This is your chance to speak out -- Why are you replacing, or are you planning to replace, Microsoft Office with Google Apps? Or maybe you're not, and the fuss over Google Apps is all about nothing. Post your views here, to share your experiences and send a message to Microsoft, Google, Apple and other fellow PC users.
After I wrote my blog post yesterday about Mike Rothman's move from Microsoft to Google and Mac OS X technologies in his business, I wasn't expecting to turn right around and read another article about the same topic. But that's just what happened. Network World's Jon Brodkin wrote a piece describing two more examples of Google Apps replacing Microsoft products, in his article Google Apps lures early adopters with low price, easy setup.
Is the motivation to move from Microsoft Office to Google Apps about the software costs? Is it a sign of protest against Microsoft's dominance in the market? Hatred of Microsoft? Is this phenomenon limited to very small offices of 1-3 people? Will offices of 10, 20, 50 or more make this same move to Google Apps?
I have lots of questions about this dynamic we're seeing in the marketplace. Some of these questions come from my own startup business experiences, and my frustrations with "going it alone" earlier in the life of Macintosh products in a Windows world. It can be a painful and lonely experience but maybe the tide has changed and it really is viable to run businesses on Google Apps.
I'm certainly a believer in the Web 2.0 and On Demand software model and the increasing impact its having in our industry. Like free open source software, free Google applications makes some of the setup, integration, incompatibilities and other types of problems palpable. That's not saying Microsoft Office is immune from problems. But it does take effort to make the move, so the reward has to be worth the effort invested to make it happen.
Post your thoughts about why this move is appealing, how much work is really involved, what problems you encountered and what solutions or workarounds you've found?
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Mitchell Ashley is CEO and Chief Strategist of Converging Network, LLC, providing product and technology strategies to emerging technology companies. A serial entrepreneur, Mitchell has created many successful products and services in the networking, security, convergence, Internet and IT industries. In addition to blogging for NetworkWorld, Mitchell regularly blogs at TheConvergingNetwork and co-hosts the widely popular Still Crazy After All These Years podcast.
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Google Apps leads the ZEROi - Computing in the Cloud movement
For the sake of full disclosure - we are a Google partner, as well as a Microsoft Gold partner - so we know both sides.
Lately, we have been helping dozens of organizations switch to Google Apps - sometimes from simple POP3 email hosting, but other times, because they are frustrated with Microsoft Exchange (stand-alone, or Small Business Server). Similarly, sometimes Google Docs, Sheets, and Presently are serving to help in online collaboration, but other times, they are replacing what 80% of people use Microsoft Office for (basic document creation, basic spreadsheets, and simple presentations).
2008 is going to be a pivotal year - people (that's regular users) are going to start to understand that their data and applications really belong on the Web (in the cloud), not on their desktops - for some of the same reasons that our money belongs in the bank, not in a shoebox:
- It's safer there.
- It can be accessible from anywhere.
- It can do more there.
And companies are going to realize they don't really want to be in the IT business (unless that's what they do) - they don't want to manage servers, worry about backups, and constantly be patching and fixing things ($8 out of every $10 IT dollars goes towards functions which add no business value to the organization - Gartner, 2007).
This is what we call the ZEROi (Zero Infrastructure) movement. We called it ZEROi since we came up with this vague idea years ago (before anyone talked about 'computing in the cloud'). We didn't really know how to do it - but Google came along and made a huge impact with Google Apps. I think 2008 is where we'll see more and more of computing going in this direction - at least, that's what we're betting on.
given a choice no one wants
given a choice no one wants to use microsoft product. it is not design for ease of use.
Switching to Google Apps
I switched over year ago because I was using MS Office XP, I didn't want to shell out a lot of money to upgrade to the newest version. I have been using Gmail since 2004, and I found that Google Apps were easy to learn, and I loved the convenience of accessing my files anywhere without creating VPNs or remote access. It also improved collaboration for my clients and myself. I work with a lot of small business owners and start-ups who often have small budgets for IT needs. I recommend open source software to them to meet their needs without breaking their budgets. They are a bit uncertain at first, because they are most familiar with MS's brandname. They want software that is easy to use and functional. Once they try Open Office and Google Apps, they realize that they can do the same things they expected from MS Office, and they are thrilled that they didn't need to spend a lot to do the same. Many get excited over the convenience and accessibility of using Google Apps, especially those who do a lot of outside sales and may need to access a document they don't have with them.
So far, I've only had one client (who happens to be my brother-in-law) purchase MS Office in the past year, and that was because he felt more comfortable sticking with the brand name which he was most familiar. However, he did switch to Gmail from his ISP's email because I pointed out to him that he wouldn't have to update his email address with all of his contacts if he wanted to change ISPs at some point. I showed him all the other apps that are available through Google, and he was very interested, but his chief concern was that his contacts using MSOffice might have compatibility issues with Google Apps. He said that he would likely try out Google Apps to see how easy/hard it is to work around the format compatibility, and he can definitely see his family using it on their home computers so they don't have to worry about which computer a document is stored.
I use Google aps because
I use Google aps because they are cheap! Easy to use and work on Vista without crashing (my home computer that is)