In an official Google Blog posting today called Google Apps Grows Up, Google announces its foray into the enterprise space with its own “Office” productivity offering:
Now, I’m excited to tell you that our baby has finally graduated and is entering the business world. Google Apps Premier Edition is a new version designed to take on all the challenges presented by businesses with complex IT needs. For $50 per account per year, you get the whole Google Apps package plus many new business-oriented features, including access to our APIs and partner solutions (so it’s easy to integrate with existing systems), conference room scheduling for Calendar, 10GB of inbox storage, extended business hours phone support, and mobile access to your email on BlackBerry devices (just in case you can’t get enough at the office).
While up to now providing its online services for free, this move could herald an entirely new revenue stream for Google.
Already, companies big and small, like Procter & Gamble, General Electric Corporation, Prudential, and SF Bay Pediatrics, are talking about how this new version of Google Apps makes it easy to offer low-cost communication and collaboration tools to all their employees so they can get on with what they do best.
Further, as outlined on the Google Docs and Spreadsheets Blog, Google is trying to make the switch to online applications as painless as possible:
Google Apps lets you offer private-labeled email, instant messaging and calendar accounts to everyone in your organization so they can share ideas and work more effectively. As of today, Google Apps now includes Docs & Spreadsheets. The Google Apps version works just like the Docs & Spreadsheets you know and love but with a few special new features like the ability to publish a document only to your co-workers and support for making everyone in your company a collaborator. Everything is hosted by Google, and no hardware or software is required. Check it out: we think you’ll agree that we look pretty dapper in a suit and tie.
Now, considering this all in the context of Michael Raynor’s (Deloitte Consulting) new strategy book, The Strategy Paradox, one could call this entire play an option on a future of online software that is not yet certain. While software as a service (SAAS) has been around for years and Salesforce.com has been the posterchild, there has not been a significant avenue until now for the enterprise to move from Microsoft’s Office suite. For the past several years, we have observed Google acquiring and testing a series of office applications that could be one day competitive with Microsoft Office. At the same time, Google’s commitment to its online services has been somewhat timid, and it told the market it was not intending to compete with Microsoft. Today’s announcement indicates that Google has decided to invest further in a strategic option of moving to an outright head-to-head assault on Microsoft’s offline Office productivity suite. While some may call it a shot across Microsoft’s bow, it can also be considered a further investment in a strategic option that mitigates its strategic risk of being beholden to online advertising for its primary source of revenue – and a move that executives in any industry should watch closely.
Update: Press Release quote…
Mountain View, Calif. – February 22, 2007 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) – today introduced Google Apps Premier Edition, a new version of Google’s hosted services for communication and collaboration designed for businesses of all sizes. Google Apps Premier Edition is available for $50 per user account per year, and includes phone support, additional storage, and a new set of administration and business integration capabilities.
Google Apps™, launched as a free service in August 2006, is a suite of applications that includes Gmail™ webmail services, Google Calendar™ shared calendaring, Google Talk™ instant messaging and voice-over-IP, and the Start Page feature for creating a customizable home page on a specific domain. More than 100,000 small businesses and hundreds of universities now use the service. Google Apps Premier Edition now joins Google Apps Standard Edition and Google Apps Education Edition, both of which will continue to be offered for free to organizations.
“Procter & Gamble Global Business Services (GBS) has enrolled as a charter enterprise customer of Google Apps, a successful consumer product suite now available to enterprises. P&G will work closely with Google in shaping enterprise characteristics and requirements for these popular tools,” said Laurie Heltsley, director Procter & Gamble Global Business Services.
“So much of business now relies on people being able to communicate and collaborate effectively,” said Gregory Simpson, CTO for General Electric Company. “GE is interested in evaluating Google Apps for the easy access it provides to a suite of web applications, and the way these applications can help people work together. Given its consumer experience, Google has a natural advantage in understanding how people interact together over the web.”
Posted by alanwunsche 
