Google Guides Program - Deploy Google Apps

Google Guides Program

Give Your Deployment an Edge Making the switch to a new communications platform is an important change for your organization, and you want your deployment to be as smooth as possible, with minimal disruption to productivity and daily operations. You know that some of your users are apprehensive about the change, and many will need help getting started, no matter how much documentation and training you provide beforehand. To ensure the best possible deployment experience for both your users and support staff, you need a solid support plan in place on “Day One.” As you create your plan, consider incorporating the "Google Guides program," our peer-to-peer support methodology. To run this program, you'll deploy Google Apps to only small, representative group of users before your larger rollout, and then provide them with extensive training and support on using the new services. As "newly minted" experts in Google Apps, these users will then serve as your first line of support as you roll out Google Apps to the rest of your organization. So how are you going to find these users and get them trained and ready to support your rollout? First, we provide an easy-to-customize email template you can use to recruit your Google Guides. As for the training, we provide several documentation and eLearning resources that will help your guides quickly get up to speed with Gmail and Calendar. In addition, if your organization qualifies, we'll send you free "Google Gear," including t-shirts that you can give to your guides to help identify them to your other users. (See details below.)	Why participate in the Google Guides program? Smoother deployment Reduced support load Better user experience Faster use adoption Free Google Gear (some restrictions apply)
A Win-Win for Your Users and IT Staff We believe that the Google Guides program is simply the best way to ensure a smooth rollout of your Google Apps services. Our experience tells us that users are typically more productive with their new services if they can get immediate, one-on-one help from their peers. Their peers understand their work flow and needs best and can therefore provide more targeted, efficient, and personal support. We've found that, with this program, user adoption is more rapid and seamless, and the support load on IT and Helpdesk staff is significantly reduced. That means your staff can focus on more pressing support issues, instead of repeatedly handling the same "How do I...?" questions. And the Google Guides benefit, too! Because they'll get extensive training and support with the new services, they'll be able to gain a high level of proficiency very quickly. For those who like to be "power users," this program is ideal. Plus, they'll get the opportunity to help their coworkers and demonstrate leadership within their teams.
How the Program Works: The Details You can start the following steps in the Google Guides program at any time during your deployment schedule, before your roll out the services to your entire organization. For example, if you are running a pilot before your production deployment, Google Guides can also serve as pilot users. We suggest you start planning your program as early as possible, to ensure you have enough time to recruit the guides and arrange their training. Step 1: Designate your training coordinator The first step is to designate your Google Apps training coordinator and provide the coordinator's contact information to your Google representative. This coordinator will ensure that your Google Guides are properly trained, by providing them with learning resources and possibly developing and delivering additional onsite training. As part of this step, we recommend enabling Google Sites so your training coordinator can create an internal documentation and training site for your organization. Google Sites is an ideal tool for this purpose, because you can easily incorporate the documentation templates and eLearning videos we provide, shared documents and spreadsheets, as well as useful gadgets, such as embedded calendars and announcements. Step 2: Recruit your Google Guides The next step is to identify users from across your organization to serve as Google Guides -- ideally one or two users from each group or team. We also highly recommend that you recruit a good representative sample of different “user types.” For example, it's a good idea to include: Administrative assistants, who typically need to use some advanced calendar features Mobile users, if some users will access Google Apps on their mobile devices Helpdesk personnel, if you don’t plan to give them accounts earlier in your deployment phases Employees at offices in other countries and who speak the local language Employees in different departments or business lines You might also consider recruiting employees who are not "power users" of your current messaging platform (as many sales persons tend to be) or who not as "technical" as, say, engineers or IT personnel. That way, you can more accurately gauge the level of support required for the entire organization. Also, when these employees become expert users, you can demonstrate to other employees how easy it is to master Google Apps! Whichever types of employees you choose to recruit, remember that the most effective Google Guides are those who are eager to participate, especially volunteers. Guides must take significant time away from their regular work schedules – to take the training, learn the services, and help their coworkers – so we recommend that you find guides who are committed to the program. We've found that a great way to line up your Google Guides quickly is to ask team managers or supervisors to recruit them for you, by either calling for volunteers or nominating participants. To help make this step easy, we've prepared a Google Guides recruiting email template, which you can quickly customize and send to managers and supervisors. It explains the benefits of the program and provides tips for selecting appropriate personnel on their teams to serve as guides. Step 3: Plan training for Google Guides After you gather your list of Google Guides, it's time to start planning their training. Your training coordinator can use the following Google resources to create an internal support site for Google Guides and optionally develop and deliver live training onsite: Documentation templates, which can be customized to meet your organization's needs eLearning videos, including very short videos focused on specific features and more comprehensive self-paced training Google Apps Help Center for users, which includes all the details about Google Apps services Also check out our Google Referred Training Partners, who can provide customized training solutions for your organization. Step 4: Deploy Google Apps to Google Guides Now it's time to switch over the Google Guides to their new services! To help prepare them for the change, you can use our customizable email and "quick start" templates. We recommend that you deploy the services to Google Guides after your initial evaluation phase by your IT department. Step 5: Train and support your Google Guides After your Google Guides receive their new Google Apps accounts, deliver training to the guides. Along with the training, provide the guides with a high level of support, to ensure there are no "roadblocks" to their becoming expert users. For example, some companies use the "buddy system," in which they pair up each Google Guide with an IT staff member. Working together, the guides and IT staff learn the "ins and outs" of Google Apps and prepare for the deployment launch. We recommend that you let your Google Guides use the services from 3 to 8 weeks to give them time to gain a high level of proficiency before you begin your larger deployment. Step 6: Gather feedback from your Google Guides Here's your opportunity to get early feedback about what your users find easy or difficult about their transition to Google Apps. You can leverage this information to improve your deployment process and fully prepare for the larger deployment.	Typical deployment rollout phases Roll out to IT department for evaluation Optional: Roll out to Helpdesk Roll out to Google Guides Roll out to entire organization Our recommendations: a summary Use Google Sites to create an internal support site for guides Recruit 1 or 2 Google Guides per team Ensure guides represent sample of "user types" in your organization Ensure guides want to particpate -- volunteers are ideal Send recruitment email to managers and supervisors, who can select appropriate pesonnel Provide "high-touch" support for guides as they learn the services Let guides use services for 3 to 8 weeks before your larger rollout
A Few Considerations... We hope you decide to participate in the Google Guides program, but here are a few things to consider you begin: This program requires some additional planning and coordination, to recruit and keep track of your Google Guides, schedule and coordinate their training, provide them with a high level of support during their transition, and gather feedback. Depending on your organization, you may need to recruit Google Guides in multiple time zones. Some of the Google Guides might need to drop out or find that they don't have much time to provide support because of other work commitments.
How to Get Google Gear for Your Deployment If you are deploying Google Apps Premier Edition to 1000 or more users, you might qualify to receive free Google Gear to support your deployment. All we ask in return is that you help us spread the word about Google Apps! For example, you can provide a testimonial about why your organization made the switch to Google Apps or let us create a short "documentary" video of your "deployment day." Or, you can choose another type of activity, such as a webinar, case study, and so on. We're flexible! Some things to remember... Free Google Gear is available only organizations that are deploying Google Apps Premier Edition to at least 1,000 users. You'll need to work with your Google Representative to choose an activity to help us spread the word about Google Apps. At this time, we can provide free Google Gear only to customers who purchased Google Apps Premier directly from Google. Please request your free items at least six weeks in advance of when you need them for your deployment.	Make Your Google Guides Stand Out! Ask your guides to wear Google t-shirts on deployment day, so users can find them more easily. Attach Google Guide signs outside your guides' offices or cubicles. We'eve prepared a few office/cubicle signs that you can download.

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