2007 Google Apps Case Study: Abraham Harrison manages a successful virtual business using Google Apps Premier Edition
| filed under: Abraham Harrison, Google, Virtual Company, Chris Abraham, Case Study, Mark Harrison, Google Apps
I was doing some searches on Google about Abraham Harrison, my first digital PR agency, and found this amazing old gem from 2007. AH was an earliest adopter of Google Apps and Google wrote a case study about the agency. I was living in Berlin at the time.
Capture of Case Study
Business
To many traditional PR, ad and marketing agencies, the Internet is just another medium, but to Abraham Harrison, it’s another culture – one that calls for a completely new approach to marketing. Abraham Harrison specializes in everything from blogger outreach to influencer identification, brand protection and social media consulting for clients like Friendster, Deutsche Telekom, and T. Rowe Price. “Ten percent of the people in the world influence the other 90 percent in terms of purchases and other decisions. What many companies do not realize is that the people who are tipping the scales are increasingly the world’s online denizens, and they may not have fancy titles,” explains CEO Mark Harrison.
Approach
When it comes to running its own business, Abraham Harrison remains true to its Internetcentric roots. Besides the two founders, the team consists of 14 contractors spread across the United States, Europe, India, and Africa, who often change location for extended periods.
Solution
Whether they’re vacationing in the Alps or living on the island of Mauritius, Abraham Harrison employees stay in touch and collaborate using Google Apps Premier Edition. “I plan to move from Washington D.C. to Berlin for a while, but it really doesn’t matter because of our virtual work environment based on Google Apps,” says president and COO Chris Abraham. “Google Apps gives us a structured, integrated way to stay connected and collaborate.”
“The integration and functionality of Google Apps just keeps getting better. For instance, I’m always amazed when someone sends me an email from Microsoft Outlook or another application and it gets inserted as an event on my Google Calendar.”
Abraham initially made the decision to use Google Apps based on Gmail’s spam protection, generous storage quotas, and usability. Although Gmail was the initial attraction, the Abraham Harrison team quickly embraced Google Apps as an integrated communication and collaboration system. The company uses Docs & Spreadsheets to help staff track hours as well as create and collaborate on strategy documents and other client materials. Google Calendar allows everyone to work flexible hours while still staying coordinated, despite being spread across ten time zones. Using Google Talk, employees exchange insights during conference calls, much like passing notes across a table to share ideas. And Gmail benefits that the company hadn’t expected are becoming apparent; for example, Abraham Harrison is often brought in to work on accounts under the auspices of larger marketing, PR or ad firms, and Google Apps makes it easy and automatic for the firm to send out perfectly branded email addresses ([email protected]).
“The integration and functionality of Google Apps just keeps getting better,” says Abraham. “For instance, I’m always amazed when someone sends me an email from Microsoft Outlook or another application and it gets inserted as an event on my Google Calendar.” Several employees also access Google Apps not just on their PCs, but also from mobile phones and other devices like the BlackBerry. “I can be out hiking in the Alps, and still stay in touch on the work front,” says Harrison.
Results
For Abraham Harrison, Google Apps Premier Edition has raised staff productivity to a new level. Using Google Apps communication and collaboration tools, the firm’s team of relationship marketing experts can work together from around the world to produce results for clients. “Google Apps are beautifully designed, and have definitely been a factor in our rapid expansion,” says Harrison. “We’re big Google fans, and look forward to even bigger and better enhancements to Google Apps.”
“Google Apps are beautifully designed, and have definitely been a factor in our rapid expansion.” --Mark Harrison, CEO
About Google Apps
Google Apps is a suite of applications that includes Gmail, Google Calendar (shared calendaring), Google Talk (instant messaging and voice over IP), Google Docs & Spreadsheets (online document hosting and collaboration), Google Page Creator (web page creation and publishing) and Start Page (a single, customizable access point for all applications). Google Apps offers editions tailored to specific customer needs, including the Standard Edition (ideal for family domains), Education Edition (K-12 schools, colleges, and universities) and Premier Edition (businesses of all sizes). Visit www.google.com/a for more information.
© Copyright 2007. Google is a trademark of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
