
What's Holding Back Google Apps? - hko
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2009/tc20090513_247160.htm
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chollida1
> Google Apps, on the other hand, store data on Google's servers. "That's
> probably our biggest stumbling block to going bigger with Google," Simpson
> says.

This is a huge problem for many companies. Some documents you really don't
care if Google stores or not.

However our compliance officer told us that we can't by law store rough drafts
of our annual report or any spreadsheets dealing with unreported numbers on
any servers but our own.

Google really needs to address this issue if it wants companies to move fully
to it's solution.

~~~
SamAtt
I'll second this. We've been experimenting with Zoho Office which has an API
(at least for it's most important apps). I'm shocked that Google (a company
with way more resources) hasn't at least matched what Zoho is doing in the
space.

~~~
tvon
I'm not sure I follow.

First, Google Apps has an API: <http://code.google.com/apis/apps/> though I
can't speak to it's completeness next to the Zoho API.

Second, an API has nothing to do with where the data is stored, unless I'm
missing something...?

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jimbokun
'"Building a sales staff to proffer its applications is a labor-intensive
endeavor that hasn't been part of the company's DNA, says Zachary Nelson, CEO
of online accounting software maker NetSuite (N). "If you want to sell
enterprise software, you have to have salespeople," he says.'

This seems the most concise summary of the problem. Enterprise sales is very
different than their consumer facing, ad supported businesses. And adding an
enterprise style sales force is probably a mistake, as it runs counter to
Google's business culture. Then you have two kinds of companies joined at the
hip, one that makes decisions by algorithm to keep cost of sales to a minimum,
and another that uses steak and strippers to sell product. It is not clear why
you should have one firm at that point, rather than spin off the enterprise
products into their own entity.

'Creating new ways to analyze business data inside Apps has been "harder to
get up on the priority list" given Google's long list of projects, according
to Sam Schillace, a Google engineering director who created the software
that's the basis for Google's word processor.'

On the other hand, this seems the place where Google could add value. Surely,
there must be Google engineers with clever ideas about how to employ Google's
infrastructure and machine learning algorithms to slurp in all the data in a
business's spreadsheets and spit out interesting, actionable information that
would be difficult for that business to recreate on its own?

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eugenejen
I had a discussion 3 weeks with coworkers. I thought the reason why Google
Apps and others are not making that progress fast enough is not purely
technology limitation on the web platform. Google are in fact may be very
careful not to put themselves in the same pair of shoes as Microsoft did to
get sued on basis of anti-trust.

Of course now we all heard from Techcrunch that DOJ has interested in building
possible case against Google.

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bayareaguy
I'd use Google Apps more if they were actually Google App Engine applications
which I could choose to run locally, on Google's server or on a third-party's
system.

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ZeroGravitas
Inertia.

The same thing keeping anyone stuck on outmoded middle of the road platforms
like Office. But Google are good enough to be picking folk up in various
niches, and there's other smaller players getting play too. Standard
disruptive innovation stuff.

Some of this article sounds a bit anti-Google, pro-Microsoft but really if, as
far as GE is concerned, Microsoft is simply one of three options for an office
suite, and its main plus is local data (rather than say total omnipresence)
then compared with a few years ago that's a terrible place for Microsoft to
be.

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invisible
The answer is really simple - a solid marketing campaign is missing. They have
relied on public attention for every other product they've produced (AdSense
and AdWords included).

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edw519
"What's Holding Back Google Apps?"

Speed and simplicity.

Microsoft Office is slow and complicated. Google Apps are slower and, in some
ways, more complicated.

Need examples of outrageous successes using speed and simplicity: email,
instant messaging, texting, .txt files. Google Apps must be more like these,
faster and simpler, for widespread adoption.

~~~
Flemlord
I disagree that MS Office is slow or complicated. It's very fast on every one
of my machines, especially compared to Java-based alternatives. And it's
extremely simple to use. Granted, there are complicated features but I
generally don't use them and they're hidden away on ribbon strips that I never
see.

~~~
edw519
"they're hidden away on ribbon strips that I never see"

Because you've already hidden them. Along with that fricken dancing paper
clip.

Many people, when initially overwhelmed by unnecessary features, just refuse
to adopt and stick with something simpler. _That's_ Google's biggest problem
with Apps.

~~~
MrRage
Have you used Office 2007 at all? They're hidden away by default. The whole
purpose of the ribbon was to manage the complexity better. Plus, there's no
paper clip. It's not the '90s anymore.

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chanux
Googlefail? :) <http://www.roomatic.com/%23googlefail>

