize Google Apps account information.Design, implementation and maintenance of a HA Load Balanced Managed Hosting Platform for both Production and DR Environments.

Results

• WildBlue saves more than $250,000 each month with the new solution. The solution is 100% managed by LTech in its datacenter, allowing WildBlue to focus on their core business and improving customer experience.
• Working together through the transition period of moving 300,000 people from one email system to another, LTech has built a lasting relationship with WildBlue.

Members of the WildBlue IT staff had this to say about one of our project leaders:

"We thought that this would be a good time to let you know how much we enjoy working with you and appreciate you...You are a true professional and it's a pleasure to work with someone of your caliber. We have both been in QA for several years and we really appreciate working with a developer / PM that responds to issues so quickly and communicates with QA Engineers so well...You are doing such a great job"

LTech and Gallaudet University

Company Overview
LTech Consulting has been solving problems for both large enterprises and startup companies since 2001. Our team of dedicated search, collaboration, and web engineers empower businesses with innovative technologies such as Google Apps and the Google Search Appliance. Gallaudet University is the first U.S. college for the education of the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Established by a philanthropist in 1856 and located in Washington, D.C., Gallaudet is the only university in the United States in which all programs are designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Challenges
Gallaudet wanted to upgrade their email system from OutBlaze to a more user-friendly system such as Google Apps. Their main goal was to free their users from the volume of spam they were receiving. They turned to LTech for assistance with migrating their email boxes, single-sign-on, and provisioning.

Solution
LTech provisioned SyncSuite for Google Apps into the Gallaudet environment and built a custom capture application to obtain addresses and passwords.

Results
Gallaudet University received a robust email solution that fit their needs and saved them time and budget. The custom capture application allowed users to perform the email migration at their own pace, with a goal of all users migrated before Fall semester 2008.

"I really appreciate you working with us on this. You've been great!" -- Jon, Director of Information Technology Services

Appirio and LDS Living

Introduction
LDS Living produces print and online consumer magazines. They have a loyal subscriber base of over 500,000 across 3 different internet domains, plus another 70,000 users reading their magazines in print format. Appirio is a Google Enterprise Professional and Salesforce.com Consulting and AppExchange partner offering products and services to accelerate the adoption of on demand in the enterprise.

Business Challenge
Over the past 10 years, LDS Living has sought to bring new and existing readers to their sites and magazines by getting their name in front of as many potential customers as possible—one method was to work with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to distribute email accounts with the @ldsliving.com domain. This provided additional advertising and traffic for the company. But over time, LDS Living wanted to be able to provide that domain beyond the ISP’s customer base, and lower their costs of running this program. LDS Living needed a solution to offer their customers email accounts in a manner that was automated, low-cost, and open to everyone.

Solution
To accomplish these goals, LDS Living purchased Gmail and implementation services from Appirio. Appirio built out provisioning functionality so new users can sign up to get LDS Living email accounts automatically-- Appirio developed a online environment to allow a new user on the LDS Living site to sign up and immediately use their new email account. The entire project was done in 3 days remotely.

Result
LDS Living is now off their old ISP email infrastructure and up on Gmail for all their users. They are also now able to accept new requests for email in an automated way, thereby reducing costs and increasing market awareness for the company. They are able to offer a superior email service (Gmail's spam filtering, for example) and offer their domain to every potential customer.

“LDS Living is now positioned in the market to take full advantage of Gmail for all of its current and new users thanks to the great work by Appirio. The service provided by Appirio programmers and account executives was incredibly helpful and the project was completed sooner than anticipated.” Brad Shepherd, President, LDS Living

LTech and Red Dog Informatics

Company Overview
LTech Consulting has been solving problems for both large enterprises and startup companies since 2001. Our team of dedicated search, collaboration, and web engineers empower businesses with innovative technologies such as Google Apps and the Google Search Appliances.Red Dog Informatics is a global internet and information technology company and part of The Wyanoke Group. Red Dog specializes in medical education and publishing and has a variety of services including web design and maintenance, database development, and other IT solutions.

Challenge
Red Dog Informatics was rolling out a new site for Endocrinetoday.com, published by SLACK Incorporated, a sister company in The Wyanoke Group. Red Dog required improved search functionality that would deliver relevant results, support metadata drilldown, and integrate with their site design.

Solution
LTech's QuickStart for Google Search Appliance allowed Red Dog to build out a successful search system. LTech customized the included parametric search capabilities in Version 5 of the Google Search Appliance to support a more sophisticated hierarchical drill-down. In addition, LTech consulted with Red Dog on best-practices for structuring their web content for crawling and outputting of results.

Results
Endocrinetoday.com is now powered by the Google Search Appliance. Users enjoy sophisticated drill-down search functionality along with the simple power of relevant and speedy search. This solution is slated to be rolled out to more publication web sites in the future.

"I do have to say that we have been very pleased with how LTech has worked with us on this important project." -- Marc, Senior Network Advisor

Appirio and Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago

Introduction
Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) is a telecommunications company owned by the national government and Cable & Wireless. Appirio is a Google Enterprise Professional and Salesforce.com Consulting and AppExchange partner offering products and services to accelerate the adoption of on demand in the enterprise.

Business Challenge
As part of their internet service offering, TSTT has long provided email service to their customers. However, the existing platform to provide that service was costly, and TSTT faced pressure from their customers to provide additional services and products.

Solution
TSTT purchased Google Apps Premier Edition along with implementation services from Appirio. Appirio provisioned 93,000 users with a custom-developed Python bulk provisioning tool modeled after Google’s own LDAP synch code. Appirio also added integration between Broadhop and Gmail to allow for provisioning of users directly from the TSTT Help Desk. Appirio migrated all the mailboxes from Courier IMAP to Gmail using Google’s IMAP migration features. The project took approximately two months to complete.

Result
TSTT has now moved from their older, more expensive
email system to a much more popular Gmail system—offering customers a 1,600 fold increase in mail capacity. Their Help Desk agents can now instantly provision new Gmail users. TSTT is also planning to roll out Start Page, GTalk, Docs and Sheets as value-added applications to their end users in the coming months at no additional charge. The business impact? Higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, lower customer churn, and lower operational costs for TSTT.

"TSTT can now offer customers a superior email solution from a brand like Google, while also offering value-added services with the rest of the Google Apps suite. The services provided by the Appirio team were critical in our ability to bring these solutions to market. The technical expertise combined with an understanding of our project objectives was key." – Ronald Mohammed – VP of IT

Virus Woman and Desert Mountain

Summary
Virus Woman Virus Woman is a rapidly expanding startup based in Los Angeles and Orange County, California, offering cutting edge remote and onsite IT services. Desert Mountain is a fast-growing independent entertainment company delivering Latin American cinema in the U.S. for release in theaters, on home video and on television.

Challenge
Virus Woman worked with Desert Mountain to implement Google Apps, resulting in increased productivity and reduced IT costs. Desert Mountain needed assistance to address 3 challenges:

• Implement and deploy a technical communication solution while minimizing IT efforts and costs.
• Provide access to emails, documents, and vital information anytime, anywhere.
• Keep a fast-moving staff on the same scheduling page.

Solution
Desert Mountain Media contracted Virus Woman to help move them from a traditional in-house email solution to Google Apps. The process, which involved gathering user information and setting up accounts for each employee, was painless, fast and simple. After a brief training session, Desert Mountain Media staff were ready to get started. In fact, several users had already used Gmail on their own, so adapting to Google Apps was particularly easy for them.

“By working with Virus Woman, our move to Google Apps was literally overnight, and everything functioned properly right from the start,” recalls Office Manager Nouny Rogers. “We would definitely recommend Google Apps and Virus Woman to other businesses.”

Result
Desert Mountain Media employees are productive and better equipped to perform their jobs, while also reducing IT burdens. “We are much more responsive and informed since moving to Google Apps, ” says Leslie Haas, President, Desert Mountain Media. Since moving to Google Apps, Desert Mountain Media employees can remotely tap into emails, documents and calendars from any computer. When Haas or other team members are traveling, shared calendars make it easy to schedule meetings. Documents such as inventory reports, film synopses and artwork are stored on Google Docs and readily shared by everyone on staff. “Everything is accessible from anywhere, and it's all set up the same familiar way as it is in the office,” says Rogers. “Plus, we can get everything we need using our mobile phones, from Treo smart phones to BlackBerry devices.”

“When I tell my customers that they can have world-class email, document applications, and shared calendaring for free, the typical response is, “That’s amazing,’” says Chrisantos Hajibrahim of Virus Woman. “Google Apps is a fantastic product that makes customers really happy, and when customers are happy, you get more business.”

DirectPointe and Kids Village

Summary
Kids Village is a private school in Lindon, Utah serving children from kindergarten through fourth grade. DirectPointe’s Small Office Solution is a combination of hardware, software and services that seamlessly integrate with Google Apps Premier Edition. It provides the essential network, user and domain management software a centralized or distributed office needs to implement Google Apps, as well as managed services that support and secure the IT environment.

Challenge
Kids Village needed an effective solution for staff members to collaborate with email, documents, spreadsheets, and calendars on the school network as well as their personal computers at home where the staff did not always have access to the software and files on school computers. Kids Villiage needed to either purchase standardized computers or software for their staff to use at home, or require that the staff spend more time at the school to get their work done.

Solution
DirectPointe worked with Kids Village to understand their needs and determined Google Apps was the right solution to their problem. DirectPointe provisioned Google Apps from DirectPointe’s Small Office Solution installed at the Kids Village campus. DirectPointe’s Small Office Solution is already integrated with Google Apps so it took less than a day to have it up and running for their entire staff. Although some staff members were hesitant at first to have their data stored on someone else’s servers, their concern was outweighed by the ability to lower their IT costs while increasing access to their files and related software from any place they have a computer and an Internet connection.

Result
The Kids Village staff can now seamlessly work and collaborate from the school or at home at any time and on any machine.

“My teachers and staff members now have more options when and where they do their work with the Google Apps suite of applications, including Gmail, Documents, Calendar, and others.” said Ann Whitaker, President and Founder of Kids Village. “Our Google Apps suite is personalized for Kids Village and costs us less than other more expensive and less flexible software suites.”

Today, staff members are able to share documents and communicate with others regardless of platform or software. Google Apps also allows the staff members to encourage collaborative learning among their students which aids in the fostering of peer-to-peer review and the ability to observe in the creation and process of scholarly content.