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Making the Switch
Why should I switch my business to InstaOffice powered by Google Apps?
Businesses are looking for a reliable, cost-effective and secure messaging and collaboration solution that
supports their business. They recognise that communications and collaboration are critical for their growth,
but are not strategic in nature. If you find yourself identifying with the challenges below, then you should
consider InstaOffice powered by Google Apps solution for your business.
Business Challenges
• Cost and resource-draining IT challenges, such as unreliable servers, setup and maintenance expenses,
and operating a multi-OS environment
• Limited mailbox sizes
• Virus attacks, spam and phishing
• Compliance to internal and external policies
• Consumption of disk space
• Inefficient sharing and collaboration
• Dramatically lowers the total cost of ownership. No hidden maintenance or upgrade expenses.
• Boost employee productivity with 25GB of storage per user — your employees can focus on their work rather than
on their email quota.
• Lean on our 99.9% service-level agreement for email to make sure your business is up-and-running.
• Share information, don’t send it. Real-time document editing cuts down the hassle of sending email attachments
and version confusion.
• You’re actually safer. Increase security with InstaOffice powered by Google Apps. Since the data is hosted on reliable and
redundant data centres adhering to global security norms, you can stop saving your corporate data on insecure devices,
a leading cause of data security problems.
• Improve control over what comes in, and what goes out of your company, with InstaOffice’s message security
and administrative management controls.
• Access anywhere, anytime you have an Internet connection — whether on your mobile device or PC in a
multi-OS environment.
• Communication:
• Email
• Calendar
• Groups
• IM – Text, voice, video
• Collaboration:
• Docs – Word processing
• Docs – Presentations
• Docs – Spreadsheet
• Sites – Intranet, Extranet, Internet site
• Video
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How does InstaOffice powered by Google Apps work?
InstaOffice is a web-based hosted solution, which means you can access InstaOffice anytime, anywhere you have
an Internet connection. You might hear this type of technology referred to as “Software-as-a-Service” (SaaS)
or “cloud computing”. “Software-as-a-Service” or “Cloud computing” is a computing model where IT
applications are provided “as a service”, allowing users to access these applications from the Internet
(“in the cloud”) without having to maintain the infrastructure that supports them. A simple way to understand
this model is how people allow energy companies to run and manage their electricity rather than generating it
within their home or office themselves.
With InstaOffice, your data and the applications are served from highly secure, scalable and reliable data centres.
Your business is able to offload the infrastructure costs and the effort it takes to maintain an on-premises
solution, and focus those savings on more strategic IT initiatives. And, since InstaOffice is web-based, your
employees can be productive from anywhere: at their own desk, at a different computer or on-the-go with
a mobile device.
Cloud Computing/
Current Server Environments Software-as-a-Service
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Why should I use InstaOffice powered by Google Apps instead of
an on-premise mail solution like Microsoft® Exchange?
Google launched Google Apps in February 2007, and has seen an incredible rate of market adoption, with more than two
million businesses using it currently, with 3,000 businesses being added per day. Customers continue to find that InstaOffice
powered by Google Apps is a great alternative of a hosted solution to other alternate on-premise solutions, such as
Microsoft Exchange. Here are some of their reasons why:
• Lower cost: InstaOffice is delivered to your business over the Web at a fraction of the cost of installed systems. This means that
InstaOffice can provide a significantly lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Mailbox redundancy, infrastructure upgrades and
infrastructure scaling are all taken care of, so your business doesn’t need to budget time and money for these projects.
• Higher quality: InstaOffice offers superior security, reliability and storage space than most organisations can accomplish with
an on-premise solution.
• Improved usability: InstaOffice provides the simple, intuitive interface so that there’s minimal training resources involved for end-users.
• Leader in Innovation: InstaOffice is built on the Google Apps platform, with Google continuing to demonstrate its industry leadership in
terms of web-based innovation. Driving this platform forward, we have the leading computing platform and have assembled one of the
strongest teams of computer scientists in the industry. As an InstaOffice customer you get to experience that innovation first-hand as
product enhancements are rolled out on a regular basis.
Are there any standard migration tools available from MS Exchange environment?
To help your business make the switch to InstaOffice easier, we’ve enabled a smooth IMAP migration from other platforms to
InstaOffice; this allows administrators to migrate a handful or a few thousand user mailboxes from an existing mail system to
corresponding InstaOffice mail accounts. We currently support migration from Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Cyrus IMAP
Server, Courier-IMAP and Dovecot via the IMAP protocol. IMAP migration is only available in the Premier Edition.
How is InstaOffice powered by Google Apps different from a free user@Email.com account?
Our InstaOffice powered by Google Apps solution for businesses is a packaged product of Google’s best messaging and
collaboration applications, among which include Email, Groups, Chat, Calendar, Docs, Sites and Video. You may have had
experience using many of these applications with your user@Email.com account, and while these applications are similar, we
have enhanced them in InstaOffice powered by Google Apps Premier Edition, with these critical differences:
• Increased Access Controls: Puts your company in control of how your information is shared and communicated outside
of your domain.
• Email: Saves all your corporate information with improved mailing list capabilities, and increased mail thresholds.
• Sites: Understanding that a company Intranet and shared documentation is so critical to success, optimised to provide
you with the right storage quotas to address your business needs.
• Calendar: Enables conference room and resource sharing, allowing you to schedule office conference rooms or other
shared resources in your office.
• Video: Share internal videos with your company quickly, without the complex overhead of many other systems.
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As such, we take the privacy and security of our InstaOffice customer data very seriously. The products are designed with
security considerations upfront, not as afterthoughts, and the security team is comprised of some of the world’s leading
experts in information, application and network security. Each single piece of data is replicated in multiple data centres,
so your InstaOffice email is replicated to a primary and a backup data centre, in real-time. This process undergoes regular
security reviews by third parties and SAS 70 audits by an independent auditor.
Also keep in mind the following:
• Tata Commuincations provides multiple interfaces for InstaOffice customers to have responses provided to their users’ queries.
• Tata Communications trains the customer administrator to respond to standard queries that their users may have.
• If the customer administrator has a query that they need a response to, they can reach Tata Communications via:
• Phone: 1 800 209 8765
• Email: mysolutions@tatacommunications.com
• The standard process to be followed is described in the Welcome Kit provided by Tata Communications.
I have high employee turnover, so do I need to pay for a new account every
time an employee leaves?
Not at all. You request a total number of users at a domain and then you can delete and create accounts to stay within that
user account limit. This is useful for companies with high employee turnover rates (such as interns and temps) as you will
not have to purchase additional accounts to replace these users. With the old employee’s data, the data will be purged when
the account is deleted. You can also migrate the data away from the server. Keep in mind that you can’t change the account’s
username, however you can add nicknames to handle the change of employees.
How-To information
I want to sign up for InstaOffice powered by Google Apps with my own domain name. Is this possible? Absolutely. If you
already have a company domain name, or need to create a new one, InstaOffice can meet your needs. Each user at your
domain will get a InstaOffice account branded with your own domain name. Email addresses take the format “username@
yourdomain.com”.
• Test InstaOffice while running their existing mail solution as an interim transitional step between a on-premises
email solution and a full hosted email solution.
• Use InstaOffice as a back up to their on-premise solution, such as Exchange.
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Both scenarios are definitely possible with InstaOffice which generally provides the flexibility to do whatever you need to
do with your email — it’s just a question of how much configuration you have to do on your end for your specific business
needs. Once everything is in place, and incoming/outgoing email is being captured in InstaOffice, you will be able to move
over seamlessly to InstaOffice should the need arise. We think that, as you get comfortable with the cost, reliability and
convenience of the InstaOffice offering, you and your users will be able to transition over to InstaOffice as a complete solution.
You can either:
• Route your domain’s mail with an MX record change directly to InstaOffice, and have it delivered to InstaOffice mailboxes,
and then passed onto your existing server.
• Set up an intermediary mail gateway that can dual-deliver mail to both InstaOffice and your existing mail server.
This should ensure that incoming mail is available in both systems.
For outbound mail, you will have to set up your existing mail system to send your domain’s mail through InstaOffice.
There is also a directory sync tool via a Single-Sign-On (SSO) API so that your business’ active directory integrates
seamlessly alongside InstaOffice. InstaOffice Single Sign-on API lets you:
• Integrate your own authentication or LDAP system with InstaOffice and securely log in your users to InstaOffice based on your
own security standards.
• Integrate with leading web single Sign-On-Systems, or facilitate authentication via Active Directory or other directory servers.
• Integrate InstaOffice with websites that have their own username and authentication mechanisms, eliminating the need for
users to log in multiple times.
If you are interested in deploying InstaOffice, but require SSO or LDAP integration, we recommend one of two solutions:
• You can use the SSO API to sync users’ names and passwords when a user sets them on your system. While this will not
keep your users’ passwords exactly in sync, it does allow our system to have the same password as your SSO. This also
allows for increased access to our system beyond the web interface.
• InstaOffice’s SAML 2.0-based SSO integration allows you to hold all your users’ accounts and passwords without the need
for InstaOffice to hold any user passwords.
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My company has multiple domains. How is this handled with InstaOffice?
It is very easy to have multiple domain names use a single InstaOffice powered by Google Apps account where you own
all of the domains. There are two ways for one organisation to use multiple domain names: with multiple domains or with
multiple domain aliases. The name of a user’s domain appears after the @ symbol in his or her email address. By adding
a domain alias, you give every user in your domain a second email address (with the alias after the @).
For example, if your domain is solarmora.com and you add solarmora.net as a domain alias, every user@solarmora.com
will also receive mail addressed to user@solarmora.net. When you want two names that refer to two distinct ranges of
users, you want two separate domains. When you associate multiple separate domains with your InstaOffice account, you
have more flexibility in how you assign usernames.
The same username can refer to different users in different domains; for example, mary@subsidiaryA.com and mary@
subsidiaryB.com can be different users. With a domain alias, the same username in both domains must refer to the same
user. There is no charge for adding domains or domain aliases; you pay for the total number of distinct user accounts
regardless of how many different domains they belong to.
I have multiple companies with different domain names. Can I manage InstaOffice for
them from one administrative account?
Yes. InstaOffice customers can associate up to 600 Internet domains with their InstaOffice accounts, as long as they
own the domain names. Each domain remains an independent entity, but InstaOffice recognizes that the domains are
part of a single organisation. For example, each domain has its own set of user accounts, but users can share calendars
or documents with users in any domain that is part of the organisation. Email treats mail between users in different
domains as if it were intradomain traffic. You manage all of the domains using the same InstaOffice administrator control
panel.
I have to send out a lot of emails on a daily basis. Does InstaOffice have a sending limit?
Each account can currently send emails to 2,000 external recipients per day to prevent abuse of our system, and to help
fight spam. If one of your mail accounts reaches the limit, the account will be unable to send email for 24 hours.
• 500 mails per day (i.e., user can hit “Send” a maximum of 500 times)
• 500 unique recipients
• 2,000 total emails (for example, you could send one mail to a group of 500 people four times)
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Does InstaOffice work with BlackBerry devices, the iPhone, and other mobile phones?
InstaOffice is accessible from a variety of mobile phones, including BlackBerry devices, the iPhone, Windows
Mobile and many less powerful mobile phones. We offer multiple syncing capabilities so that you can access your
InstaOffice account when you’re on the go.
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Why choose Tata Communications’
Tata Communications and Google have formed a strategic relationship to offer InstaOffice
suite, to businesses in India. InstaOffice enables significant cost savings and increased
Google Apps has already been adopted by over two million businesses globally. As part of its
Global Network and Managed Services portfolio, Tata Communications provides customers
Tata Communications owns and manages one of the most advanced and largest submarine
cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400
PoPs, and nearly one million square feet of data center and colocation space.
Key Benefits
applications like email, chat, calendars, documents and presentations — anytime, anywhere.
• Use any computer or mobile device that’s connected to the Internet, regardless of operating
• No CAPEX solution that doesn’t require hardware or software and needs minimal administration,
• Enhances business productivity with 99.9% uptime guarantee, enabling less concern
• Protects data and storage with highest level of security, and adheres to compliance policies
• Meets technical, branding and business requirements with full administrative and
• Easy-to-operate and integrates with existing systems, with added benefit of 24x7 customer
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India North America Europe
Tata Communications Tata Communications Tata Communications
LVSB Kashinath Dhuru Marg 2355 Dulles Corner Blvd Exchange Tower, Suite 7.03
Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400 028 7th floor 2 Harbour Exchange Square
Tel +91 22 6657 8765 Herndon, VA 20171, USA London, E14 9GE, England
Fax +91 22 6639 5162 Tel +1 703 547 5900 Tel +44 20 7519 4610
Fax +1 703 547 6555 Fax +44 20 7519 4609
Asia
Tata Communications Tata Communications Tata Communications
5 Shenton Way 90 Matawan Rd – 3rd Floor 131 Avenue Charles de Gaulle
#34 – 10 UIC Building Matawan, NJ 07747, USA 92200 Neuilly sur Seine
Singapore 068808 Tel +1 732 888 6700 France
Tel +65 6551 3600 Fax +1 732 888 6809 Tel +33 1 41 43 4200
Fax +65 6423 0315
Fax +33 1 41 43 4200
Tata Communications
Tata Communications
2402 Bank of America Tower 1555 Rue Carrie-Derick Tata Communications
12 Harcourt Road Montréal, Québec Avenida de Europa 4, Bajo A
Central, Hong Kong Canada, H3C 6W2 Parque Empresarial “La Moraleja”
Tel +852 3693 8888 Tel +1 514 868 7272 28108 Alcobendas
Fax +852 3690 2022 Fax +1 514 868 7234 Madrid, Spain
Tel +34 916 57 48 90
Australia Middle East & North Africa Fax +34 916 62 06 79
Tata Communications Tata Communications
King Street Wharf Hamdan Street, City Center Building Tata Communications
Suite 503, 35 Lime Street Block – A, 2nd Floor, Office # 204 Bettinastrasse 30
Sydney NSW 2000, Australia P.O. Box 41660 D-60325 Frankfurt am Main
Tel +61 2 9299 2014 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Germany
Fax +61 2 9299 2019 Tel +971 2 626 6223 Tel +49 69 97461 123
Fax +971 2 627 2624 Fax +49 69 97461 149