Cloud Sherpas Protects, Preserves Enterprise Data with Enhanced Google Apps Admin Product

3,000 IT Pros (Serving 300,000 Workers) Now Using SherpaTools Application as Google Apps Presence Grows in Enterprise Market

ATLANTA, GA – May 11, 2010 – Cloud Sherpas, a leading Google Apps Solution Provider, today announced an upcoming premium feature set of its SherpaTools application for Google Apps admins. One of the “Original 50” apps in the Google Apps Marketplace, SherpaTools extends the IT management capabilities within Google Apps. While in beta, SherpaTools has remained free for all Google Apps domains. The company will continue to offer a free version of the product, and will soon introduce a paid version as well. However, companies that buy their Google Apps licenses directly from Cloud Sherpas will continue to receive the premium features at no cost.

The new, premium features in SherpaTools help enterprises protect and preserve end user data. Google Apps admins can now delegate access to fellow IT staff, such as help desk workers, without providing the company’s master username and password credentials. Using a dedicated pin number, a help desk worker can reset an end user’s password, for example, but he or she would not have access to a broader spectrum of employee data. The Access Control List feature is a significant addition to SherpaTools. Particularly for larger companies, limiting access to employee data is a critical security measure.

An equally valuable new, premium feature in SherpaTools involves the ability to quickly and easily preserve the data assets of terminated employees. In general with Google Apps, all of an employee’s data assets (spreadsheets, presentations, emails, etc.) are deleted once he or she is removed from the system. Admins get around the issue by suspending rather than deleting a user from the system. The admin then goes into the employee’s account and manually removes/archives/reassigns the data files they want to keep. This is time-consuming and highly discretionary process, leaving companies exposed to the loss of potentially valuable data. With SherpaTools, IT admins can automatically delegate all of a terminated employee’s files to his or her manager or another user in the system. This saves time and helps to ensure that important data is not lost.

Since launching in March, approximately 2,100 businesses have signed up to use SherpaTools. These companies serve nearly 300,000 workers. Among the 2,100 businesses, over 250 have at least 100 workers; 50 have over 1,000 workers; three have more than 10,000 employees; and two have upwards of 30,000 employees. Many of these are global deployments.

“SherpaTools success is consistent with the rise of Google Apps in the enterprise,” said Michael Cohn, founder and VP of Marketing and Product Management at Cloud Sherpas. “Large, global businesses realize the significant cost and performance benefits associated with Google Apps. Likewise, they want more IT admin functionality. That’s where SherpaTools comes in. We’re 100% focused on making life easier for Google Apps admins. We think SherpaTools is a great fit for the largest companies and busiest IT pros.”

Google Apps brings simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools to organizations, but sophisticated IT departments need more management functionality than Google offers “out of the box.” SherpaTools addresses this need by providing Google Apps administrators with more flexibility in the way they manage end-user profiles and settings, shared contacts and groups.

Using SherpaTools is easy. Google Apps administrators can easily add SherpaTools to their domain through the Google Apps Marketplace (http://bit.ly/SherpaTools). Since SherpaTools relies on Google Apps as the OpenID identity provider, users don’t need to create an account or remember a new password – they simply log in with their existing Google Apps credentials.

SherpaTools is the only cloud-based application to extend Google Apps’ IT management capabilities. The application works with Premier, Education and Partner editions of Google Apps. For companies licensing Google Apps from Google rather than Cloud Sherpas, there is a fee to use SherpaTools’ Premium edition. The cost is based on the size of the organization.

About Cloud Sherpas
Cloud Sherpas (www.cloudsherpas.com) is a cloud computing systems integrator and application developer. As a Google Apps Authorized Reseller and leading Google Enterprise partner, we have migrated hundreds of thousands of users from legacy, on- premise messaging systems to Google Apps and Google App Engine, helping organizations adopt cloud computing to innovate and dramatically reduce their IT expenses. SherpaTools for Google Apps (www.sherpatools.com) enhances the functionality and ease-of-use of Google Apps for both administrators and end-users and is available in the Google Apps Marketplace (http://bit.ly/SherpaTools).

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Cloud Sherpas Appoints New CEO to Lead Next Phase of Company Growth

Leading Google Apps Solutions Provider Also Secures Series A Financing, Accelerating Company Plans to Migrate Enterprises to Google Apps Platform

ATLANTA, GA – May 3, 2010 – Cloud Sherpas, a leading Google Apps solutions provider, today announced the appointment of Jon Hallett to Chief Executive Officer. Hallett takes over for founder Michael Cohn, under whose leadership Cloud Sherpas achieved profitability. Cohn remains with Cloud Sherpas as Vice President of Marketing and Product Management. Cohn was responsible for focusing Cloud Sherpas on Google Apps before a formal reseller program existed. In two years he and his team helped hundreds of thousands of enterprise employees move to Google Apps by selling the licenses, migrating users and enhancing the usability of Google Apps through Cloud Sherpas’ SherpaTools product.

Hallett steps in to accelerate Google Apps enterprise adoption and to help Cloud Sherpas’ achieve its growth targets. He brings a background in IT services and on- demand infrastructure, and extensive experience raising capital and scaling businesses. Hallett will focus on increasing revenue, profit margin and customer orientation, while extending Cloud Sherpas’ leadership position in the Google Apps channel market.

In related news, Cloud Sherpas completed a Series A financing round. The funding event, to which investors oversubscribed, netted Cloud Sherpas around $1 million. Hallett’s personal investment vehicle Hallett Capital was the lead investor. Hallett’s appointment occurs at a time of remarkable growth for Cloud Sherpas. Over 1,800 organizations representing more than 500,000 employees now use Cloud Sherpas’ products and services. Customers span every geographic region and vertical market including manufacturing, retail, state and local government, real estate, healthcare and technology. Underscoring the company’s commitment to customers, 100% of clients renewed their Google Apps license at the time of their annual renewal date.

Cloud Sherpas’ success mirrors that of Google Apps. The platform, which brings simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools to organizations, is used by over two million businesses as a substitute for products from Microsoft, IBM and others.

Hallett is a technology industry veteran who founded or led multiple successful consulting, SaaS and managed services companies. Prior to Cloud Sherpas, Hallett was Executive Chairman at Northridge Systems, a provider of collaboration solutions to large and midmarket enterprises, where he helped architect a company strategy that led to market-leading growth and profitability; he remains chairman of the board. Previously, Hallett was an independent board member and CEO advisor at Vocalocity, a fast- growing VOIP-centric SaaS company; he continues to serve as an independent director. Hallett also was a company director and turnaround executive at IT solutions firm mindSHIFT Technologies, where he helped drive 400% improvement in revenue while taking the company to positive cash flow. Earlier he held executive management positions at AppNet (acquired by CommerceOne) and was CEO at NMP, a consulting, SaaS and managed services company, at which he returned over 20x invested capital to his institutional investors.

“We have aggressive plans to expand our national footprint and help more companies realize the cost and productivity benefits of Google Apps,” said Hallett. “The additional capital allows us to accelerate these plans, including continued development of SherpaTools and other vertically oriented products so companies can more fully leverage Google Apps. The market opportunity couldn’t be more exciting as we are seeing some of the largest GroupWise, Notes and Exchange loyalists abandoning their on-premise solutions for the cost and feature benefits that Google Apps provides. I look forward to helping them take advantage of the platform, and to leading Cloud Sherpas in its next phase of development.”

About Cloud Sherpas

Cloud Sherpas (www.cloudsherpas.com) is a cloud computing systems integrator and application developer. As a Google Apps Authorized Reseller and leading Google Enterprise partner, we have migrated hundreds of thousands of users from legacy, on- premise messaging systems to Google Apps and Google App Engine, helping organizations adopt cloud computing to innovate and dramatically reduce their IT expenses. SherpaTools for Google Apps (www.sherpatools.com) enhances the functionality and ease-of-use of Google Apps for both administrators and end-users and is available in the Google Apps Marketplace (http://bit.ly/SherpaTools).

OffiSync 2.0 Ships Today

Cloud Sherpas is eager to announce the next major release of OffiSync! A longtime Cloud Sherpas partner, OffiSync 2.0 boasts a one-of-a-kind Microsoft Office to Google Apps extension tool that enhances Office with the cloud collaboration capacities of Google Apps. We proudly affirm that this is a must-have for all organizations on Google Apps that still use Office for various or specific purposes. If you’ve already heard about OffiSync and/or you’re looking to download, the newest version was released this afternoon and is available for download here.

The most significant upgrade from the previous version of OffiSync is the new, real-time co-authoring feature. Every time a collaborator saves his document in Word, you can see the change in your Word document in real time as well.

Other new/improved features include:

• Support for any file type: OffiSync now supports Docs’ ability to store files of any type. What this means for Office users is that you can chose to store your Office documents in their native format without “converting” them to Google Docs format. This is ideal for preserving some of the advanced formatting that Docs doesn’t support.
• Improved Google Sites Support: OffiSync automatically detects all the Google Sites you have access to and lets you edit those files. You can even create new Google Sites from within Office.
• OffiSync Task Pane: A sidebar panel for Office that shows collaborators, recent documents, documents starred in Google Docs, recently shared documents and more.
• Improved Integrated Search: The new version includes improved integrated Google Search/Google Image Search functionality, available from the toolbar.

For those of you seeking a more detailed explanation for how OffiSync actually works, their demo video is really helpful, and we’ve made it available here. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the key functionality points for you.

As before, OffiSync users will see in their Microsoft Word, Excel, or Powerpoint toolbars an additional tab for OffiSync. From this toolbar within Office, you can browse your Google Docs and even your Google Sites. And much like in Gmail, within your OffiSync browser, you have an integrated search bar that filters through your files stored in the Google cloud, and you can then open them within Office.

Conversely, OffiSync’s integrated “Save As” button allows you to save files from Office into Google Apps. Users can even create a folder for Google Docs from their OffiSync toolbar in Office. Furthermore, from Office you can then add collaborators who will be able to access the file via Google Apps.

Lastly, when you save a new file in Office with the intent of putting it in Google Apps, you can specify whether or not you want to preserve Office’s formatting instead of allowing Google Apps to convert it into a Google Doc, Spreadsheet, etc. So now there is no fear of losing formatting or more complex functions, such as Macros or Iterations, when you upload any file into Google Apps.

This release of OffiSync is especially timely considering the significant updates that Google has made to Docs. This feature is especially timely now, considering Google’s new updates to Docs that, among other improvements, include higher fidelity document imports and increased speed and responsiveness.

With OffiSync 2.0, users can experience a seamless increase in collaboration and productivity between Microsoft Office and Google Apps. It truly integrates two environments into one, and you can see for yourself by downloading the new, free version today!

SherpaTools Now Available in the Google Apps Marketplace

We’re excited to announce that SherpaTools for Google Apps, the new IT management application from Cloud Sherpas, has been added to the Google Apps Marketplace™, launched this evening.

As revealed by Google, the Marketplace is an online storefront for Google Apps™ products and services. Over two million Google Apps users can now easily discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications, including SherpaTools.

For Cloud Sherpas, the Marketplace is a great way to reach customers. As an original member of the Google Apps reseller program, we can tell you that IT managers and business users absolutely love the communication and collaboration capabilities provided by Google Apps. We’ve migrated tens of thousands of users to Google Apps and the community is very hungry for products that extend the platform’s rich tool set.

SherpaTools is a terrific example. The application provides IT managers and business users with previously unavailable admin and corporate directory functionality. Thus far the response has been tremendously positive. It doesn’t hurt that SherpaTools is the only 100% free, cloud-based IT management add-on to Google Apps.

For Cloud Sherpas, this is just the beginning. As more companies embrace the cloud, Google Apps will grow in popularity, and products like SherpaTools will ride the wave. For now we’re pleased to be joining “a rich ecosystem of integrated apps that work seamlessly with Google Apps,” as noted by Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead for Google Enterprise. We look forward to helping more companies realize the productivity and cost-savings associated with the use of the Google Apps Marketplace.

Cloud Sherpas Featured on Google Apps Developer Blog

Cloud Sherpas was featured today on the Google Apps developer blog! We shared our experience building SherpaTools for Google Apps on the Google platform and detailed our use of Google Apps APIs, Google App Engine, Google Web Toolkit, and other Google technologies. Check it out — read “Building Applications on top of Google Apps.” Hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting together the technical details.

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