Lucy Hackett Snow Photography

Many people were stranded at home at the beginning of the New Year as a result of the adverse weather conditions. Some had to stay at home and look after their children due to school closure in the Chichester area and some were forced to stay at home because they were snowed in. However, there were a number of Chichester Design clients who were able to continue working, make money and keep their businesses running despite the weather.

Chichester Design’s customers now benefit from the best possible email services and support around with Google Apps. The service provides reliable, secure online applications and communications wherever you work and whatever the weather!

Managing Director of Chichester Design, Ben Davis, says of the Chichester based design and marketing agency’s new service:

“As the service is run by Google but provided by us our clients benefit from the fact that we are in full control of the system with the added advantage of using Google’s servers and technology as well.

“Google offers a free, standard version of Google Apps but there are some fundamental differences between the standard version and the Premier edition that Chichester Design offers.

“With Google Apps Premier our clients can enjoy personalised Gmail with its 25 GB of email storage and 99.9% uptime reliability guarantee, so there’s no worries about running out of space or your email going down. There are no ads allowed, meaning you can enjoy reading your emails without ads popping up and distracting you. Benefits such as powerful spam filtering and anti-virus are included. Mobile services, with several options for accessing and syncing all your information while on your laptop, Blackberry and iPhone are also a great advantage”

Since the local design and marketing agency became an Authorized Reseller of Google Apps in November they have moved over a number of their clients, from local accountants and electricians to data centre relocators and interior designers, all of which have most certainly recognized the benefits.

Chichester Design’s Executive Director, Simon Batchelar has been signing clients up to the new service for the past two months and he’s delighted with the number of enquiries and positive feedback received. Simon commented:

“Google Apps is a service that will not only benefit individuals and businesses but also schools – the main benefit being that it’s free for educational institutions. We’re in talks with several schools in the area who are interested in the service”

Sam Dunster of www.opennshut.co.uk specialises in supplying and fitting DIY wooden window shutters. He helps customers measure and fit their own shutters and has made several TV appearances based around his expertise. Sam is one of Chichester Design’s happy customers who has been utilising Google Apps to work from home for some time:

“Following Ben’s advice I switched to Google Apps in July 09 to help me run my business remotely and to ensure I could stay in constant contact with my customers. With Ben’s help, I managed to set up and switch to Google Apps quickly and smoothly and have not looked back since.

“Its great having a service that works and I am looking forward to the integration with the new website that Chichester Design are building so that everything can be under one roof. Having the flexibility to access emails from any computer or my phone makes running my online business easier and more efficient, thanks Ben.”

Things are going so well that Chichester Design has also employed the services of local IT support technician, Pete Alner, to help them with the volume of requests for the Google Apps Premier service.

So while weather conditions of this extreme do not effect the Chichester area too regularly, there are so many other reasons why you might have to work from home and why not make it as easy on yourself and your colleagues as possible? The Chichester Design team have proved that having a reliable email system is a priceless business tool today.

If you would like to know more about Google Apps from Chichester Design please email simon@chichesterdesign.co.uk.