Aug
10
3,000 Companies Switch to Google Apps Every Day
You read that right. Over 1.75 million companies have moved their email, scheduling, and document creation software into the cloud with Google Apps. Every day, more and more IT departments decide to leave email hosting and software upgrade cycles behind in favor of “Going Google”.
Google Apps is a web-based collection of email, communication, and collaboration applications designed to help business work more efficiently. The core of Google Apps is Gmail. With Google Apps Premiere Edition, Gmail is customized to your company and seamlessly integrates with your contact lists. Tools like message grouping (to keep replies to the same email in the same place) and message tagging let you keep on top of your inbox and never lose important emails. Also included in Google Apps is Google Calendar (for easy task management and scheduling that integrates with your email), Google Voice and IM chat from your inbox (with chat logging), and Google Docs (for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations).
So why are so many companies switching to a hosted software solution like Google Apps? One of the main reasons is cost. Google Apps Premiere Edition for business only runs $50 per user, per year. Compared to expensive Microsoft Office Suites and email hosting servers like Microsoft Exchange, Google Apps is a true bargain. There is no hardware to buy up front, because Google hosts all of the services. And, all software updates are integrated without any input from your IT department or users. And, there is no cost associated with upgrading to newer versions of Google Apps. It just happens automatically as new features are added.
Google Apps has other advantages like access to all of your emails, chats, documents, and calendars from anywhere, on any device. There is no extra cost for terminal services or BlackBerry integration. Almost any device with an internet connection will work with Google Apps, right out of the box.
Many companies are hesitant to trust all of their important emails and documents to a hosted solution based on remote servers. However, many secure government agencies have dissected Google Apps and found its backup and security capabilities to be more than sufficient.
I have a feeling we are only seeing the beginning of cloud-based software solutions like Google Apps. As high-speed internet and wireless broadband access becomes the standard, and users begin to trust hosted software more and more, we will see even more companies moving from the standard software license and hardware solution. It is just too cost effective to pay a yearly service fee to take care of all your software and hosting requirements. Google Apps even has a calculator to determine how much you could save by Going Google.
SoftwareMedia.com is working on Google Apps to our customers as an alternative to traditional software licensing. Stay tuned for further details.
For more information on Google Apps, check out the official site.
