Google Vs. Microsoft - Office Politics
By Moshe Zeidman in Reader
Posted in Google, Microsoft on July 18, 2008 at 10:38 am
The announcement (Thursday 17th July) by The Telegraph Media Group (TMG) that Google Apps will replace Microsoft Office as the productivity suite for its 1400 employees should send a warning call to Microsoft. In my mind it’s a bombshell! Not that Microsoft will mourn the loss of 1400 business users (a drop in the ocean of its installed customer base), but for what the move represents.
TMG lives and breathes documents. That’s what it does. It could not afford to take this kind of decision lightly. No one would have excused the company for taking the ’safe’ option to remain with the tried and tested route. Aside from the cost savings inherent in ditching Microsoft, wider business issues underpin the strategy;
Paul Cheesbrough, TMG chief information officer reported “We had the same reservations as many technologists about moving our software into the cloud. But increasingly so much of our business is on the Internet, in terms of the content we produce for our customers and the news feeds we use from the likes of Reuters. The deal is also a key part of our plan to move TMG towards a ‘cloud computing’ model.”
The question becomes, at what point will many companies be in the same position as TMG where most of their business is based on the Web? When will the tipping point come?
It’s not just a question of Office politics. At some stage it will make good business sense.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Comment by David - July 21, 2008 on 8:16 am
I went through a period of trying to use Google documents. As well as being away from my office and need access to my documents from different locations, I share the documents with clients for their review. However unless you are writing simple documents or spreadsheets then Google Docs is very limiting. I found that the simplest of tasks were impossible in Google Docs. It was not a difficult decision to revert to MS Office.
I don’t think that Google Docs will every really compete with the mass business market while the products lack the sophistication that is required for that market.
Comment by Moshe Zeidman - July 21, 2008 on 6:17 pm
Clearly Google Docs will not be right for everyone, but for simlple word processing - which meets the needs of the majority of users, Google Docs might yet topple Word.
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