The web productivity / collaboration / workspace / office (call it what you may) market never fails to confound me. It is perplexing to try and make out who is collaborating with who, and with what product.
Anyway, first things first.
On December 21, 2010, In Google Apps, Google Docs, Google vs. Microsoft, Latest News, MS Office Web Apps, Opinions, By The Google Bee
If anybody had any doubts about the Google Apps vs. Microsoft BPOS battle being serious, read this. Google has sued the US Department of Interior, for allegedly favoring Microsoft while setting bid conditions for a government contract. Google has accused the DOI of floating a Request for Quatation (RFQ) seeking to replace the Department's disparate email and collaboration systems, which excludes Google Apps, and favors Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite.
Google has called the RFQ "unduly restrictive of competition" and that it was “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise contrary to the law.” The RFQ clearly states, that the solution should be "part of the Business Productivity Online Suite", which is Google is so worked up about. Before approaching the Court, Google approached the DOI even before the RFQ was floated, but was rebutted.
On October 25, 2010, In Google Apps, Google vs. Microsoft, Opinions, Uncategorized, By The Google Bee
During the run up to Office 365's launch, the market expected Microsoft to roll up Office Web Apps in Microsoft BPOS. Then the launch happened. A new product Office 365 was announced. “Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service,” said Kurt DelBene, president of the Office Division at Microsoft. And that this was the ""biggest commitment Microsoft has ever made" in bringing customer infrastructure into Microsoft data centers. Woaw!
So what is Office365?
On October 15, 2010, In Google Apps, Google vs. Microsoft, Opinions, Uncategorized, By The Google Bee
One of the hardest figures to find anywhere, are the relative market shares of vendors in the messaging and collaboration market. I have split many hair ends trying to find the market share of MS Exchange in the messaging market, Google Apps in the collaboration market and so on.
There is extensive media coverage when Google Apps scores this win or that, or crosses a certain milestone in its user count (it recently crossed 3 million customers and 30 million users); and equally frenzied coverage when Microsoft BPOS gets a new enterprise customer, or crosses a certain landmark.
On October 12, 2010, In Google Apps, Opinions, By The Google Bee
One of the major lacune in Google Apps' otherwise rocking product offering is, it's customer support (read my blog entry comparing the service offering of Google Apps and Microsoft). Having served the consumer market for so long, its approach has always been that of "customer self service" – its thriving help forums and user communities, its extensive videos and other documentation.
But an important lesson is, people who pay money for something, want a good old human to swear at if something goes wrong. Well, not exactly swear, but they need the "human touch" – someone who can listen to their problems and suggest a solution at the earliest, because many Google Apps small business users just arent as tech savvy as me and you are.
On October 5, 2010, In Google Apps, Google vs. Microsoft, By The Google Bee
It makes sense to periodically keep track of the market interest in Google Apps. Google Trends is a good way to do this. Google trends gives an indication of the number of searches that have been done for a particular key term – in this case "Google Apps". The more the searches for a key term, the more end users, CIOs, small businesses, analysts, journalists are searching for it. It may also be seen as a crude indicator of the expected long term success of the product represented by that key term.
Below is the trend for Google Apps. I have also included Microsoft BPOS, to measure the relative interest of the business market in the two brands.
On October 1, 2010, In Google Apps, Opinions, By The Google Bee
In its continuing strategy of integrating with solutions it competes with (remember its earlier integrations with SharePoint and Google Apps), Zoho has added "contextual information integration" with GMail. According to Zoho, "contextual integration" emphasizes the users data and context and not the application.
Earlier Zoho has demosntrated this model with integration between its different modules, but this is the first time it is offering contextual integration with a third party app. This was made possible after Google announced Contextual Gadgets for Gmail enabling third party applications to integrate into an email message in Gmail.
On August 31, 2010, In Google Apps, Google vs. Microsoft, MS Office Web Apps, Uncategorized, By The Google Bee
August proved to be a busy month, as Google Apps continues to churn out bountiful new enhancements and features. The rate of innovation at Google just keeps on speeding up, as it decisively proves the benefits of software-as-a-service to businesses. Microsoft, with Office Web Apps, seems to drag in contrast, its enterprise legacy seemingly in tow.
Google Apps August Updates
Andrew Gradwell is the director of cloudhypermarket.com a one stop shop specializing in cloud-based IT services. They provide an in-depth comparison and advice on the costs and features of a wide variety of services from all the major vendors.
On August 18, 2010, In Google Apps, Latest News, By The Google Bee
The Google Bee apoligizes for being late on this one. Some may argue that Google's real focus is the enterprise market, and what it really wants is a piece of the multi billion pie Microsoft is hogging right now. However, as a reiteration of its interest in the SMB maket, Google started its "small business blog" a couple of weeks ago.
This new blog follows the success of the "small business series" on the official Google blog, and Google felt a separate blog was warranted.
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Googleappsbuzz, as the name suggests, is designed for anyone who is interested in Google Apps, especially for businesses - users, potential users, experts or just lay geeks who can't get enough of Google Apps. This site will bring you up to the minute opinions, news, reviews, expert reviews, resources, articles, how-tos, videos on the subject.
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