On May 17, SherpaTools became one of the first applications in the Google Apps Marketplace to receive the TRUSTed Apps Data Privacy Certification from TRUSTe, the industry’s leading internet privacy services provider. TRUSTe and Google have teamed up to make an annual privacy certification service available to the independent software vendors (ISVs) on the Google Apps Marketplace. Cloud Sherpas is very pleased to have participated in the pilot process and customers will now see the TRUSTe seal next to the SherpaTools entry in the Google Apps Marketplace.

TRUSTe certification guarantees that TRUSTe has reviewed all data management practices of Cloud Sherpas and SherpaTools and verified that they meet TRUSTe’s program standards. TRUSTe’s program standards are based upon a combination of privacy frameworks such as the US-EU Safe Harbor, regulatory guidelines such as the Fair Information Practice Principles, industry standards and reports, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology privacy and security report, and client and expert review. To learn more about the program, go to www.truste.com/google-apps.

Cloud Sherpas made a handful of improvements to SherpaTools to achieve this certification. Changes included a notification on the edit page for user profile indicating that any information provided would be visible to all domain users as well as a strengthening of our data deletion policy.

All of this just emphasizes Cloud Sherpas’ ongoing commitment to delivering the industry’s most effective, most powerful, and most widely-used Google Apps companion solution. We’ve had five really terrific updates in 2011 so far and it’s only mid-May. Stay tuned for more.

I’ve been in the Google Apps “world” now for six months. I’ve noticed something about my own behavior and wonder if other organizations are seeing it as well. Not only have I not touched an Outlook client for six months (a very good thing), but I’m also finding that I use fewer “things” than I did before.

I still take notes on lined paper because I find that the act of writing helps me remember things better. But I’m taking far fewer notes than before.

I don’t print things out as much as I did before. Oh, sure, there are some documents I just can’t edit online. But much of the smaller stuff is now handled without the death of a tree.

I go through fewer pens.

I know for a fact that I’m traveling much less than before.

I have to believe that, because we’re printing less, our printer supplies are lasting longer and that we’re using less electricity.

My question: Do others feel the same way? Are you seeing similar changes in your own behavior or in your organization?

One of the biggest comments we get from IT Administrators is this:

How do I let someone in my domain do something useful without having to make them a domain administrator?

SherpaTools has long had a delegation function that lets admins do just this. However (and this is true across the industry), it was always a case of “just enough to get by”. Existing delegation function did indeed deliver the letter of what was needed, but missed the spirit entirely.

Just this  morning, Cloud Sherpas released a new version of SherpaTools that delivers truly powerful (well, we think it’s truly powerful anyway) delegation functionality:

• Atomic permissions – Each possible function in SherpaTools that’s delegate-able can now be assigned individually without having to include unnecessary permissions in the mix. Need to give Frank down in Help Desk the ability to reset passwords only (but not anything else). Now you can.
• Constituents - Constituents are the users on whose behalf the delegates are acting. It’s really best explained by an example:

  Give Frank the ability to reset passwords for the sales team only.

  In this case, the sales team are Frank’s “constituents”. Frank can change their passwords, but nobody else’s. Powerful stuff for organizations who are trying to grant the minimum authority necessary.

These functions, coupled with our new access role wizard, make SherpaTools one of the most powerful Google Apps administrative tools on the market.

On Friday, February 11, 2011, shortly after midnight U.S. Eastern Time, Cloud Sherpas will put into production a new version of SherpaTools that strengthens its authentication and improves its security. This release will also improve how SherpaTools works with credentials. We wanted our existing customers to know about it in advance because it’s going to require at least one Domain Administrator to log into SherpaTools.

What is changing?

SherpaTools will now use an authentication method called Three-Legged OAuth (3LO). Previously, when SherpaTools was changing certain Google Domain data sets (e.g., provisioning a new user or updating group memberships), it would require the username and password of a Google Domain Administrator to make the changes. Now with 3LO, SherpaTools will use, instead, a unique and secure authentication token that is generated by Google and given to your SherpaTools instance specifically for this purpose. This is a much more secure way of accessing Google’s APIs. After 3LO is set up, your username and password will no longer be required and you will not need to worry about out-dated credentials again.

Why are we telling folks in advance?

We are informing our customers of this change because it requires a very small amount of set up on the part of at least one Google Domain Administrator in each domain. Those with delegated administrative access will also need to know what’s happening.

• If you’re a Google Domain Administrator, you will need to log into SherpaTools and grant SherpaTools access to Google’s API Services. The process will initiate automatically when you log in and will take about 15 seconds. You only need to do this once. After that, the product will no longer require you to enter your username and password. You will need to do this regardless of which version of SherpaTools you’re using – Free or Premium.

• If you’re not a Google Domain Administrator, but have been delegated some level of administrative access within SherpaTools (Premium version only), then any function requiring a PIN will no longer work after the update until a Domain Administrator logs in and grants SherpaTools access to Google’s API Services. Please contact your Google Domain Administrator(s) and ask them to log in and grant access as soon as possible after the update so that your access is not interrupted.

The bottom line: For your domain, it’s important that a Domain Administrator log into SherpaTools and grant SherpaTools the necessary level of access to Google’s API Services as soon as possible after Friday morning’s update.

If you’d like more information, we have a detailed FAQ on our SherpaTools Knowledge Base. We’ll send out a reminder on Friday morning so you don’t forget to log in. Thank you again for making SherpaTools the #1 Companion App for Google Apps.

Google Apps add-on surpasses 1.1 million user mark, now installed on over 6,200 domains in more than 80 countries. Could SherpaTools improve your Google Apps experience?

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).

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 Marketplaceâ„¢, launched this evening.

As revealed by Google, the Marketplace is an online storefront for Google Appsâ„¢ 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 was featured today on the Google Apps developer blog! We shared our experience building SherpaTools 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!

Thank you to all of our beta testers who have provided invaluable feedback over the last few months as we’ve been building SherpaTools. Today Cloud Sherpas is pleased to announce that we’re opening the beta program to all Google Apps Premier, Education and Partner edition domains. There’s no longer a need to sign up and wait for your invitation — if you have a Google Apps administrator account, you can log in right now!

Browse to the SherpaTools Knowledge Base if you have any questions.

We’re excited to have more of you checking out our app. Thanks for your support, and as always, we welcome your feedback. Enjoy!