The Google/Capgemini announcement on Monday [my blog post about it here] was apparently the trigger for a Microsoft e-mail to bloggers and reporters commenting about the deal. I didn't get the e-mail, but Mary Jo Foley did, and she blogged about it in a post entitled, "Microsoft offers its take on CapGemini-Google deal."
As I was reading through the Microsoft-supplied points, some were eerily familiar, and I suddenly realized that they were lifted from from my recent Google Apps report. In my view, such copying and pasting with minimal rework is a signal of a company under pressure.
Make no mistake, Microsoft should feel threatened by Google Apps. Furthermore, Google Apps is a moving target. While the current state of Google Apps leaves a lot to be desired, Google will continually improve the functionality, through alliances (the Capgemini alliance now lets them say they offer 24/7 telephone support via a partner), acquisitions (the JotSpot shoe still hasn't dropped), and development (e.g., Google Gears).
Following is a comparison of sections of my report and the Microsoft e-mail as reported by Mary Jo Foley. The similarities are italicized:
Google releasing incomplete products:
Burton Group Report: "Finally, Google itself can take some getting used to. The company has a history of releasing incomplete products, calling them beta software, and issuing updates on a “known only to Google” schedule. Furthermore, some companies are leery of entrusting their corporate documents to a company that makes its living from analyzing content and displaying it to the world. To these companies, keeping information secure seems at odds with Google’s emphasis on information sharing. In many ways, Google marches to a different drummer, and at this stage it’s not always in step with its enterprise customers."
Microsoft: "2. Google has a history of releasing incomplete products, calling them beta software, and issuing updates on a “known only to Google” schedule – this flies in the face of what enterprises want and need in their technology partners – what is Google doing that indicates they are in lock step with customer needs?"
Online collaboration with sophisticated documents:
Burton Group Report: "The online documents in GAPE do not have sophisticated features: for example, Docs do not support headers, footers, tables of content, or footnotes; and Spreadsheets cannot hide columns. While workers can synchronously collaborate on basic documents within the service, they cannot synchronously collaborate on more detailed documents, such as those with footnotes at bottom of each page. To get around this limitation, they must implement a two-part collaboration process: Initially synchronously collaborate on the body of the document, save it to Microsoft Word or Excel, and then send it around via e-mail to put the finishing touches on it."
Microsoft:“6. Google apps don’t have essential document creation features like support for headers, footers, tables of content, footnotes, etc. Additionally, while customers can collaborate on basic docs without the above noted features, to collaborate on detailed docs, a company must implement a two part process – work together on the basic doc, save it to Word or Excel and then send via email for final edits. Yes they have a $50 price tag, but with the inefficiencies created by just this one cycle, how much do GAPE really cost – and can you afford the fidelity loss?
Difficult to plan for product capabilities:
Burton Group Report: "Because Google owns the service, companies have minimal control over the timing of product rollouts or features. While companies can turn off sections of the service—for example, Gmail or Docs & Spreadsheets—they are stuck with the application capabilities that Google deploys.
This is in contrast to the software world, where enterprises strictly control which version of software they will install and when. This throttling of software features is often due to training issues and the company’s perceived value of the features. For example, many companies are currently debating if and when to install Office 2007, due to its new interface and the affiliated training issues. While Google works hard to make the software easy to use, companies lose the ability to tweak the rollout schedule for their unique needs."
Microsoft: "10. With Google apps in perpetual beta and Google controlling when and if they rollout specific features and functionality, customers have minimal if any control over the timing of product rollouts and features – how do 1) I know how to strategically plan and train and 2) get the features and functionality I have specifically requested? How much money does not knowing cost?
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