Googlighting is what happens when the world's largest advertising business tries to sell productivity software on the side. In fact, according to Gartner, Google Apps accounts for merely 0.5% of the ad company’s revenue after five years of Googlighting. Meanwhile, Microsoft enjoys its trustworthy reputation in the cloud; with 40% of companies from the Interbrand list of top 100 brands.
Many businesses find that Googlighting also means taking shortcuts, making assumptions about how people *should* work, and generally failing to build and deploy solutions which meet a wide range of business needs. If these concerns and current revelations about Google's privacy policies have you troubled, this may be a great time to check out Office 365, the online collaboration solution for businesses who don't want their documents and mail read.
ExpertiseThe single, biggest difference between our approach and Google’s is expertise. Don’t get me wrong. The folks at Google are smart. Without any experience in developing business tools, they rebranded their consumer e-mail and embedded it with a few web applications, and “Voila!” there was a “business” offering. The problem is that retrofitting consumer apps for businesses doesn’t work very well. Even organizations “Going Google” recognize that it comes with big compromises. Such was the case for Panama City, Florida which had to extend Google Docs to suit their needs. Panama City’s network admin, Richard Ferrick, noted the deficiencies by saying:
“Really, without using CloudLock, Google Docs, in my opinion, is not an enterprise-level product”.
When Google began developing productivity tools, they banked on the fact that their web roots would give them instant credibility. However, as they quickly discovered, announcing new customers is one thing, deploying and keeping them is another. So after almost five years in the market, why has Google struggled to attract less than 2% of the market?
TrustBusinesses cannot trust Google to stick by them. All companies sunset products and services, but the trustworthy ones provide customers with plenty of notice and a path forward. Not so with Google.The latest example is their e-mail continuity service, which they just killed with no notice or help for businesses using it. A ‘my way or the highway’ approach may be easier, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.
FlexibilityWant to move your organization’s e-mail to the cloud with Google while keeping other applications on premises? It's not going to happen. Google is 100% web, and according to them, you should be too. Yet that’s not how analysts see it. Gartner Group’s Matt Cain predicts that 55% of businesses will be using cloud-based e-mail in 2020. We’ll meet those businesses' needs AND the needs of the other 45% who aren’t interested in Google’s vision for how they should work. We’re about productivity, and to that end, we’re supporting the needs of all businesses by enabling them to work how, when and where they want. PrivacyWe store your data only for your use, while Google reserves the right to use your data. We understand that our customers are interested in how we collect, use and store their customer information. To that end, we created the Office 365 Trust Center. It provides greater transparency about the privacy and security practices for Office 365. The American Heart Association took a long look at Google Apps before deciding to go with Office 365. In an interview, American Heart Association CIO Michael Wilson stated:
"Google changes their privacy agreements for a lot of different reasons, just like Facebook. Some of them appear to be commercially oriented, and that concerned us".
It’s clear the American Heart Association isn’t alone in questioning whether Google’s primary focus as an advertising company puts it at odds with the security and privacy needs of customers and users. At Microsoft, we don't make your business, our business.
Enabling Quality Work When customers take time to create and collaborate on documents, they want a usable interface and reliable output, including when they share the results in the cloud. Eligeo IT, the Canadian IT services firm and former Google Apps reseller, knew from their experience with messaging and file fidelity issues in using Google Apps, that in order to expand their business they needed to both use and recommend Microsoft’s online services. They switched to using and consulting on Microsoft cloud solutions. According to CEO, Derek Major:
“Simply put: The Microsoft solution works better than Google Apps… The word is spreading that Microsoft has a really strong cloud-based productivity and collaboration solution. We’re able to back up that growing perception with our own great experience using the solution, which has given our sales a tremendous boost.”
To be truly enterprise-class requires focus and a commitment to building solutions that work for a wide range of people. It requires complete commitment, not just your spare time. After five years, isn’t it time for Google to get that?
Toda a propaganda que a Microsoft faz contra alguém me faz pensar “nossa os caras estão desesperados mesmos” e mesmo com o Windows Phone 7 com menos de 1% do mercado de eles ainda vão lançar o Windows 8 com aquele tal de “Metrô” (URG).
Eu não sou muito chegado aos produtos da Apple, mas devo admitir que pelo menos ela investe no caminho certo, consolidando o seu sistema operacional que fica cada dia mais apetitoso ao meu ver.
@Launa, @Monica, @Sash: I’m glad you see these points.
@Becky: Yes, while Office 365 includes Exchange Online, you may not have heard that Office 365 includes SharePoint Online for document sharing and collaboration, Lync Online for IM, presence and conferencing, and Office Web Apps. In discussing alternate email implementations, Matt Cain of Gartner states: “Organizations are also looking for systems with the ability to meet specific security, content control and application integration needs.” (http://bit.ly/tPu10a). Unlike other cloud providers, Microsoft offers a range of Office 365 packages (http://bit.ly/xO5jav) so an organization can suit their specific needs.
Through Office 365 customers can enable the best cloud security today (http://bit.ly/vZ6bNj), use the best communications today (http://bit.ly/qkrVmc), and work with a trusted provider which shares its cloud practices very publicly, including where your data resides, who can access it and what we do with it (http://bit.ly/zgxl2F). We know in speaking with customers that companies which have invested in fluency with tools are not typically interested in a "rip and replace" approach, wholly abandoning investments which help them daily. Many Office 365 customers are small businesses (http://bit.ly/omcbco) leveraging Office 365 in part because of its value and wide range of capabilities. Enterprises (http://bit.ly/xRbO1O) are attracted to the Office 365 E plan which includes Office Professional Plus, as well as the flexibility, potential savings (http://bit.ly/wcoWq4), capabilities and value coming from cloud deployment in Office 365.
You might not know that Office is based on the OpenXML standard. Also, Office is also the largest deployment for the ODF standard, which public sector clients commonly require. Google Docs, on the other hand, is based on a proprietary standard.
+1 Becky...Tony, you are kind of proving her point. See, Google integration "just is", you activate Google, and it just works. With Office 365, you (you meaning Microsoft) have to get the integration working between the different platforms; Exchange, Lync, SharePoint, etc. Google implementations are not a "rip and replace", as you suggest, no more than your transition from BPOS is to Office 365; now that is a rip and replace. In fact, during a Google transition, you can set up full mail synchronization and mail delivery. There are also lots of customers that run both Google and Exchange just fine. I constantly feel like Microsoft just doesn't get it...again...
@Derik: Here is how to get started with Office 365: http://bit.ly/yj3ckb . Unlike with Office 365, Google Apps users often find that they are tripped up having to install third party tools and add-ins to arrive at a complete productivity solution. Google Apps $50/per user/year price tag doesn’t seem like a strong value. Google Apps for business is missing critical features and functionality that you get at no additional cost with Microsoft products. Adding those missing features and functionality can cost you more for deployment, IT support, user training and lost productivity. Google customers need to acquire tools such as WebEx to videoconference with more than 4 people. Its cost is $468 per user per year (http://bit.ly/yDvntf). Then, for example, there are one-time costs like the Exchange to Google Apps Migrator at $20 per user (http://bit.ly/xxGLjm), and the Shared Contacts Service at $49-349 per user (http://bit.ly/bTovUF).
Google? Sounds like Microsoft apps...
This is excellence. Finally a good read.
Aren't you forgetting that Microsoft is also doing ads?
I just think that you're losing clients because of Google, you just complimented Google by making this ad, instead of innovating you try to blame someone else.
Nice Google, keep up the good work!
@Tony, see, you just don't get it do you? This is the problem with Microsoft and why Google is eating your lunch. Need I remind you that I worked for Quest Software for 8 years. What is one of their bread and butter businesses? Microsoft Migrations! You forget that nearly everyone has an upfront, one-time cost to implement. Think about GroupWise users, Notes users, etc. Again, look at your own requirements to migrate from BPOS to Office 365; lot's of up front costs there; if there wasn't, why would you have ADMT? Why would Quest be selling millions of dollars in migration tools? Also, why does Microsoft offer customers "Jump Start Funds"? Oh, that's right, to offset the initial cost of implementation :)
I won't address the Webex comment because there are other solutions out there and Google, being the innovator they are, are going to have a answer for that in the very near future.
Awesome. Just awesome. Finally, Microsoft telling it like it is against their competitors. Where have you been Microsoft?
office 365 is nothing compared to Google apps, shame on microsoft on such a pathetic marketing strategy!!!
I've *never* felt productive (much less collaboratively productive) in the silo suite that is MS Office. OTOH, I've never not been productive in google apps...
I can launch outlook, then launch chrome, then load up google mail and process half a dozen messages before outlook finishes bootstrapping and becomes even remotely responsive. It's a dinosaur.
@Anoop: Thanks for the link. Can you pls share some information about the product? Is it like Dropbox?? It says easier than Excel, better than Google Docs. Is the product really that way??
This is just very pathetic from Microsoft. Instead of waisting your time with this kind of propaganda against Google, focus on creating better products.
Microsoft tries to buy your love. Fails. Shuts it down. Thinks up something equally lame. Tries again. Fails again. Repeat.
Fraudulent comment has been removed here.