Fred started this thread a few months ago:
Google Apps
I've been thinking about this and I finally started doing this for a number of domains I own.
Just one example:
http://mail.puritanboard.com
What is nice is that the MX records are pointed to their servers so it cuts down on SMTP processing and spam filitering resources on mine. All I had to do was edit my DNS zone to point the MX records to Google's mail servers. I can also skin the Gmail interface how I like. Same features as Gmail but with my domain and my look and feel.
I'm also able to add CNAME records to resolve things like:
http://start.puritanboard.com http://calendar.puritanboard.com http://sites.puritanboard.com http://docs.puritanboard.com
I did the same thing for a Church in Temecula and for our Church here (
http://mail.baptistchurch.jp).
Non-profits even get the full features that the paid service gets.
It's pretty amazing to think that if you own a domain that costs $8/year (or less) you can have a mail service, calendar function to collaborate on, documents that you can share, and sites you can build to collaborate on.
We just completed a Pastoral search process and used Google Docs to post resumes so the congregation could get the full answers from the candidate. I've also shared Church Budgets and other documents by simply sharing URL's. It's a great way to share a single link that will allow others to view updates as they're published or even collaborate on Docs. I haven't even really fully tapped into some of the potential of it.