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Google Apps for Education and Schools-On-I-Net

By Schools-On-I-Net | August 8, 2008

Schools-On-I-Net Integrates with Google Apps for Education for the 2008-2009 school year, starting with Gmail.

Schools-On-I-Net has replaced its SOINMail system with Gmail provided by Google Apps for Education giving our schools the best in innovative technologies. Integrating with Gmail for schools provides schools with a more sophisticated integrated email solution.

Gmail spam filters allow us the opportunity to open the intra-school community email system.
To highlight some of the new functionality we get with this change:

Auto-Save Drafts
Advanced Spell Check
Targeted Group Email from Communications Module inserted in “Sent” folder showing the BCC recipient list
Multi-language support includes Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and more
Gmail User-Interface, branded with school domain and logo
Gmail Search capability

Note: Gmail in Google Apps for Education has the option of turning OFF the ads that are shown on the right hand side of the standard Gmail account.

What’s more.. Gmail integration is just the beginning… Google Apps for Education provides more applications that will be integrated with Schools-On-I-Net in the future, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Chat, etc.

Schools-On-I-Net acts as the Google Apps for Education Integration Specialist. The school must sign up for a Google Apps for Education account, then provide us with access to the API’s so we can manage the integration.

Spotlight on Yavneh Academy, Paramus, NJ
We presented the Gmail Integration with Schools-On-I-Net to the faculty and staff of Yavneh Academy, Paramus, NJ.

Click here to download the PowerPoint Presentation.

What does this all mean? Integration of Google Apps for Education with Schools-On-I-Net means:

Users will continue to use the Single Login from the school’s SOIN website to the Gmail account
Account add/update/delete functionality through SOIN’s User Maintenance Admin Section reflects in Gmail user accounts.
Send Email and Communications Modules insert Sent mails to the Gmail account “Sent” folder, showing BCC recipient list.
New Message Indicator on the SOIN user homepage shows the count of new messages available in the user’s Gmail account
Contacts in SOIN (new/updated/deleted users) reflected in Gmail Contacts

How Will It Work?

Here is a basic flow of how Google Apps works:

1. You sign up for Google Apps for Education

a. Sign up with your school’s domain (www.yourschoolname.org) if you are going to move your domain to Google Apps to be hosted by them

i. the change will affect your email domain hosting, and not your website domain hosting. Your website domain hosting services continue as usual.

OR
b. Sign up with a subdomain (www.soink12.yourschoolname.org) if you would like to keep things separate.

c. Sign up creating an “admin” account as we will be accessing this account.

2. Google verifies ownership of your domain, which takes 1-2 weeks.

3. Upon verification, Google sends a Congratulations email to you welcoming you to Google Apps, telling you your domain is ready to be used in Google Apps and providing information on the API’s for your domain.

4. You will need to forward that email to us so that we can access your domain and the API’s. Please send it to sointeam@soinmail.com

Note: API’s are codes that make information exchange seamless between two systems. They allow us to ‘link’ SOIN with the Google Apps functions. For example, the API for User Accounts allows us to code it so that when you make a change to a user account in SOIN, that change is reflected in Google Apps (Add, Delete, Change User) so you only have to make that change in one place.

5. After we have integrated Google Apps for Education, your users will access their Google Accounts through your SOIN school site:

www.yourschoolname.org

Users will login via the login box or link which authenticates the user and brings them to the SOIN site for your school.

To access email: users will click on the SOINMail icon on the user homepage. This will seamlessly take them to their Gmail account’s Inbox.

The new email will be the users SOIN website login id @ yourschool’s Google Apps domain.

6. Each user can setup POP, IMAP and forwarding in the Settings tab of their new Gmail account. .

a. Users can activate POP/IMAP to use their new Gmail account with MS Outlook or other mail client.

b. Blackberry and Mobile support is available.

c. Email forwarding is available.

QUESTION: Can users access their Gmail account directly through a URL without having to go through the SOIN Site?

-No. Because we have implemented the Single Sign On feature, that makes logging in to the Gmail account through the SOIN site seamless, direct access to Gmail through a URL is not allowed.

Please contact us for more information or to sign up for a SOIN-Google Apps for Education webinar: sointeam@soinmail.com or call 201-599-9454.

Thank you,

The SOIN Team

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