Powerhouse player blesses Google Apps
By Paul McNamara on Mon, 09/10/07 - 9:50am.This one had to get their attention in Redmond: Heavyweight systems integrator Capgemini, a worldwide IT buying influencer for major corporations, has given its seal of approval to Google Apps as an option for the enterprise.
From an IDG News Service report:
A new member of the Google Enterprise Professional program, Capgemini now offers training, support, integration and other services for Google Apps Premier Edition customers, the vendors plan to announce Monday.
The partnership with Capgemini, one of the world's largest IT services companies with over 75,000 employees in 32 countries, makes Google Apps more palatable to large organizations that prefer IT services providers to assist them with changes and additions to their large, complex IT architectures.
Capgemini's customer roster includes such household names as Lily and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
While Capgemini's blessing will carry weight, expert opinion regarding the enterprise-worthiness of Google Apps has been all over the map as of late.
Our Network World Clear Choice Test earlier this year found both elements to like and serious gaps, although Google has been at work adding features such as e-mail migration tools since that review was conducted.
A Burton Group analyst recently warned that a premature embrace of Google Apps could prove to be a "career-limiting move for enterprise architects."
"Google has caught the attention of enterprises with its inexpensive Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) product: available at $50 per user, per year," wrote Guy Creese. "However, the seductive price can spell trouble for enterprise architects and their companies if they don't do their homework: the solution's rudimentary feature set means that enterprises need to pick carefully and implement slowly."
Nevertheless, a survey by Osterman Research found a surprising degree of receptiveness among network execs toward Google Apps, and in particular Gmail.
Capgemini, a $10 billion company, has been in acquisition mode of late and has also been the subject of takeover rumors.
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