Microsoft Office or Google Apps?

Google's recent deal with IT outsourcer Capgemini makes Google Apps available through the consultant to its client companies. What are those companies really getting for their $50 annual license?

Whether your company uses Microsoft Office or not, and plenty do, Google would like you to consider 'complementing' that desktop productivity suite with its software as a service options from Capgemini's deal with Google could lead some clients with large numbers of entry level staffers to switch them to Google Apps.

It looks like a simple question of mathematics at a high level overview. Why put a copy of Office, with all of its sophisticated features, on the desktops of dozens of people who only need basic functionality. Why support patches and updates for Office with in-house staff when Google will do all of that under the hood work for you?

All a worker would need besides the PC and Internet connection would be a headset, for use with Google Talk. That application may not receive much use on the voice side, as we think Google Apps would be destined for "cube farm" setups like call centers.

Google's document and spreadsheet handling can convert various file formats for viewing. A higher-level staffer distributing an Excel spreadsheet or Word document to the masses would not have to worry about others being able to read it.

If they publish it through Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the document in question can be managed from one place in terms of access and availability.

Capgemini said in its its rebuttal. It's the same concern that led firms to abandon client-server apps in favor of desktop software - the issue of the application server, or a network, going down while people are trying to work with Google Apps.

Outages are not unheard of, even at Google. They aren't unheard of on the PC side, either. Is the chance of a network or Google outage any greater than that of a PC problem? Capgemini's talk, offering Google Apps is a small step into empowering a lot of people who would not have such a productivity resource made available to them. Not every company is on a scale where they need a Capgemini to come in and make this happen.

But in this age, all a company needs is an Internet connection, and some time to sign up for and enable Google Apps. It's an option firms should at least consider before writing that check for Office licenses.