Google in the Enterprise--A Microsoft Partner's Perspective

At the November Boston SIM  monthly meeting, Paul Souza of Google spoke about their strategy for selling to enterprise customers.  Paul recently joined Google to head its enterprise business in New England.  The talk was excellent and there were many insightful questions from the corporate IT managers and consultants in attendance.

As a Microsoft partner, I was very interested in understanding how this formidable Microsoft competitor was going to market.  Specifically, I was interested in Google's strategy for search, software as a service, and its overall sales approach.

For enterprise search,  Google sells variations on its appliance.  A stand-alone search server that can be hooked into the corporate network to index and search documents, web content, and corporate data bases.  It's main selling point is ease-of-use and the well-known Google search web interface.

The Google search screenshot that Paul showed looked a lot like the Microsoft enterprise search screenshots that I have seen.  Search on Intel and you can easily access the Intel record in your company's CRM system, information on your company's account manager for Intel, and documents and web pages that mention Intel.

I asked Paul if Google's search had all the features of high-end search engines like Autonomy.  He said that they had features that Google's engineers thought were important, based on Google's expertise in search.  They are selling their deep search knowledge gained from internet search to grow their enterprise search business.  A strategy that makes a great deal of sense.

Google is making a strong push into applications.  They are using a software as a service model and have a web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and email program.  They sell this as a suite for $50 per user per year.

The applications do not have the features of their Microsoft counterparts.  Paul commented that they are not targeting power users.  Rather they are focusing on the 20% of the features that are used 80% of the time.  He noted that for many casual users of office suites, Google's apps are a lower cost alternative.  Paul was asked about off-line use and noted that this will be coming in the near future.

Paul also noted that the "Google cloud" provides a reliable home for the apps.  He touted Google's investment in servers and the benefits of not having to worry about upgrades with the software as a service model.

Google seems to be aggressively building its enterprise team.  Paul noted that it has grown significantly since he came on board less than one year ago.  I think he was the first. and still might be the only sales person for Google in New England.  He noted that he has no need to make cold calls and that he relies just has to process in-bound calls from local enterprise prospects.

It will be very interesting to watch the search and application battle between Microsoft and Google over the coming years.  At KMA, we have been very focused on building our expertise in Microsoft's enterprise search product.  We have also been very impressed with its capabilities.  Enterprise search is a critical technology for both companies.

I am also interested in seeing the in-roads web-based applications make into office productivity tools.  I know Microsoft is focusing a great deal of R&D in this area.  It wonder what, if any, role partners will play in supporting this business.

Comments

[Nathan]

I wuish you'd asked him about their search's security integration. that's where it consistently belly-flops. Google just doesn't get the enterprise and doesn't seem committed to either.