
Google Apps Moving Onto Microsoft’s Business Turf - Pr0
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/technology/google-apps-moving-onto-microsofts-business-turf.html?_r=0
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photorized
In our recent experience, video in Google Hangouts is great for group calls
with offshore devs - much more stable than Skype, and better quality overall.

That's just one aspect, but I can see Google apps posing a serious threat to
MSFT.

~~~
pinaceae
ever tried Google Spreadsheets vs. MS Excel? it's like drag racing a Yugo vs.
a Porsche. the browser is such a shit environment to deal with large data
sets.

~~~
rbanffy
It depends on what you are trying to do. If it's a complex model, Excel wins.
If you are trying to get two people on different offices to work on the same
spreadsheet, Google crushes Excel.

~~~
mandeepj
I am not sure why Office 365 cannot be used by two people on different offices
to work on the same spreadsheet.

Office 365 says We are the easiest way to work together.

[http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/free-
office365-tria...](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/free-
office365-trial-
si.aspx?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=PS_google_Office+365_Entice_office%20365_Text)

~~~
thwarted
I'd love to demo Office 365's simultaneous edit functionality hidden somewhere
behind that link to see how it compares to Google Docs, but after clicking
through two links and seeing multiple pages that were trying to upsell me via
"buy now" or "try for 90 days", I have to enter a whole bunch of identifying
information to create a new account, and even choose a new, unique domain
name. Want to see how Google docs works, which you don't even need to be
signed in to google to view or edit? Then click this link:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AozKRH1Kuez_dGR...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AozKRH1Kuez_dGRXcDdrSk5EcjJDNHhYblRweW0xX3c)

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meaty
Not going to happen. Not now or ever. Why?

* trust. People don't trust google with their data after a few major fuckups. The same goes for all cloud providers.

* hard to control information flow.

* absolutely worthless support

* features are not comparable.

* cost aggregated over 5 years is more. People use office licenses forever - literally 10+ years.

* legal and regulatory issues.

* PATRIOT act which at least for us European customers throws the safe harbour scheme out of the window.

* Training and fungibility. People are used to mashing word and excel and those people are easily replaceable.

* Availability. Businesses require better availability than your average internet connection but don't want to pay for a better one.

I can't see any reasons to actually use it other than a short term cheap out
and the false pretense of lowering support costs.

~~~
eitally
Even if you were correct in all your points, the increase in collaboration it
facilitates is a big enough win to, at minimum, make Google Apps a worthwhile
compliment to MS Office. I'm not sure whether you have direct experience with
Google Apps in a large enterprise but your points read as if you don't; I'll
withhold my comments until/unless you clarify.

~~~
meaty
Which collaboration features are missing? Don't forget to explain alternatives
to lync, SharePoint and SkyDrive and the venerable exchange as well...

For ref, I did the full technical evaluation for google apps for two companies
200+ employees and came up with the answer above.

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euroclydon
As if a plain vanilla SharePoint installation wasn't bad enough, where I work
we have documents spread across: SharePoint, Lotus Notes, Gmail for Business,
Google Drive, Google Apps, shared directories and more.

~~~
sriramk
I'm wondering how many HN readers are looking at this comment and are thinking
to themselves "That's a great problem for a startup to tackle".

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InclinedPlane
Sharepoint is a steaming pile of crap and yet somehow it manages to pull in an
ungodly amount of revenue. The big problem in that space isn't featureset,
it's sales. People buy and use sharepoint because it's backed by MS. In order
to beat out MS in that market you don't just need to be incrementally better
you either need a product which is so vastly better it leaves sharepoint in
the dust or you need something that has killer features which drive adoption
and maybe obsoletes sharepoint as a side effect.

~~~
meaty
Agreed but to be honest there is nothing else that has that good integration
that you can shoehorn your entire business process into.

As for startups taking this on, there isn't a chance in hell. The problem is
too big to solve quickly enough to get market traction. SharePoint is big and
complicated for a real reason.

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kmfrk
Great with competition, regardless what you think of them. I hope this means
we'll see a Google where users don't have to use Hacker News to get customer
support.

It seems weird that Microsoft still haven't implemented two-factor
authentication for Outlook.com. Maybe Yahoo will beat them to it.

~~~
crag
Support is the other issue. Google's support is - well frankly, crap. Even
paying customers (which my firm is) - all we get is email support. If we find
a number to call, we've never reached a live person.

I'm sorry, but if my spreadsheet has an issues I can't wait 3 days for email
support. I need someone on the phone now.

Support is Google's biggest weakness. From Google Apps to phones. It's
something they need to admit they need. And address it.

~~~
mandeepj
Microsoft's support is really great. Although it is expensive. Besides phone
support you can also get Microsoft's support person sitting next to you to
help you out.

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px1999
Google's business models are at-ends with one another. Are they an ad company?
Are they a free/low-end provider who can get away with killing popular
services when they no longer benefit them? Are they a serious provider of
business services?

They can get away with one, maybe two of these. I'd be happy to pay a bunch
more for Google apps if they had a more serious SLA/they gave more confidence
that the services aren't going to change, and if they offered business
features to match the price.

~~~
true_religion
Perhaps they're just something akin to a umbrella corporation. That leaves
their different divisions room to pursue different goals.

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ladzoppelin
Google needs to charge what ever price needed to get Google Apps making money.
Trying to be "the free & cheap" alternative then later drastically raising the
price or killing services is unacceptable with important business software
that does not even have feature parity with the competition.

~~~
jonknee
... And Google has been for years. $50 a year per user seems reasonable and
surely covers expenses

