Businesses require office productivity tools -- a category that Microsoft has been leading for the past two decades.
Next month, Microsoft Office will celebrate its 22nd anniversary. The suite survived competition from Corel's Word Perfect, Lotus 123, and Sun's Open Office. For two decades, it has innovated, thrived, and captured the enterprise market. Microsoft offered and then withdrew 13 features and applications from later versions. Office is now available in more than 35 languages. With all this, the software has seemed invincible.
But now a strong contender is emerging -- Google Docs, now part of Google Drive. It works online, just like all other Google products. It incorporates word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet software. It does not cover project management, database, or desktop publishing, which Microsoft comprehensively includes with MS Project, MS Access, and MS Publisher. But most office employees seldom, if ever, use these additional pieces of software. They don't even come in standard editions of MS Office.
The objective of this blog is not to compare the two versions. You can read that comparison here. Rather, I want to look at the things enterprise and midsized IT managers should consider before choosing a cloud-based productivity solution now that they have choices from both Microsoft and Google.
Microsoft responded to Google's online approach with its own SaaS product, Office 365, which evolved from Office Live. Pricing starts at $4 per user, versus $5 for Google. The year-old Office 365's interface is similar to Microsoft Office's and extends the Microsoft Office desktop to work seamlessly with the online version. Microsoft has OEM pricing and a big base of enterprise customers that use the Windows operating system to its advantage.
Why is Microsoft worried when Google's suite works only online and has primitive features and comparatively few users?
To begin with, Google has the power to convert its search and email users into Google Docs users. It already has 1 billion search users and 400 million Gmail users. That makes Gmail the most widely used Web-based email service in the world, according to GigaOm.
When Gmail users click on document attachments, they can save, edit, and share all their email attachments through Google Docs. See the example snapshot below.
Easy Access With Google Docs
Gmail users can save, edit, and share attachments using Google Docs.
Google retains a broad claim to reproduce, use, and create derivative works from any content that is stored on the Google Drive. What you will find surprising is that this license is perpetual -- even after your content is removed. Although the user retains intellectual property rights, the broad Google Drive license allows for promoting the service -- and for the extraction and parsing of uploaded content -- to customize advertising and other services that Google provides to the user.
This created a lot of hue and cry when a CNET blogger raised the issue this spring. This is something enterprise IT managers may want to consider before deciding which solution to choose for their organization.
Google and Microsoft both offer their enterprise suite at no cost anywhere in the world to educational institutions of all sizes and levels. If you are managing enterprise IT for an educational institution, pricing is not a factor in the decision-making process.
Microsoft's second fear stems from Google's inroads in tablets and smartphones through Android. As creating, editing, and reviewing tools on these portable devices improves, Google will beat Office 365 hands down, due to its syncing capability, Android marketshare, and Gmail and search integration. Then we will see a tipping point.
Suddenly, despite decades of Office domination, Microsoft does not appear invincible. This should be giving a few people sleepless nights in Redmond.
Talha Khalid is a consultant and trainer in technology, supply chain, and game theory.
I just don't think Google Docs / Apps is really ready for the 'enterprise' world what so ever. As you said, the price just isn't there yet, and the functionality is not either. What's worse is, not being able to control the updates. The one thing that makes Microsoft's products so wonderful for Administrators is that we can control the updates and how/when they get deployed. Obviously, with Google, you're at their mercy and clearly they don't care too much about us when they go and make updates that changes or breaks our current functionality, which is absolutely unacceptable in an enterprise environment.
@ mhhfive
Thanks for sharing your experience about GoogleDocs changing formulas. I'l be careful next time when editing the spreadsheets on this platform.
Talha, I feel Google Docs can give tough competition on desktops and laptops as far as using for eg spreadsheets in the edit mode is concerned but on mobile devices people rarely feel comfortable in doing time-taking tasks therefore they will use spreadsheets only for either viewing purpose or for making minor changes. Nevertheless I do realize that MS hardly has any presence with Office applications in the mobile device market.
On the part of the consumer, I think MS Office and Google Docs could easily coexist. Google Docs is free and Windows machines come pre-installed with a lighter version of Office. No problem in having both. I think the enterprise is the bigger question, since this is largely a strategic decision, and it's the one that'll really rake in money for both parties.
Google, in my opinion, has a double-edged sword in the form of Google Apps. On one hand, Google Apps-run enterprises are quite likely to use Docs. On the other hand, I doubt that an enterprise that doesn't use Google Apps will adopt Docs at all. Google Apps licenses are far too expensive if people are only going to use Google Drive.
Given that, I think the enterprise world can easily be divided into the Google Apps enterprises and those that aren't, at least in terms of office suites. Those that use Google Apps will either use Docs entirely or share the pie with Microsoft Office. Those that don't use it will likely not see the use of Google Docs at the level of the enterprise.
Brian - Google Docs has an offline version. Not all features are available offline, but Google continues work on making them available one by one. The mobile apps are great, too. You could download "files" and sync on mobile as well. I don't think offline mode will be a question in a year's time.
For me, the main difference between a web app and a native app will still be speed; native apps can make better use of a computer's resources whereas browser-based apps can just drive browsers to crash.
Kim - For simple tasks, the current version of Google's spreadsheet app does very well. It can even be more user-friendly than Excel because it cuts out a lot of high-end features that many users don't need. That said, if we're talking about the enterprise, those high-end features start to matter. If you've tried doing Pivot Tables in both programs, you'd know how hard it is to do in Google Docs. I don't think AJAX will ever match the speed of desktop software. Let's not even talk about how well Excel could integrate into Microsoft's ERP systems. Macros, complex functions, etc... the enterprise's financial arm has totally geeked out on Excel and will have a tough time switching.
I love the power of Excel and the convenience of Google Docs. I use both, the former for serious spreadsheet tasks, and the latter for simpler, everyday tasks. I spend more time on Google Docs but more serious time with Excel.
I have yet to try Google Docs and I have been a Microsoft Office user for numerous years. Is the transition to Google Docs pretty seamless? I am all about trying new applications if the application makes my job easier. However, if I can get the same effect with using Office, it may take a while for me to jump on the bandwagon to switch over to Google Docs.
Google's web-based spreadsheet is functional, but it isn't anyway near as capable as Excel for macros and other complex functions.
Plus, over a span of a few months, when I was trying to use some "slightly" advanced spreadsheet functions on Google Docs, Google changed how the functions worked, so I had to re-write all my formulas to match their new syntax. That was a real pain, and the only way I found out about it... was by reading google "help" forums -- which aren't even staffed by dedicated Google employees most of the time. So... free online web apps are nice, but they're not quite as nice as they could be.
Imagine if your MSFT Excel file that had a bunch of linked formulas just stopped working the way it used to... at least packaged software the runs locally won't unexpectedly change and break your previous work.
I've been forced to use a Google Docs spreadsheet for a collaborative task, and I'm finding it about as user friendly as Excel. I admit, I'm not doing anything fancy with it.
I agree, mhhfive. Excel is a staple of Microsoft and one that is not going to be easily surpassed. At least, not anytime soon. There are alternatives to Excel out there, but none that I've tried thus far can compared to the power that Excel holds within. People sometimes take for granted just how in depth Excel can go; it's not just a spreadsheet application. We have people here who use it to build elaborate calculating tools and even use it as a staging place to then convert over to a PDF. I myself am not very well versed in Excel, which is a shame, but it's not an application I'd venture to guess, would be outdone anytime soon.
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