Google Apps: productivity boon
Half a million companies are already using Google Apps, but these are mostly small and medium-sized businesses which appreciate that it is effortless to manage, easy to use and largely free. Some aspects of the service can incur costs.
Larger organisations, which have more complex demands, have yet to jump on the Apps bandwagon. Industry analysts say the suite is not likely to be seriously considered by enterprises until it can support reporting, audit trails and service-level agreements for large-scale commercial users.
Strive PR is an SME, which means we fit nicely into Google Apps’ sweet spot. Our trial has been limited to calendar, docs and Gmail — all of which have proved to be feature rich, reliable and easy to use. Google Calendar, in particular, has been a boon to our company. It has transformed our scheduling and workflow management systems. Click here to see the rest of this Tech Talk column.
Filed under: public relations
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I regulary use Google Docs outside of work to share documents with other people. I find it absolutley brilliant and a much better way of updating and sharing information instead of emailing too and fro all the time.
I have used Google Docs, and in it’s previous incarnation as Writely. A brilliant idea, as it allows me to develop requirements specs for projects and have clients modify my content to form a formal definition we can both agree on and track back. I also use GMail, and have since 2002, and it is a revelation. Why this service is still not available elsewhere is beyond me. (Maybe it has something to do with patents?)
However, don’t discount Microsoft. MS have the world’s best Office software which Google Apps will never be able to come close to mimmicking due to the it’s web application nature. Sharepoint comes free on Windows servers and is awesome as Office integrates within it to create workflow, versioning and other management services.
@Nathan: As you say, the two major players in this market are really Google and Microsoft (although Open Office may emerge as a contender in the future).
One major difference though is cost. The entry point for Microsoft Office (that’s Microsoft Office Basic i.e. Word, Excel and Outlook) is £133 per user, Google’s entry point is £0 per user.
If you’re looking at the small business and home market, it’s not very hard to decide which to go for …
Excellent debate guys. Here’s my goal: to figure out how I can open up the collaborative features of Google Apps to clients but keeps their information (and ours) confidential. With a multitude of clients campaigns being carried out at all at the same time it seems as if it could be a challenge. Idea welcome.