Microsoft Issues 10 Reasons Why Enterprises Shouldn't Use Google Apps
Up till now, Microsoft has been very quiet about the nascent Web Office threat from Google. But today, in response to the news that IT systems consultancy CapGemini has partnered with Google to sell Google Apps Premier Edition …
Context & Ripple Effects
A late-August assessment found Google Apps short of Microsoft Office, framing the Web Office challenge as a capability question rather than an established enterprise displacement. CapGemini’s agreement to sell Google Apps Premier Edition gives Google a corporate-sales route, prompting Microsoft to publicly define its objections.
First-order effects
- CapGemini can market Google Apps Premier Edition to its corporate customers, expanding Google’s enterprise reach beyond direct product adoption.
- Microsoft’s ten-point case turns the Google Apps decision into an explicit comparison of enterprise requirements rather than a quiet emerging-product threat.
Second-order effects
- Enterprise buyers evaluating CapGemini’s offering gain a prominent Microsoft counterargument alongside the reseller pitch, raising the importance of feature and deployment comparisons.
- Google and CapGemini must demonstrate that a consulting-led sales channel can address the concerns Microsoft is putting before corporate IT departments.
Third-order effects
- If consulting firms become durable distribution partners for web-hosted productivity tools, enterprise office competition will increasingly be contested through service channels as well as software features.
The trend: Web-based office software is beginning to move from product experimentation into enterprise sales-channel competition between Google and Microsoft.