Posted by Lorna Syson, founder of Lorna Syson

Editor's note: This week we’re featuring news, stories and updates about our vibrant partner community as we host more than 700 partners for our second annual Global Partner Summit. Today’s guest blogger is Lorna Syson, founder of Lorna Syson, a British countryside-inspired home accessories company that sells directly online and in interior design shops around the world. Keep an eye on this blog and our Google+ page and visit our program site for more information on the Google Apps Reseller Program.


I have an assistant and interns who come and go, but for the most part, Lorna Syson -- an award-winning purveyor of British countryside-inspired interior accessories -- is a one-woman operation of five years. I wear many hats: founder, designer, salesperson, accountant, customer support specialist, IT admin and marketer.

People always ask me what my secret to success is -- it’s technology. Since the beginning, I’ve used Google Apps for Business to help me accomplish all these jobs. By accessing Google Apps on my smartphone and tablet, I’m able to manage my emails, calendars, inventory, invoices, and budget, all while running back and forth between meetings. The beauty of keeping records in Google Drive is that my assistant and I are able to update them simultaneously thanks to real-time collaboration.

Recently, I added Sage One, the online invoicing and accounting from Sage to my workflow and it works perfectly with Google Apps. Anytime I spend money or send a bill to a customer, Sage One captures the record and stores it in Google Drive. This way, I know exactly how much money I’m sitting on at the end of the day, and it helps me make smarter business decisions. Previously, I spent anywhere from two days to a week going through boxes of bills and entering them into Excel, trying to figure out how much money I had in my accounts and what payables were outstanding. Now with a couple of taps, I can see which customers are overdue on payments, find them in Google Contacts, and follow up immediately to settle the account.

Because I juggle so many roles, I find myself working from the road far more than from my office. I could easily be on a train, in a park getting design inspiration, or in a coffee shop. This wouldn’t be possible without the mobile capabilities of Google Apps and Sage One. These cloud-based services allow me to stay on top of all aspects of my business from literally anywhere. That, in turn, gives me the freedom to do the stuff that has to be done in person, like meet up with customers and suppliers face to face.

Now that I’m somewhat established in the UK, my next step is to expand internationally. It’ll take a lot more marketing and face time with prospective customers, but armed with the right mobile tools, anything is possible.

Posted by Alan Wrafter, Global Channel Marketing

Editor's note: This week we’re featuring news, stories and updates about our vibrant partner community as we host more than 700 partners for our second annual Global Partner Summit. Keep an eye on this blog, our Google+ page and visit our program site for more information on the Google Apps Reseller Program.

As our second annual Global Partner Summit comes to a close, we bid adieu to the 700 guests that joined us from all over the world for three days of thought leadership, networking and best practice sharing (and, of course, a bit of fun). Our partners heard from Googlers including Amit Singh, President of Google Enterprise, and Sundar Pichai, SVP of Android, Chrome and Apps, about the state and future of business technology, all while taking in the vision of our Enterprise business.

Amit Singh and Sundar Pichai discussing 2014 plans with our partners

We also announced a handful of exciting updates and launches to better support our growing partner community, including:

• The news that we now have more than 10,000 Google Apps Resellers.
• A formal technology partner track as part of the Google Apps Partner Program, to enhance our relationships with software vendors that build complementary business apps and tools.
• A tiered Google Cloud Platform Partner Program. Our Premier tier recognizes top service and technology partners, while we've also opened up the program for new partners to join.
• The launch of the Chrome partner program, which includes resellers of Chrome OS management console, as well as technology and content partners that develop business and education applications for the Chrome OS and browser.

Finally, we’d like to congratulate our 2013 Global Partners of the Year:

Our partners aren't just partners — they're a critical part of everything we do. From on-boarding and training new Cloud customers to creating specialized software to integrate with Apps, from reselling Chrome OS to managing change management, they ensure our customers get the most out of the technology they use.

Until next year!

Posted by Rahul Sood, Managing Director, Google Apps

Editor's note: This week we’re featuring news, stories and updates about our vibrant partner community as we host more than 700 partners for our second annual Global Partner Summit. Keep an eye on this blog, our Google+ page and visit our program site for more information on the Google Apps Reseller Program.

As many companies have realized for some time now, moving to the cloud is no longer a questionable proposition — it’s inevitable. Google offers core productivity, collaboration and communication tools within the Google Apps suite, but many companies have realized that to truly run their business in the cloud they need many more tools that address specialized needs like accounting, customer relationship management and project management.

Four years ago — nearly to the day — we launched an online storefront to help our customers find cloud applications that integrated with Google Apps. Since that launch Google Apps customers have added over 200M installs of the more than 750 offerings in the Google Apps Marketplace, which run the gamut of business apps. From UberConference, which integrates conference calling with Hangouts, to DocuSign, which integrates digital signatures with Google Drive, customers can access great apps that help them run their businesses even better. Meanwhile, more and more software developers are finding a highly engaged customer base through the marketplace. Smartsheet, for example, which offers a project management app integrated with Google Drive, discovered that customers from the Google Apps Marketplace share their projects 50% more and add 100% more attachments than the norm.

Today, to build on this momentum, we’re announcing a formal technology track in the Google Apps Partner Program for software vendors that build complementary business apps and tools. This new program will sit alongside our existing Reseller Program, which already includes 10,000+ partners. The new track is designed to recognize technology partners for their successes and offer them technical, marketing and sales support to help bring the products they build to more people.

We’ll start with a limited launch and begin adding existing technology partners to the program today and we’ll open the doors to all software vendors next quarter. Interested in getting involved in the meantime? If you have a business app you think would benefit Google Apps customers, check out our program guide and list your app in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Posted by Prajesh Parekh, Google Apps Partner Marketing

Editor's note: This week we’re featuring news, stories and updates about our vibrant partner community as we host more than 700 partners for our second annual Global Partner Summit. Keep an eye on this blog and our Google+ page and visit our program site for more information on the Google Apps Reseller program.

Millions of businesses around the world—from scrappy startups to large enterprises—rely on Google’s solutions for work. And many of them are supported by a community of partners, including more than 10,000 Google Apps Resellers globally, who help businesses set up and get more out of the Apps productivity suite.

We’ve seen our partner program grow up quite a bit since it was launched in 2009. But it’s not just growing in size — our community has gotten increasingly diverse, with IT providers from a variety of backgrounds and specialties joining us in the last few years. New partners include well-established companies, like CDW and SHI, who have provided IT solutions to customers since before tools like Hangouts or Drive ever existed. Wix and Weebly, two of the most popular website builders for businesses, also recently integrated with Google Apps after seeing the benefits it provided their own customers. These partners, like UK-based Grove Group, are driven to give their clients IT solutions that drive a better way of working.

This week, we’re hosting our second annual Global Partner Summit in San Francisco to celebrate the contributions of partners across Google Apps, Enterprise Search, Chrome, Cloud Platform and Maps for Business. The three-day summit brings together more than 700 partners to collaborate on business plans, share best practices, and engage with product experts. At the end of the week, we hope our partners will leave energized with fresh ideas for how to better help their customers.

Posted by Mark Hodgson, Head of Global Partner Programs, Google Enterprise

Every day, millions of companies, schools and governments around the world run their organizations on Google’s enterprise solutions, including Google Apps, the Google Search Appliance, Google Maps and Earth, and Google Cloud Platform. We’re committed to helping these organizations succeed, but we can’t do it alone; our partners play a crucial role in ensuring customers get the most out of the technology they use. Companies rely on our partners to provide everything from hands-on deployment and technical support to customized applications that integrate seamlessly with Google’s products.

Today, we kicked off our inaugural Global Partner Summit at our headquarters in Mountain View, CA. More than 400 partner leaders from around the world are joining us for three days of training, planning and sharing best practices. We’ll also take time at the Summit to recognize the great work that so many of our partners have done helping businesses embrace new solutions and move to the cloud.

Googlers joining our partners this week to discuss the state and future of business technology include Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist; Patrick Pichette, Google’s Chief Financial Officer; Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure; Amit Singh, President of Google Enterprise.

Google President of Enterprise, Amit Singh, addresses partners on Day 1

To help partners build their expertise and prepare for certification exams, we’re launching a partner university. The university will feature a combination of self-guided online courses, instructor-led online courses, and in-person classes that can be taken individually or sequentially. We’re also doing more to recognize outstanding resellers across different products. Two years ago, we began recognizing certain Google Apps resellers as premier resellers. Today, we’re adding similar ‘premier’ designations for our top partners in our Search Reseller Program and our brand new Maps for Business Reseller Program.

Finally, for their expertise and dedication to meeting customers’ business and technology needs, we’d like to congratulate our 2012 Global partners of the year:

• Google Apps - Customer Acquisition: Softbank (Japan) 
• Google Apps - Implementation: Cloud Sherpas (USA and APAC) 
• Enterprise Search: Onix Networking (USA) 
• Maps for Business: SPH (Korea) 
• Cloud Platform: PA Consulting (UK & USA) 

If you’re a business, check out Enterprise Partner Search to find local experts who can help you move to the cloud. Or if you’re a company interested in joining our partner program, visit this website.