Keeping the heat on in the online collaboration market, Google released it's Google Apps cloud calculator, a tool which helps companies calculate the cost savings they can acheive by moving to Google Apps. As opposed to the statements that both Google and Microsoft regularly make to prove the superiority of their products, this tool is supposed to give you exact measurable figures based on objective criteria.

Using the tool is very simple. You just need to input your company name and number of employees, and the results are displayed in a very well designed format. Cheeky as the Google Bee is, I decided to input Microsoft, and its official 2009 employee count of 92,736…

Here are the results:-

The metrics are based on some very specific assumptions. In my opinion, certain additional costs need to be factored in such as training, support or consultation charges of resellers who may need to be involved in the implementation. The assumptions are:-

So Microsoft, watcha thinking?