Last week's launch of Google Apps Premier Edition, which offers
businesses low-cost office productivity software such as e-mail,
calendar, contacts and word processing, has so far been treated
cautiously by IT chiefs of major enterprises, but looks set to play
well among smaller businesses.
The hosted service costs £26 per user per year and includes
10Gbytes of storage per user.
But although the licence looks likely to be attractive to
smaller firms in particular, IT directors and industry analysts who
spoke to Computer Weekly said take-up for Google Apps might
initially be limited for enterprise users as an alternative to
Microsoft Office.
Denise Plumpton, director of information at the Highways Agency,
said Google should be viewed as a major force. "It is clearly
aiming to position itself as a major player in the market, and I
think it stands a good chance of eroding Microsoft's customer
base," she said.
"I can see how SMEs that do not wish to invest in infrastructure
or do not have the necessary in-house technical support for
Microsoft will regard this with interest," she said.
But Plumpton said since most corporates had made a large
investment in Microsoft Office, interest in Google Apps would be
limited for some time to come.
"There is the licensing investment and the intellectual property
contained in all the documents that have been created and stored,
plus the years of staff training and exposure to take into account.
That means that even given Google's relatively low licence cost,
the business case for migration will not be easily made," she
said
Burton Group analyst Guy Creese, a specialist in content
management collaboration and content strategies, said the
functionality being offered was "solid, if not as strong or as
sophisticated as what is available with IBM and Microsoft".
"The sweet spot for Google will be smaller businesses that have
not installed an IT infrastructure, do not want to, and have
relatively simple requirements," he said.
But Creese also said Google might struggle to make a big success
of Apps in the long term.
"I would not be surprised if Google Apps plays out the way
Google Search Appliance has. After initially liking it for its low
cost and ease of installation, customers might start to want
greater capabilities."
Speaking last week to Computer Weekly, however, Google said
Google Apps Premier Edition was not an alternative to Microsoft
Office. Google said it expected that many business would use both
Microsoft Office and Google Apps.
Butler analyst Michael Azoff also sees good long-term prospects
for Google. He said the power of Google Apps would lie in its
ability to integrate with other business applications, using
enterprise mashup technology.
"With origins in consumer-led Web 2.0, mashups for business
applications are just beginning to take off and opportunities to be
realised," he said.
More immediately, however, the strong links between the CIO and
Microsoft could stand in Google's way. Richard Steel, CIO of ICT
Services at Newham Borough Council, which has a 10-year strategic
supplier relationship with Microsoft, said he saw little immediate
value in Google's offering.
Steel said Google Apps was simple in comparison with Microsoft
Office and not a like-for-like offer, with the latter incorporating
project management, presentation, organisation, collaboration,
database and publishing tools.
"Microsoft Office is much more than a word processor and e-mail.
Outlook is a way of life for many users, with scheduling, contacts,
workflow, and is linked into the Active Directory."
But the use of traditional software is changing. Bob Tarzey,
service director at Quocirca, suggested that Google Apps could find
its way into business by new workers introducing the software into
companies.
He said, "Teenagers and students choosing the Google tools over
Microsoft could turn up in the workplace 'Google tools ready'
rather than 'Microsoft Office ready'."
Google said, "Many people now work in teams dispersed around the
world. This new way of working requires a new model of computing -
one based on shared content and communication. Google Apps provides
an affordable and reliable complement to traditional software to
better serve this new model."
The Forrester guide to Google Apps Premier
Edition
● Grill your information workplace platform suppliers. There is
no reason to run from Microsoft or IBM just yet, but turn your
attention to these two suppliers and ask them when they plan to
offer office productivity software as a service, or offer office
productivity tools at a price like Google's.
● Put enterprise policies, standards and governance in place
now. Otherwise, people will do their own thing and firms could run
the risk of a return to the days when Microsoft was not a corporate
standard and there were several competing word processing packages
being used inside companies.
● Be proactive and establish your corporate policies before
Google's offering and others - which have yet to come to the market
- start making their presence felt.
● Think through privacy and security concerns. Google offers no
guarantee that business content - including critical corporate
intellectual property like spreadsheets and word processing
documents - is protected from unauthorised viewers.
Because content stored on Google's systems is not encrypted, it
is theoretically accessible to Google's internal systems
administration staff. However, Google does have internal controls
in place to ensure that only certain staff have access to customer
data, and those who have access must agree to certain
constraints.
All an external person needs to access items stored in Google
Apps Premier Edition is a user name and a password cracking tool.
However, this is no different from any other system that is
accessible via a user name and password.
If you are deeply concerned about the security of hosted
content, consider running your own authentication system on top of
Google Apps Premier Edition.
Source: Forrester Research
Google challenges Microsoft
Google goes after the enterprise
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