Google may be declaring war against Microsoft and Office 365 - TechRepublic
▻http://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-is-declaring-war-against-microsoft-and-office-365
According to an August 2015 report, Microsoft Office 365 has surpassed Google Apps and now controls more than 25% of the enterprise market—triple the enterprise market share the company held just a year ago. That is some serious growth and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the folks at Alphabet (aka Google).
On October 19, 2015, Rich Rao, head of global sales for Google Apps for Work announced a new program specifically designed to turn the tide against Microsoft Office 365’s advance.
In a nutshell, enterprises with preexisting contracts for a competitor’s office suite (read Office 365) looking to switch to Google Apps can do so and not pay any additional fees until the competitor’s contract has run its course. In essence, switching enterprises will pay Microsoft’s contract while they use Google Apps.
When the preexisting contract is over, enterprises sign a new contract with Google Apps. The announcement also suggests that Google will pay some of the transition costs through a special program offered by its Google for Work Partners service.
This is a bold move by Google and it signals that the company is reeling from the sudden surge of Microsoft Office 365. I don’t think Google was expecting this level of competition for its Google Apps suite.
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The real battleground lies in cloud and collaboration services, including collaboration tools, storage, video communication, and document sharing. The cloud is where Microsoft and Google are going to fight their battle for productivity suite superiority.
And cloud is where Microsoft has been winning handily for the past year or so. I believe the new cloud and collaboration emphasis of Office 365 has taken Google by surprise. I think Google has realized that Microsoft has upped its game and that it can’t coast into increased enterprise market share by merely offering a lower-price, simpler productivity suite.
