For small companies, like my one-person consulting shop and many of my clients, using Google Apps is an obvious solution to the problem of email and sharing documents and calendars. The standard edition is usually enough, which makes it free as well. So far email also seems to be delivered more quickly than through my old website host.
The most complicated part of setting up Google Apps is configuring the DNS correctly; that’s the subject of another post. The most confusing part of using it, however, continually bites and until Google fixes it (and I can’t imagine they’re not aware of the problem), will continue to annoy.
Here’s the issue. I signed up for a Google account (docs, primarily) using my standard email address. Then I set up a Google Apps account for Textuality where I have the same email address, and a Google Apps version of documents, calendar, etc. I now have two Google accounts with the same email address, different passwords, different URLs to log into at, and they show different contents. If someone shares a document with me using my standard email address, it sometimes shows up in the non-Apps account, and sometimes in the Apps account, and occasionally in both. I have yet to figure out the algorithm by which the Google documents sharing mechanism decides which account (with the same email address, remember) gets which document.
I’m sure (or at least hope) that Google will fix the problem eventually. In the meantime, it’s something to be aware of.