Some of my clients are not for profit organizations. These clients often have unique and specialized needs and often operate on shoestring budgets and with very small staffs.

As a contracted IT consultant, these organizations often are looking for me to provide solid, easy to use and cheap solutions. Recently I have begun in earnest recommending Google Apps for email, calendaring, collaboration and communication. The Google Apps suite offers easy tools for free. For non profit organizations, Google even offers a free upgrade to the Education Edition for those organizations that qualify.

Here is a very short overview of the steps that I usually take to get my clients up and running in no time:

1. Register the organization’s domain at an ICANN certified registrar (if they don’t already have one)
2. Register the organization for a free Google Apps Education Edition account
3. Setup email accounts within Google Apps and distribute usernames and passwords to organization’s staff
4. Create/edit domain MX records for Google Apps
5. After DNS propagation, test the administrator email account
6. Notify staff the they may begin using their new accounts

I’ve been using Google Apps for nearly a year. In that time I have had no client reports of missing mail, lost documents or issues logging into their accounts. So, while Google Apps may not meet everyone’s needs, It may just be the solution for smaller organizations that need enterprise level solutions at little or no cost.