On the eve of Microsoft’s launch of Office 365, Google tried to steal the thunder from Microsoft with a blog titled 365 reasons to consider Google Apps on its Google Enterprise Post.
The blog post forwards four areas in which they consider to have an edge over MS Office 365 :
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Office 365 is for individuals. Apps is for teams. – Most of us no longer spend our days working on our own. We work with others: creating, collaborating, sharing.
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Productive Anywhere – Office 365 is built for Microsoft Apps is for choice.
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Simple and Affordable – Office 365 is 11 different plans, three editions and two tiers. Apps is $5/month with no commitment. We have a single, transparent, low price that meets everyone’s needs and it has not changed in 4 years.
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Pure and Proven Cloud – Office 365 is about the desktop. Apps is about the web.
Counteracting Google’s claims in a Zdnet report, Mary Jo Foley, technical writer, argues, “Microsoft’s recent Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) service problems have been a definite issue for its customers and partners. Microsoft’s new multi-tenant-centric design of Office 365 may help make the new platform more resilient than BPOS.”
Regarding Google’s claim of Google Apps being simple and affordable, Foley says, “I realize there can be a trade-off between choice and simplicity and Microsoft has gone for choice with its myriad Office 365 E plans, K plans, inclusion of a local office client option etc., and not a ‘one price/package fits all’ deal.
Foley expresses surprise over Google’s reasons to label Office 365 ‘for individuals’, considering that one of the main features of Office 365 is Share Point Online, the Microsoft-hosted version of its Share Point communication and collaboration platform.
When Foley sought a clarification on the ‘team vs. Individual’ point, a Google spokesperson apparently told her that the comparison was about collaborating on inside a document, that Office Web Apps doesn’t support collaboration from within a document — something Google has tried to remedy with Google Cloud Connect.
Commenting on Google’s claims that Office 365 is about the desktop and Apps is about the Web, Foley says that Microsoft is not ignoring the Web with Office 365. Office Web Apps support is a part of Office 365, she says. It may be noted here that Office Web Apps includes webified versions of Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint and works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome.
Foley explains, “As it has done with its Azure platform, Microsoft has emphasized a hybrid approach with its cloud apps bundle. Users can run Exchange, SharePoint and Lync on servers in their own datacenters; run the Microsoft-hosted versions of these products as part of Office 365; and/or run a mix of these two sets of offerings. It’s not a 100 percent cloud-based sales pitch, but many users I talk to prefer the hybrid approach to no software at all.”
The Google Enterprise blogpost concludes with, “Ok, we didn’t get to all 365 reasons here today, but we hope we gave you some things to think about. Ultimately, we have a fundamentally different vision for the future of software. That’s good, because it provides a clear choice. Before you invest ten years in the past, we’d humbly encourage you to invest ten minutes in today by checking out why so many businesses have chosen Google Apps. Apps isn’t for everyone. But in the last week alone 38,000 businesses decided to give it a try. Maybe you should too.”
Foley could not get a response from Microsoft to the Google blog post.