Google's
challenge to Microsoft's dominant position on desktop
applicationstook a fresh turn last week as it
focused its competitive attack against Microsoft Word.
Google announced its online word processing software,
Google
Docs, will allow users to edit word processor documents without
the need for an internet connection.
"Blended or intermittent access to the network is going to make
Google Docs more feasible for IT managers than it was before," said
David Mitchell, senior vice-president of IT Research at Ovum.
Google Docs will allow users to edit documents when they are not
connected to the internet by storing a version temporarily on a
user's machine, before synchronising the document with the online
version when a user next goes online.
Companies such as Procter and Gamble in the US are trialling
Google Apps and IT outsourcers
Cap Gemini and others are providing Google Apps as an
alternative to Microsoft Office for customers who outsource
desktops, said Dave Armstrong, product marketing manager at
Google.
Software-as-a-service suites such as Google Apps - which
encompasses Google Docs - could dramatically reduce the cost and
complexitity of providing desktop applications for businesses.
But nearly a year after its launch, is Google's suite of office
programs truly ready for the enterprise IT manager to make the
switch from Microsoft?
There are wider challenges for complete software-as-a-service
office suites such as Google Apps to overcome before it can make
headway in business, according to experts.
Google Apps is probably not ready to be a wholesale replacement
of Microsoft Office, said Kathleen Reidy, senior analyst at 451
Group.
For IT managers to switch from Microsoft Office, Google will
need to extend offline access into its spreadsheet and presentation
applications and the number of features will have to increase,
Kathleen Reidy said.
"Google's software is good for users that don't require all the
advanced features in Microsoft Office. But it will also need
feature parity with Microsoft Office in the applications themselves
if it is to be useful in the enterprise," she added.
Google will also have to introduce better identity management to
allow companies to control which staff have access to documents and
applications. This would involve integrating Google Apps with
corporate directories, like LDAP or Active Directory, said
Reidy.
Tom Austin, chief of software research at Gartner, said that
rather than replace Microsoft Office, Google Apps is likely to
co-exist with it in business, at least in the short term.
Gartner expects that, within five years, the majority of
enterprise users will use some Google apps for work purposes,
whether IT departments endorse them or not, as the number of
informal users of Google Apps in enterprises grows.
Google Apps already has a surprising degree of penetration in
business - 33% of business staff use some form of Google Apps - but
this is as a secondary application, supplementing, not replacing,
Microsoft Office.
"Google Apps will not, in the vast majority of cases, knock
Microsoft Office off the desktop but it will drive down the cost of
Office," he said.
Gartner's tips for IT managers thinking about moving to Google
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