Google apps management console

[nicholab]

I would like to know more about Google apps what it the management console is like and can you track e-mail and search across the organisation e-mail?

Is there the equivalent of message tracking in exchange?

[enjay]

The GA management interface is, in my view, very limited - you do not have administrative access to mailboxes, so cannot access mailboxes other than by changing the password (if you combined this with GA Directory Sync, however, it can reset it again from the AD so the user wouldn't know you've done this afterwards), therefore you cannot do any message tracking or searching, nor can you set up simple things like automatic forwarding, delegate access, etc, all of which have to be done by the users themselves.

That said, there are third-party MarketPlace add-ons which allow you to do a lot of those management tasks, however they cost.