Hapara gets takers for Google Apps

Wellington firm Hapara is gearing up to launch a software tool for firms using Google Apps, after notching up a string of customers for the web giant's online office software suite.

Hapara chief executive Jan Zawadzki says it has resold Google Apps software to 20 New Zealand firms and organisations, including The Fred Hollows Foundation.

The foundation, which provides eyecare in developing countries, is using Google's email and messaging software to communicate with staff spread throughout Southeast Asia, including remote locations in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

"We've also built them some very simple ordering tools that allow some of the remote clinics to place orders for equipment and things like that."

Auckland polytechnic Unitec uses almost all the Google applications available, including mail, Google Talk – Google's instant messaging and video-conferencing software – and collaboration software, such as Google Docs, he says.

Other customers include Deer Industries New Zealand and communications firm Base Two, which are using Google's email, calendar and contacts software.

Hapara, previously named Cloudbreak, has developed a tool for businesses that lets it synchronise its existing password systems with Google Apps software.

"You don't have to get a new user name and password. It's a situation we've run into in almost every implementation we've done. It's a very common problem and we've found a way of addressing it that's quite robust."

The Access Manager tool is currently being used by seven New Zealand firms and organisations to manage the log-ins of about 46,000 users and will debut in the Google Apps marketplace in the next few weeks, Mr Zawadzki says.

Several large organisations in North and Central America and Europe have also expressed interest in it.

Large corporates are converting to Google, including Motorola and Minolta. "We're now talking global deployment, and that's not in the thousands, but in the tens of thousands of users, and that's when tools like ours become a must-have."

The firm has a "pipeline" of products in development that will make it easier for large businesses to manage Google Apps tools, he says.

Hapara claims Google Apps software can save a lot of money. A cost-of-ownership analysis Hapara recently conducted for a 350-person firm in New Zealand revealed it could save $613,000 over five years by switching to Google's business software, he says.

Hapara has about eight staff, taking on extra workers when needed.

It expects to employ 30 people in two years' time.

Unlike Gmail, Google's enterprise email software lets businesses put their own domain name in email addresses, is supported by Google under a service level agreement, and users' mail boxes have 35 gigabytes of capacity – much larger than Gmail's standard 7Gb.

- © Fairfax NZ News