My firm just switched to Google Apps Premiere addition 2 weeks ago and aside from the way Google handles shared contacts, things are going quite well.

Previously, on our Exchange server we had numerous shared contact lists set up in the shared folders. We had a separate list for vendors, sales agents, etc.. Is there not a way to set up lists or groups such as this on the domain level in Google Apps? I have found a ton of forums with users asking the same question but no good answers unless you purchase some third party app in the marketplace.

I have toyed around with the "google-shared-contacts-client" here: http://code.google.com/p/google-shared-contacts-client/ and this almost does it but it falls short when trying to group contacts on the domain level or when trying to search for a contact by company name. Are either of these things possible?

I am now looking to create a Google Doc spreadsheet to share with the domain just to have a separated defined list of contacts that is search-able by various fields...

Anyone who could shed some light on domain level contact sharing relating to the points above, I would be most grateful...