Google Claims New Enterprise Wins For Apps

Google is casting a shadow over Microsoft's launch of Windows 7 this week with news of more enterprise wins for its online Google Apps suite of collaboration and email services.

The newest win, British pest control company Rentokil, is the largest company to deploy Google Apps so far, and is joined by Konica Minolta and wholesale plumbing supply company Toto, according to Google's official blog. These wins helps give the lie to the argument that enterprise customers won't switch to cloud email services because the cost savings aren't significant; if customers are convinced that the email is secure and the service is stable, the advantages extend beyond cost savings to matters of resource allocation and flexibility. Rentokil's CIO, Bryan Kinsella, told Reuters the company made the move less to save money than to simplify systems management and increase capacity.

Google is also expanding its "Gone Google" publicity campaign to the U.K., France, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore. The campaign encourages individuals to talk about the benefits of switching to Google from traditional on-premise applications like Microsoft's Exchange or IBM's Lotus email systems, and is a way to get around refusals by some companies to become reference customers. Google may not be able to give prospective customers the name of a CIO or CTO, but they can send them to a Web page full of testimonials, including Tweets and videos.

Given that reference customers tend to be cherry-picked, this approach could even come across as more authentic because the Tweeted testimonials are often more believable than scripted ones.

Google also provides prospective customers (and the IT folks who may not have a budget but do have influence) with tools to market Apps internally, including templates for memos and internal communications that stress specific themes, such as inbox storage limits. Imagine the simplicity of giving prospects the cheat sheets and embed links to videos allowing them to make better, more customized presentations than any external sales team could produce.

While Google's claims for overall wins sounds impressive, the company still lags far behind established software vendors like Microsoft, SAP, IBM, and Oracle, especially among enterprise-sized businesses. And while I've reported on companies like Fairchild Semiconductor testing Google Apps (which decided to roll it out to its staff), there have been instances where large companies (like GE) have tested Google Apps and then balked. Ironically, GE's NBC Universal unit, a Salesforce.com customer and big promoter for on-demand software internally, is apparently being shopped by the company.

But the likes of Microsoft shouldn't become complacent. In general, Google's enterprise wins will indeed come indirectly, though departmental buys rather than strategic overhauls -- much as Salesforce.com got off the ground with its account management application. Given Google's ability to bankroll losses in this area with gaudy revenues from advertising, the powers that be should worry that they'll soon become the powers that were.