Google Apps – Unified Network Services

Google Apps Account Access Temporarily Disabled

Backup Business Systems Support Google Apps

More than 22.7 million U.S. businesses are one-man or one-woman shows. Each of these tiny firms has a single owner, but no paid employees at all. The US government calls these businesses “Nonemployer” businesses.

If you are one of those 22.7 million U.S. businesses, you probably know about Google Apps for Work, the professional email, online storage, shared calendars, video meetings, voice telephone service and more, built for business, by Google.

More than 5 million businesses have gone Google. You may be a Google Apps for Work single user and account holder. If so, you need to know about Google’s account access problem.

You may have experienced or will experience in the future the dreaded “Account access temporarily disabled” message when you log in to your Google Apps for Work account. Imagine your business’ risk if you depend on all of Google Apps for Work’s services including business telephone service and you find your Google Apps for Work account arbitrarily disabled. You can be out of business in the blink of an eye.

Google’s account access problem lies in it’s “catch 22” process to re enable your account, should you find yourself out of business. It goes like this;

Upon attempting to log on to your Google account, you get Google’s version of the “Blue Screen of Death”

Since you are the only administrator, you seek the “24/7 phone and email support,” that you pay $5 to $10 a month for, from the “Google Support team”

Unfortunately, you cannot email support because you cannot access the “Admin Console.” But, you would want to call the “Google Support team” anyway because of the urgency to re enable your Google account. So you go about the business of locating your PIN because the “Google Support team” requires your PIN in order for them to answer their telephone. But, you see a page that states, “To locate your PIN: Sign in to the Google Admin console.”

So now, you’re stuck. You cannot call or email the “Google Support team” without access to your disabled Google account for their email link or PIN. That’s some strange paid “24/7 phone and email support.”

Fortunately, when Google’s account access problem happened to me, I located an obscure form at https://support.google.com/a/contact/admin_no_access that opened a support ticket. Unfortunately, 48 hours into the support request, my Google Apps for Work remains disabled.

Let me be the first to say that I like Google Apps for Work’s features and general performance. I especially like the ability to wipe a lost smartphone. I also like using Google Voice for calls using a computer headset. I’m not a Google Apps for Work reseller, but I have set up many businesses with Google Apps for Work.

But, single user Google Apps for Work accounts require a different approach. What can one do to protect one’s self from Google’s lackluster Google Apps for Work support?

Google Apps for Work “Nonemployer” business folks should always have two admin users in their account, with strong passwords and be well documented. The second admin user can be used to re enable the primary admin user when that user experiences “Account access temporarily disabled.”
Never use a Google Voice number as your primary business telephone number. If you have done that, immediately port your number out of Google Voice to a more dependable carrier, either a local telco service provider or a national VOIP provider with a demonstrated excellent support track record.
Back up your primary user’s email, contacts, calendars, tasks, voice calls, chats, drive and any other data you may have in Google Apps for Work. One can use Outlook sync for manual and limited backup or go the distance with backupify, the leader in Google Apps backup.

Have you been stunned by the dreaded “Account access temporarily disabled” message? If so, what was your experience?

Update 11.26.2014: The account was re enabled at 5:30am, four days after the initial disabling. Once I correct the DNS workaround that will flow my email back into the account, if will be an entire week down, a service level that I would understand for free services, but not a paid business service. Also, my android phone was rendered useless during the process because the policy app on the phone. I’m certainly glad that this was not a business related account. When a “Nonemployer” business person needs paid “24/7 phone and email support,” they deserve not to wait a week. My conclusion, I will seriously reevaluate Google Apps for Work for my businesses and will not recommend Google Apps for Work to any other “Nonemployer” business person.

Google Apps Collaboration

Google Apps

Your business can achieve a new level of successful interpersonal communications and effective collaboration by converting your business email to Google Apps. The free version enables your small organization to begin the experiment. But, Google Apps for Business at $50 per user per year brings 25GB email storage per user, BlackBerry and Microsoft Outlook interoperability and much more to the table. Check out this video.

When you find yourself ready to loose your current email provider or ready to quit throwing money at Microsoft Exchange or Small Business Server, consider discussing Goggle Apps with me.

Timing Is Everything Outlook

Google Apps

Check out “Google Calendar Streamlines Event Scheduling” from Lifehacker and Google’s Blog

Google pushed out a small update to Google Calendar last night, updating the repeating event editor with a more streamlined interface and adding a great new “find a time” feature that helps you and your friends or coworkers find an appointment time that fits everyone’s schedule.

I guess I’m even closer to loosing Outllook than I thought.

Frustrated With Outlook Meetings

Business Systems Support Google Apps

I participated in an interesting poll today about the proverbial back and forth with trying to schedule a meeting in Outlook. I’ve tempered my response with the slow performance of Outlook 2010, probably a good topic for another day. Anyway, here’s the current poll from Linkedin. (Login Warning)

I’m moving more and more to the Google Apps web interface and will probably be ditching Outlook pretty soon unless I can find a new compelling reason to stay with it.

Do you have any new compelling reasons?

Secret to Google Apps

Business Systems Support Google Apps

There is no secret. Transitioning to Google Apps is hard work and not for the faint of heart!

It’s also no secret that Google targets Microsoft Outlook used with Exchange Server or with just plain old POP3 to build the APPs market share. Consequently, using Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook for deployment requires those supporting Google Apps for small business to understand all of the nuances of Outlook. (yes it’s a blank page)

Although I am admittedly new at Google Apps, I come to this with many years of Outlook and Exchange experience. So, I would like to give you my steps to successfully sync Google Apps with Microsoft Outlook. Then, please comment with your insight to Google Apps deployment so we can all learn something.

My focus here centers on working with the Microsoft Outlook PST file created from standard email or as a backup of an Exchange mailbox. There are other tools available for migrating Microsoft Exchange mail boxes.

1 – Start by checking Google mail to confirm that the Google Apps account you are working with receives email correctly and that sent email carries the correct name and reply address and comes from the correct domain. If there are problems here, you must work out the issues before you attempt a Google Apps Sync with Microsoft Outlook.

2 – Insure that the computer operating system and Outlook software that you are working with meets system requirements for Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. Remove any malware or virus and optimize the computer so that it runs correctly.

3 – Work to clean up the PST file associated with the Outlook profile that you plan to sync with Google Apps. Delete any old information and compress the file. Then, create a backup of the PST file.

4 – Run scanpst.exe, the inbox repair tool in Outlook, to repair any errors with the PST file you are working with. Backup the newly repaired PST file, because you might have to recover this backup to return Outlook to it’s original functionality, when or if Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook fails.

5 – Restart the computer you are working with.

6 – Download the Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook tool to begin the sync process. Enter the account information, then select options to turn “AutoArchive” off. Google created good instructions for first time users.

7 – Set the Google APPs email profile to be the default profile and the only profile to open up when Outlook starts up.

Te recap; take a look at the Google Apps with Microsoft Outlook video below and again, please comment about your experience with your Google Apps deployment. We can all use the help.

Google Apps A Microsoft Exchange Killer

Business Systems Support Google Apps

I think not.

Google would have to give Apps away and beg people to forgive them for functionality that is missing before this stuff could begin to compare to Microsoft Exchange.

However, you can get some serious functionality for $50 per year per user. And, Google Apps reinvents collaboration, moving the target away from the Exchange paradigm with easy deployment.

Although Google Apps syncs with Outlook, much of the Exchange functionality, nuances that corporate Outlook / Exchange users depend upon, are not fully developed; for instance sharing and delegating access to your calendar.

If you’ve never used Exchange and seek additional mobile connectivity and enhanced employee collaboration, consider Google Apps very carefully. Compare and demonstrate functionalities with both Microsoft Exchange with a fully hosted application service provider and Google Apps and please, consider a professional to help deploy your collaborative messaging solution.