WASHINGTON, April 25, 2013 -- Today SourcingLine published their Google Apps Consultants Leaders Matrix. The proprietary Leaders Matrix methodology assesses each firm’s focus on productivity and collaboration consulting in general and their specialization in the Google Apps suite. The second dimension of the Leaders Matrix then maps the firms’ abilities to consistently deliver on client expectations. This publication follows Sourcingline’s industry-leading research on mobile application developers.
The Google Apps Consultants Leaders Matrix highlights firms that assist at all stages in a typical Google Apps migration including; strategic planning, data migration, change management, employee training, custom development, and ongoing support. The top consultants are able to combine their knowledge of the Google Apps with a deep understanding of their client’s businesses to create meaningful improvements in organizational efficiency.
Out of hundreds of registered Google Apps Partners, only 10 firms were included in the Leaders Matrix. The firms included are: Cloud Sherpas, Maven Wave Partners, Promevo, Dito, Baker Security & Networks, Soluciones Orion, Ageele, Umzuzu, Agosto, and 11th Hour.
"When deployed correctly, Google Apps is a powerful cloud platform to drive productivity without unnecessary overhead," stated Sam Pettee, Manager Mid-market Research at SourcingLine. "The consultants included in our Google Apps Leaders Matrix have a proven track record of applying their knowledge and experience to exceed client expectations.”
SourcingLine's effort to identify the Google Apps consultants will be ongoing and they encourage firms with a proven record to apply to participate in updates to the research. Upcoming publications seek to highlight developers for other cloud platforms such as Office 365, Google App Engine, and Force.com.
About SourcingLine
SourcingLine is a Washington, DC-based research firm focused on IT services. We provide independent, quantitative analysis on leading services firms to support procurement decisions in small, medium and large enterprises. We publish the top-ranked analysis of Global Outsourcing Locations and Mobile Application Developers among others. Our research leverages a proprietary framework, the Leaders Matrix, which clearly maps firm’s focus areas and their ability to deliver on client expectations.
For further information, please contact: Sam Pettee | 202-568-6478 | spettee@sourcingline.com
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Comedy pioneers and entertainment industry leaders The Second City have adopted Google Apps to help run their business. Learn how Google Premier Partner Agosto helped The Second City to quickly migrate and train users. Google's collaboration and communication tools have taken The Second City to a new level of productivity, improving the company's day-to-day operations in Chicago, Toronto, Hollywood and around the world.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Firespotter Labs today announced the UberConference Google Apps Reseller Program. UberConference is a next generation audio conferencing service with a unique, visual interface. UberConference's new channel partner program will be launching with Premier Enterprise Google Apps resellers SADA Systems, Dito, Sheepdog, LTech and Agosto as its principal partners.
"Partnering with these world class resellers to drive end user adoption was an easy choice," said Craig Walker , CEO and co-founder of Firespotter Labs. "They have a unique combination of qualities – excellent reputations, a strong customer focus, leadership that demonstrates vision, and deep market penetration. Our launch resellers lead by example as the drivers of cloud-based services adoption and we are thrilled to be working with them."
With its unique, visual interface, UberConference shows participants who's on a call and who's speaking at any given moment, and gives all participants access to every other participant's Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook public social profiles. Features such as recording, dialing out to participants and earmuffs, which allow for sidebar conversations, as well as file sharing through Evernote, are easy-to-use. UberConference continues to introduce features that help businesses be more productive at significantly lower cost, and is investing resources in spreading the word through this reseller channel.
"At SADA Systems, we pride ourselves on bringing innovative cloud based solutions to our current and prospective customers," said Tony Safoian, president and CEO of SADA Systems. "We are delighted to be partnering with UberConference as their offering fits our profile perfectly." Since its beta launch in May 2012, UberConference has significantly expanded its offerings, rolling out its premium service (UberConference Pro), and its enterprise product (UberConference Business), as well as mobile apps available for both iPhone and Android. With the launch of the reseller program, UberConference will increase its ability to engage enterprise customers and to deliver a much-needed conference calling cloud solution for Google Apps customers.
About Firespotter Labs
Launched in 2011, Firespotter Labs is a startup founded by serial entrepreneur Craig Walker , focusing on making complex telephony products easy to use. With over 15 years experience as an entrepreneur in the emerging telephony space, Walker was CEO of Dialpad Communications, (acquired by Yahoo!, now Yahoo! Voice), and later co-founder and CEO of GrandCentral Communications (acquired by Google, now Google Voice). Products in the Firespotter family include UberConference, Nosh, NoshList, and Jotly. Firespotter Labs is funded by Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. To learn more about Firespotter Labs, please visit www.firespotter.com
Agosto helped Superior to migrate and implement Google Apps entirely remotely, saving on both travel and training costs. IT Infrastructure Supervisor Russ Koehl shared how Agosto first helped Superior train a group of early adopter “Google Guides” that got up and running quickly positioning them to assist other users.
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“Agosto, with its exceptional Google Apps experience, is an ideal partner for TrustSphere and enables us to further expand our U.S. sales presence,” said Manish Goel, CEO of TrustSphere. “The combination of TrustVault’s advanced capabilities, coupled with Agosto’s Google Apps know-how, systems integration, service and support expertise, will enable even the largest organizations to comprehensively address their most challenging email messaging based threats.”
“Adding TrustSphere’s Messaging Intelligence platform is a natural progression in our solutions-based offerings for clients,” said Aric Bandy, Agosto CEO. “The ability to analyze and better predict the context of traffic flowing in and out of an organization without breaching privacy will provide clients insight on security and productivity.”
Proven in deployments with businesses and government agencies the world over, the unique TrustVault solution protects against many of the most common and challenging email-based threats. In particular, it prevents legitimate – often business-critical and time-sensitive – emails from being incorrectly quarantined as spam (‘false positives’), ensuring business operations are not affected. TrustVault accomplishes this by creating ‘social graphs’ that chart the email-based relationships between an organization’s employees and the people they regularly email to identify trusted senders. Using this unprecedented level of messaging information, TrustVault works in tandem with spam filters and anti-virus solutions to ensure that legitimate messages are fast-tracked for delivery and that suspicious messages are closely scrutinized, which results in the highest levels of email security.
TrustVault also enables organizations to combat other such email-based threats as: spear phishing attacks, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and socially-based DDoS attacks that specifically target specific ‘high value’ individuals, such as CEOs. Additionally, the messaging intelligence capabilities of TrustVault can be applied to Sales Analytics applications.
About Agosto
Founded in 2001 in Minneapolis, and with offices in Minneapolis and Toronto, Agosto is one of the world’s oldest and fastest-growing Google Apps and cloud consulting firms. One of the earliest Google Apps partners, Agosto served on Google’s Customer Advisory Board in 2008 and joined its Enterprise Advisory Board in 2009, one of only eight partners to sit on the board. In 2012, Agosto received the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) Tekne award in the technology and consulting category for small and growing businesses. Agosto was featured along with Microsoft, Oracle and Rackspace on Talkin’ Cloud’s 2012 Top 100 Cloud Services Providers List. Agosto’s clients include Corel, Dunn Bros Coffee, CATCO, Regis Corporation, The Second City, 2nd Wind Exercise, Famous Dave’s, Goodwill Easter Seals and Jaguar Land Rover. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/goAgosto.
About TrustSphere
TrustSphere is a pioneer in ‘Messaging Intelligence’ a next-generation approach to ensuring the security, integrity and reliability of the messaging systems that organizations rely upon. The company was recognized as a ‘Cool Vendor’ for 2011 by Gartner and its award-winning solutions have been successfully deployed by both large corporations and major government organizations, proving their industry-leading capabilities. TrustSphere’s solutions are available through a growing number of value-added resellers and systems integrators across the globe. The company has offices throughout the world, including Singapore, New York, Sydney, Tokyo and London.
For more information on TrustSphere and its solutions visit the company’s website at http://www.trustsphere.com
Software company enlists Google Apps veteran Agosto to prevent loss-of-service during power and Internet outages caused by super-storm Sandy
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—November 5, 2012—Agosto, Inc. (www.agosto.com), one of the world’s oldest and fastest-growing Google Apps and cloud services consulting firms, today announced that it successfully helped WinZip Computing, a Corel company, move its entire domain to the Google Cloud in advance of Hurricane Sandy. The quick actions of Agosto’s and Corel’s teams prevented any loss of service to WinZip and its employees during the ensuing power and Internet outages on the east coast of the United States.
Corel is in the process of migrating its on-premise servers to the Google Cloud with help from Agosto, a Google Apps Premier Reseller. On Monday, October 29, Corel recognized that its WinZip division was in the predicted path of Hurricane Sandy and that a loss of Internet service or power could take down its ability to communicate via email. Corel’s WinZip technical support team called Agosto and made an urgent request for assistance in moving the WinZip domain to Google.
“We received an emergency message to migrate WinZip to Google Apps and immediately began working together on the migration,” said Aric Bandy, CEO of Agosto. “Within about five hours, Agosto’s Certified Google Apps Deployment Specialists had helped WinZip to deploy Google Apps. We’re pleased to have been able to quickly help our client achieve success and peace of mind.” While the full impact of super-storm Sandy will take time to measure, the storm is one of the worst that the Northeast Region has ever experienced. Nearly a week after Sandy came ashore, millions in the region are still without power. As a result of their move to the cloud, WinZip’s team is still able to use any Internet-connected device to access email, share documents and collaborate on other cloud-based services.
“The predicted path of the storm showed that our servers were in harm’s way so we knew we needed to take action,” said WinZip Computing president Patrick Nichols. “With Agosto’s help we were able to reduce our risk and quickly ensure continuous uptime for our employees and customers.”
“It was fortunate that we were able to minimize the impact of the storm on our team in the Northeast,” said Mark Fernandes, Corel vice president of Global Information Technology. “Knowing that Corel’s employees in all divisions can easily communicate and collaborate with each other—anytime, anywhere, from any device—while continuing to serve our customers, are primary reasons for going Google. Agosto’s fast work and superior customer service are making the transition easier, even during the planning for this disaster. Our thoughts are with everyone whose life or business has been disrupted.”
About WinZip Computing
With more than a billion downloads, WinZip (www.winzip.com) is the world’s leading provider of zip utilities and one of the most popular and trusted applications in the history of the Web. WinZip Computing, a Corel company, draws on its core strength as the #1 zip software provider to deliver the power of compression and encryption to where it’s needed most – email, mobile, social media and online. WinZip's offerings include apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, the ZipSend and ZipShare online services, and WinZip System Utilities Suite. Headquartered in Mansfield, CT, WinZip Computing also has offices in Canada, Spain, the UK and Silicon Valley.
About Corel
Corel is one of the world's top software companies providing some of the industry's best-known brands, including Roxio®, Pinnacle™ and WinZip®. Boasting the most comprehensive portfolio of graphics, productivity and digital media products, we've built a reputation for delivering innovative software that’s easy to learn and use, helping people achieve new levels of creativity and productivity. The industry has responded with hundreds of awards for innovation, design and value.
Used by millions of people around the world, our product lines include CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel® Painter™, Corel® PaintShop® Pro, Corel® VideoStudio®, Corel® WordPerfect® Office, Pinnacle Studio™, Roxio Creator®, Roxio® Toast® and WinZip®. For more information on Corel, please visit www.corel.com.
About Agosto
Founded in 2001 in Minneapolis, and with offices in Minneapolis and Toronto, Agosto is one of the world’s oldest and fastest-growing Google Apps and cloud consulting firms. One of the earliest Google Apps partners, Agosto served on Google’s Customer Advisory Board in 2008 and joined its Enterprise Advisory Board in 2009, one of only eight partners to sit on the board. In 2012, Agosto received the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) Tekne award in the technology and consulting category for small and growing businesses. Agosto was featured along with Microsoft, Oracle and Rackspace on Talkin’ Cloud’s 2012 Top 100 Cloud Services Providers List. Agosto’s clients include Corel, Dunn Bros Coffee, CATCO, Regis Corporation, The Second City, 2nd Wind Exercise, Famous Dave’s, Goodwill Easter Seals and Jaguar Land Rover. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/goAgosto.
Thirteenth annual Tekne Awards recognized Minnesota’s technology innovators and innovations
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—November 2, 2012—The Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) has named Agosto as the recipient of the 2012 Tekne Award in the Technology Services and Consulting award category among small and growing businesses. Held Nov. 1 at the Minneapolis Convention Center, the Tekne Awards honor companies and individuals who have played a significant role in developing new technologies that positively impact the lives and futures of people living around the world.
Agosto helps clients migrate from legacy systems to next-generation technologies. Companies look to Agosto to manage their IT infrastructures, to provide cloud expertise and to implement Google Apps efficiently and with minimal disruption. As an early evangelist of cloud computing, Agosto is recognized for its vision of how IT can provide a competitive advantage for clients. Their custom application development, using Google Cloud Platform tools, further helps clients achieve business goals. It is this combination of broad technology capabilities, specialty skills and personal attention to customers’ needs that sets Agosto at the top of the list of technology providers in Minnesota and across North America.
“Agosto is honored to be recognized by MHTA for our continued excellence in service,” said Aric Bandy, CEO, Agosto. “2012 is a benchmark year for Agosto with an expanded level of offerings based on Google’s Cloud Platform, including custom application development and enhanced Google Apps services, for our clients.”
Tekne Awards were presented to 15 of Minnesota’s most influential companies in technological innovation, development, commercialization and management. Three of the twelve categories included separate awards for small and growing businesses (with annual revenues under $50 million) and established businesses (with annual revenues of $50 million or more).
“This year’s recipients, once again, raised the bar with the quality and originality of their entries and should all be very proud of their accomplishments,” said Margaret Anderson Kelliher, President & CEO of MHTA. “We are thrilled to recognize Agosto for its proven leadership and commitment to technology development in Minnesota.”
This year’s Tekne Awards ceremony was emceed by Don Shelby. A list of 2012 Tekne Award recipients and finalists is available online at http://www.tekneawards.org.
About Agosto
Founded in 2001 in Minneapolis, and with offices in Minneapolis and Toronto, Agosto (www.agosto.com) is one of the world’s oldest and fastest-growing Google Apps and cloud consulting firms. One of the earliest Google Apps partners, Agosto served on Google’s Customer Advisory Board in 2008 and joined its Enterprise Advisory Board in 2009, one of only eight partners to sit on the board. In 2012, Agosto was featured along with Microsoft, Oracle and Rackspace on Talkin’ Cloud’s 2012 Top 100 Cloud Services Providers List, and has been recognized on the MSPmentor 200, a list that tracks the top 200 managed services providers (MSPs) in North America. Agosto’s clients include Dunn Bros, CATCO, Regis Corporation, The Second City, 2nd Wind Exercise, Famous Dave’s, Goodwill Easter Seals and Jaguar Land Rover. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/goAgosto.
About Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA)
MHTA fuels Minnesota’s prosperity through innovation and technology. Now entering its fourth decade of service, MHTA has a vision to make Minnesota one of the country’s top five technology states by 2020. MHTA is the only membership organization that represents the state’s entire technology-based economy. Members include organizations of every size − involved in virtually every aspect of technology creation, production, application and education in Minnesota. MHTA works in partnership with TechAmerica, which represents Minnesota's technology organizations nationally. Find out more online at http://www.mhta.org or follow MHTA on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MHTA.
Second Annual Ranking Recognizes Up-and-Coming IT Solution Providers
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—September 24, 2012—Agosto, one of the world’s oldest and fastest-growing Google Apps™ and cloud services consulting firms, today announced it has been recognized by UBM Channel as a member of CRN’s second annual Next-Gen 250 list. The CRN Next-Gen 250 highlights up and coming companies with a smart and different approach to solution selling and integration.
This year’s Next-Gen 250 list is a snapshot of solution providers who are zeroing in on lucrative and emerging technologies, among them cloud computing, mobility, virtualization, unified communications, business analytics and business intelligence.
“Being named in 2012 as one of the Next-Gen 250 is perfect timing for Agosto,” said Aric Bandy, Agosto CEO. “We have been a strong managed services provider since 2001 and in recent years we have moved to a position of leadership, both as a cloud services provider and within the Google Apps reseller group. Having UBM Channel recognize our efforts is gratifying.”
“The channel is constantly evolving as existing models are being tested and new ones are created,” said Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, UBM Channel. “All the companies on this year’s list have only been in business since 1999. Some have transformed their business to meet the demands of a changing market. Others didn't have the baggage of transitioning from hardware to services to recurring revenue and have been able to build a business on an entirely new model and leverage new technology platforms. Regardless of how they got here, we congratulate each company for making this year’s list.”
A sample of the Next-Gen 250 list is available online at www.CRN.com. The entire 2012 database is published only in CRN's App for iPad, CRN Technology News. For more information, visit www.CRN.com/Tablet.
About Agosto
Founded in 2001 in Minneapolis, and with offices in Minneapolis and Toronto, Agosto (www.agosto.com) is one of the world’s oldest and fastest-growing Google Apps and cloud consulting firms. One of the earliest Google Apps partners, Agosto served on Google’s Customer Advisory Board in 2008 and joined its Enterprise Advisory Board in 2009, one of only eight partners to sit on the board. In 2012, Agosto was featured along with Microsoft, Oracle and Rackspace on Talkin’ Cloud’s 2012 Top 100 Cloud Services Providers List, and has been recognized on the MSPmentor 200, a list that tracks the top 200 managed services providers (MSPs) in North America. Agosto’s clients include Dunn Bros, CATCO, Regis Corporation, The Second City, 2nd Wind Exercise, Famous Dave’s, Goodwill Easter Seals and Jaguar Land Rover. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/goAgosto.
About UBM Channel
UBM Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With more than 30 years of experience and engagement, UBM Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives, managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. UBM Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about UBM Channel, visit us at www.ubmchannel.com. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/ubmchannel.
Media contact: Caroline Life | Agosto Inc | caroline.life@agosto.ca | 612.605.3526
]]>“The Google Cloud Platform Partner Program enables us to enhance our cloud-based services and solution offerings for our manufacturing, retail and other business clients by building on the power of the Google Cloud Platform,” said Aric Bandy, Agosto CEO. “The Google Cloud Platform offers a broad set of application development, cloud storage, large scale computing and big data capabilities that provides us with the tools to create the scalable, customized programs and solutions that solve our clients business challenges.”
“CATCO recently implemented a cloud-based mobile application developed by Agosto using Google cloud platform tools, that has enabled our field sales team members to be more effective in the field by improving processes and timeliness for customer contact,” said Kevin May, CIO of CATCO Parts and Service, a leading retailer in the heavy duty aftermarket industry for over 60 years. “Agosto’s solution on Google’s cloud platform eliminated concerns about future scalability and lack of infrastructure, giving our business a significant competitive advantage.”
Google’s Cloud Platform products enable customers to implement:
“To help customers get the most out of our cloud platform products,” explains Eric Morse, Head of Sales and Business Development, for Google’s Cloud Platform. “We work closely with services firms like Agosto that deliver custom applications and other infrastructure solutions on top of Google’s Cloud Platform.”
The Google Cloud Platform Partner Program includes Services Partners such as systems integrators, IT consultant firms, developers, web designers and other professional services companies that help clients design, develop and manage new cloud-based solutions. Customers benefit by engaging with Agosto, which has invested in developing the skills needed to build these powerful new solutions on top of Google’s Cloud Platform. For more information on Agosto and our cloud-based offerings, please visit www.agosto.com.
About Agosto
Founded in 2001 in Minneapolis, and with offices in Minneapolis and Toronto, Agosto (www.agosto.com) is one of the world’s oldest and fastest-growing Google Apps and cloud consulting firms. One of the earliest Google Apps partners, Agosto has been singled out by MSPmentor 100, a distinguished research report that identifies the world’s most progressive managed service providers. The company served on Google’s Customer Advisory Board in 2008 and joined its Enterprise Advisory Board in 2009, one of only eight partners to sit on the board. Agosto was also ranked in Inc. magazine’s 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies in 2009 and 2010, and was featured along with Microsoft, Oracle and Rackspace on Talkin’ Cloud’s 2012 Top 200 Cloud Experts. Agosto’s clients include CATCO, Regis Corporation, The Second City, 2nd Wind Exercise, Famous Dave’s, Goodwill Easter Seals, Minnesota Wild and Jaguar Land Rover.
Media contact: Caroline Life | Agosto Inc | caroline.life@agosto.ca | 612.605.3526
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