We have very excited to announce the integration of DeskAway into the Google Apps Marketplace™, Google’s online storefront for Google Apps™ products and services. DeskAway will join a diverse group of applications/tools and will now be available for direct signup by all Google Apps™ users and customers. Read the official Google announcement here.

We think that cloud computing and web-based applications are the future of enterprise software and integrating with Google Apps is an excellent move forward.

The Google Apps Marketplace makes it easy for more than 2 million Google Apps customers to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications and related professional services. By integrating with user account and application data stored in Google Apps, these cloud applications provide a simpler user experience, increase business efficiency, and reduce administrative overhead. To learn more, visit google.com/appsmarketplace.

Here is what we really love about the Marketplace:

1. Existing Google Apps users can easily setup and integrate 3rd party applications
2. As a vendor, it was easy for us to complete the integration as the resources and online help provider by Google was more than excellent.
3. We are current users and fans of Google Apps
4. We got to interact and work with the amazing team at Google - technical as well as marketing!

The DeskAway and Google App integration is really simple and takes not more than a few minutes. Once integrated, Google Apps users will seamlessly be able to access all their project communication without having to sign into DeskAway through a separate browser every time. Watch videos and learn more on our help page here.

Google is making it easier for small businesses to leverage the best of the web’s applications to power their business with the least amount of IT setup and overheads. We are very excited to be a part of this movement.

Times are tough for businesses all around the world. What you need now is an efficient way to run your workplace. Here are 5 ways in which we think DeskAway can help.

1. Pay as you go - Why not pay a smaller amount over a few months rather than a one time initial payment? This will be light on your pocket and will give you enough steam to get through the tough times. Better yet, try the free plan as long as you can and only upgrade when you need more horsepower.

2. Cut down on IT & other peripheral costs - Since there is nothing to download or install you can do it on your own. You can pretty much run your entire business with DeskAway and a couple of other online tools. We use DeskAway, iContact, Google Apps, WordPress etc. to run our business. This is the best time to get your non-technical people involved with web tools.

3. Free Upgrades - Paying for upgrades is expensive. With DeskAway, we upgrade our software once a month and its absolutely free. Wake up the next morning, login to your account and enjoy the new features instantly!

4. Less email clutter - Your team and you are as it is frustrated with cutting costs and the last thing you want to do is to manage your projects via old-school email. Wouldn’t you wish you had a system that would remind your team when things are due? Or even give you a consolidated view of your work progress daily?

5. Increase productivity & efficiency - When your team works in a systematic-manner, things get done as planned. More work gets done in less time. There is less confusion and everyone is happy. You have a smooth functioning workplace.

We would love to hear if DeskAway has helped you in any other way.

Imagine you are on a holiday, a much needed getaway from work and suddenly at 11 in the night you get a call from your manager, who is in the other part of the globe. He wants you to upload a business critical file, onto the company intranet for an important client presentation due in the next one hour!

You get to your laptop and try to access your company’s VPN. It is slow to connect and finally turns an “access is denied due to an unscheduled downtime!” There is no way you can upload the file, and you are unable to reach any other employee who may have access to the file.

You are in a remote location, and your vacation is screwed!

Now, imagine the same situation and consider that you were using an online collaboration tool: You save yours and the company’s valuable, billable time by simply accessing the Internet from your hotel. You would log in to the online collaboration Web site, and just send the sought-after file to your manager. Better yet, you ask him to access the section where files are shared on the online collaboration tool and get the file himself.

Wow! It just takes you 15 minutes to go back to your well deserved vacation mode!

Nowadays, online collaboration tools include features such as:

• professional email integration
• document management
• project management
• shared calendaring
• contact management

A highly cost-effective, online collaboration solution is a carefree alternative to the anxieties and costs inherent with supporting complex collaboration software.

During cost-cutting periods, online collaboration tools offer you the following advantages:

• They allow your employees, customers, and partners to share critical business information with one another from anywhere in the world at relatively lower prices.
• Apart from the one-time or annual payment for using the online collaboration tool, the only money you pay is for an Internet connection!
• Small- to medium-sized businesses benefit from hosted collaboration solutions because there’s no software to install and no servers to maintain, ever!
• The often easy-to-use, intuitive, and self-explanatory user interface of most online collaboration tools makes it faster to get acclimatized to. Your employees don’t need training to start using the online tool like you would require before you take a peek at MS SharePoint, MS VSS, and MS Project.

Online collaboration tools offer you big business collaboration at small business price. Mostly, you can access online collaboration tools for a low monthly fee. You just need to simply add new members as and when your business grows. You do not pay salaries for system administrators, maintenance engineers, and network administrators. You do not need an employee to lose his/ her critical productive hours updating/ arranging information in alternative project management software.

The online tools’ service providers provide you with quick setup and deployment models. They require no IT support. It works across any platform - PC or Mac. Plus, the service provider offers free support, training, and upgrades for life! You save more time and money than you can imagine.