Preview the New Accelo Gmail Gadget

In early July, we released the largest upgrade to Accelo in over a year, with a whole new way to create and view activities, tasks and more. One of the features we foreshadowed in that upgrade was a brand new Gmail Gadget - a way bring the client information, other emails, context and tasks that surround an email right into your Gmail Inbox.

Today we're excited to announce that the Gmail Gadget is available for any Accelo users who also use Google Apps. Note: this preview requires a few things like creating a project on Google Code. 

How do I get it?

To install the Accelo Gmail Gadget, you need to follow the steps below:

1. Make sure you're an admin on your Google Apps domain

When you add the Gadget you'll be adding it for all of your colleagues who use Gmail for your domain, so keep that in mind too and emailing them so they're not surprised.

If you're not sure, go to https://admin.google.com - if you don't see a control panel for your domain, you're not an admin.

2. Make sure you Accelo account is connected to the Google Apps Marketplace

The Accelo gadget works by connecting your user's email domain to their Accelo account, but we can only do this when your Accelo account has been connected and authenticated via Google Apps Marketplace.

If you don't see a screen like the image below when you go to log into your Accelo account, you need to connect it to the Marketplace first.

To connect your Accelo account with your Google Apps domain do the following:

• Go to the Google Apps Marketplace listing for Accelo.
• Click on "Add it Now", and step through the wizard granting Accelo permission to access your Google Apps account.
• You'll end up at a screen on signup.accelo.com that is normally used to sign up; in your case, you'll be told that your account already exists.
• Follow the prompts, and when you're done you should go back to your Accelo domain and see a login screen like the one above.

3. Create a "Project" for the Preview Gadget

Once you've confirmed you're an admin on your domain, you'll need to create a new project. This is where the preview Gadget is created and deployed to your domain.

To create your project, head over to Google Apps console. Look at the username in the top right - it is doesn't match your Google Apps domain, click on the drop down and choose your Google Apps domain.

Once you've got the right account, click on the "Create Project..." button on this page. 

You'll want to give your project a name like "Accelo Gadget PREVIEW" - when the Gadget launches to everyone, you'll need to come back and delete this project, so making sure you give it a name like "Preview" will be handy for later.

4. Upload the Accelo Manifest

The next step is to upload the Manifest. This is the set of instructions that tells Google how to show the Gadget inside the Gmail window of all of your users.

From here, upload the Manifest

When you're done, you'll need to choose to "Deploy Application" and it will then be live inside your Google Apps Domain.

5. Completely close (and exit) and restart your browser

To see the Gadget in action, you'll need to close your browser down completely (I know, seems overkill doesn't it?) and then re-open your browser and load up Gmail.

When you next load a message you (and your domain users) be presented with a message that they need to authenticate their Gadget with Accelo. By following the link they'll be able to grant access to the Gadget, and then the next message they open will load the gadget that will look something like the image below (for now).

What does it do?

Currently, the Accelo Gmail Gadget does the following:

• If the email is from a contact that IS NOT known to the Accelo client database (based on email address searching) the user will be shown a form where they can easily add the client contact. If the email domain of the sender matches an existing client domain, they'll be able to save putting in the client/company info, and just enter the contact details.
• If the email is from a contact that is known, we'll try and show the conversation that this email relates to as a list of Activities. This is super awesome because it means you can see right in your inbox, for the first time, who else on your team has already replied to an email from a client. In addition, we show the object the conversation is against (in the example above, it is against a client, but if it was against a sale or a project or an issue we'd show that object too - you can even update fields, change status and more right from within Gmail. Soon we'll be adding a tasks tab too so you can view/create/complete tasks right from within Gmail.
• If the email is from a contact that is known, and we can't find a match, we'll assume that the user hasn't got email capture turned on or they're using the slower Sync method. We'll include/show links to setting up the faster forwarding capture method so that it is more real time for users when they're looking at the client account.
• If the email is from a colleague and isn't linked to anything in Accelo, we'll show a message explaining that we don't capture staff to staff emails for privacy reasons.

Why a preview?

We're running a preview for a week or two so that we can iron out the kinks, improve automation and make sure that this feature is always a help and not a hindrance to users. We already know we need to make the "New Contact" interface a lot more subtle, allow you to mark addresses as "ignored" so you never get prompted again and many more things - we'll be rolling out these features rapidly over the next couple of weeks.

If you have any other ideas, you see bugs or you'd like to make a suggestion, please email us ASAP at [email protected] - we'd love to get your feedback!