Appirio Expands Google Enterprise Practice With Services for Google Apps Implementations

Appirio, a products and services company focused on accelerating adoption of on-demand in the enterprise, announced today that it is expanding its Google Enterprise practice by offering an additional set of SaaS strategy, implementation and change management services specifically for businesses considering Google Apps(TM). The services enable companies to take full advantage of Google's on-demand messaging and collaboration applications, while reducing migration and implementation risk and increasing user adoption.

"Enterprises are turning to Google Apps as a way to improve collaboration across an increasingly distributed workforce, and refocus their IT resources on innovation, not infrastructure maintenance," said Scott McMullan, Google Apps partner lead, Google Enterprise. "Appirio has excelled by providing experience and on-demand expertise that helps companies transition faster and institutionalize this new breed of application into their organizations."

Appirio's services focus primarily on Google's messaging applications (Gmail(TM), Google Calendar(TM) and Google Talk(TM)) and the company's knowledge management and collaboration applications (Google Docs, Google Start Page and Google Sites(TM)). Service offerings include:

--  SaaS Strategy Consulting - To help companies better understand how to
    use Google Apps to improve collaboration, evaluate direct and indirect
    financial benefits, and integrate Google Apps into an overall on-demand and
    IT strategy.

--  Migration and Implementation Services - To help companies make a
    successful, rapid transition from legacy applications such as Lotus Notes,
    Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint to Google's on-demand
    offerings.

--  Education and Change Management Services - To help companies realize a
    quicker return on their investment by targeting communications  and
    training to different levels of users. This is a critical, often overlooked
    aspect in the move to on-demand.

--  Services for Google Apps with Salesforce - A complete set of services
    for enterprise customers using both salesforce.com and Google to unite
    personal productivity and business systems.

Customers Beginning Large Scale Implementations of Google Apps

Appirio's Google Enterprise practice has helped companies in the high-tech, pharmaceutical, financial services, telecom, and government verticals to successfully roll out Google Apps across their organizations. Appirio was also recently selected by salesforce.com to assist with its own internal Google Apps implementation.

"Appirio's deep domain knowledge of Google Apps and salesforce.com, along with their experience getting new users up and running quickly on new applications, were key reasons for involving Appirio in our internal implementation," said Trae Chancellor, CIO of salesforce.com.

Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), a telecommunications company owned by the national government and Cable & Wireless, is another Google Apps success story. They recently tapped Appirio to migrate 93,000 customers from a costly proprietary email system to Gmail. The switch has already resulted in higher customer satisfaction and a 1,600-fold increase in mail capacity. TSTT is now planning to offer the broader set of Google Apps as value-added services to their customers.

"The Appirio team was integral in helping us bring these new services to our customers. They gave our team a better understanding of the Google offerings and the value they could bring. They also provided the technical expertise to make our migration as painless as possible," said Ronald Mohammed, vice president of information technology at TSTT.

"It's hard to argue with the flexibility, cost and collaboration benefits of Google Apps compared to pricey on-premise alternatives," said Chris Barbin, CEO and co-founder of Appirio. "One of our customers predicts they'll save almost $4 million annually by moving to Gmail from Microsoft Exchange. However, when you're moving a business of any scale to something new, it pays to take a disciplined approach to collecting business requirements and managing change. Customers look to Appirio for both innovation in addressing potential problems and peace of mind that things will go smoothly."

Relevant Links:

-- Appirio's related blog on "The CIO's Guide to On-Demand"

-- Additional information on Appirio's service offerings

-- Customer success stories on Google Solutions Marketplace

-- Video on the value of collaborating with Google docs

About Appirio

Appirio ( www.appirio.com ) delivers products and professional services that help medium and large enterprises accelerate their adoption of on-demand solutions. As a Services 2.0 pioneer, Appirio has a proven track record of designing and implementing complex and mission-critical systems using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions such as salesforce.com and Google Enterprise. Areas of expertise include CIO and business strategy, customer service and support, Force.com development and Google Apps deployment and integration.