Feature
SherpaTools
Cloud Sherpas' modules for Google Apps come in a neat little package called SherpaTools. Presently, the kit consists of:
- Directory Manager: The premier module in Sherpa Tools for Google Apps, Directory Manager allows admins to manage User Profiles and Shared Contacts (phone numbers, job titles, birthdays, etc.) Directory Manager also allows users to import and export data in bulk from a Google Docs spreadsheet.
- Directory Bot: Forget your address book, Directory Bot is like your own automated assistant. As a resident in Directory Manager, the Google Talk IM agent can respond to questions such as, "Who is John Smith?" with a complete record from your corporate directory.
- Compliance & Reporting: On the coming-soon side of things, this tool will reportedly provide Google Apps admins with scheduled reports and alerts to meet regulatory and standards obligations. Such reports will identify accounts that have not actively logged in, accounts that are approaching storage quotas, and suspended accounts.
- Backup/Restore: This one is also in the pipeline, and will work to manage the data that Google provides users access to. SherpaTools will reportedly back up data to third party cloud storage providers.
Here's the gist in video form:
“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.”
Extended Data Protection
Google Apps admins can also utilize SherpaTools' new Access Control List feature to delegate access to fellow IT staff without providing the company’s master username and password. Meanwhile, a premium feature within SherpaTools preserves the data assets of terminated employees.
"In general with Google Apps, all of an employee’s data assets are deleted once he or she is removed from the system," said Michael Cohn, founder of Cloud Sherpas. "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."
In order to squash this potentially dangerous predicament, SherpaTools enables IT admins to hand over all of a terminated employee’s files to his or her manager or another user in the system.
Ready for SherpaTools?
SherpaTools is a cloud-based solution that works with Premier, Education and Partner editions of Google Apps. And if you'd like, you can try it here (best to get it while it's still in beta, a.k.a free).
