Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
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Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#2Remove the middle man and bring more value to your customers. What a concept.
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#3Remove the middle man and bring more value to your customers. What a concept.
Actually the problem is that Google's apps are self-service, and this is not what enterprise customers are used to. Most startups discussed here don't have the option to provide the non-scallable phone support either, so it is a very relevant problem.
Hiring 1000 people in a support center in India is a very un-googly thing to do, so I guess Google will keep the prices low and persist educating their customers to be able to use the services themselves. Maybe someone can invent a better way to do just that.
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#4The real problem is inertia.
'Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM', remember? It'll take a generation to get rid of the crap, but it will happen. The CIO at USC arranged a campus-wide rollout; more will follow. Once students (who then enter the workforce and, eventually, make decisions) decide that $free >> $discounted for Office, and things like a proper mail merge/track changes/export to Word are implemented, it's all over.
Things like Scribd and ever-improving ajax applications, along with hopefully forthcoming solutions to permit web browsers to exploit multicore 'puter power, should help a lot. It always blows me away when managers make excuses for paying (out of habit) for features that their workers do not use. Free is not always better, but all other things kept equal, free+no-local-maintenance is very good for a company.
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#5Remove the middle man and bring more value to your customers. What a concept.
Actually the problem is that Google's apps are self-service, and this is not what enterprise customers are used to. Most startups discussed here don't have the option to provide the non-scallable phone support either, so it is a very relevant problem. Hiring 1000 people in a support center in India is a very un-googly thing to do, so I guess Google will keep the prices low and persist educating their customers to be…
"this is not what enterprise customers are used to"
Another excellent reason to adopt them.
"non-scallable phone support"
Here's how to provide the best scalable support: Make your apps easy to use and do exactly what their supposed to without bugs. No need for "support centers". Problem solved. Woo hoo!
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#6The real problem is inertia. 'Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM', remember? It'll take a generation to get rid of the crap, but it will happen. The CIO at USC arranged a campus-wide rollout; more will follow. Once students (who then enter the workforce and, eventually, make decisions) decide that $free >> $discounted for Office, and things like a proper mail merge/track changes/export to Word are implemented, it's…
Exactly. In 5 to 10 years, enterprise apps as we know them today will be like VHS tapes.
The only people really complaining are the middlemen who add no value. Imagine that, technology that makes you add value or get out of the supply chain.
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#7Remove the middle man and bring more value to your customers. What a concept.
Actually the problem is that Google's apps are self-service, and this is not what enterprise customers are used to. Most startups discussed here don't have the option to provide the non-scallable phone support either, so it is a very relevant problem. Hiring 1000 people in a support center in India is a very un-googly thing to do, so I guess Google will keep the prices low and persist educating their customers to be…
"Actually the problem is that Google's apps are self-service, and this is not what enterprise customers are used to."
Having worked with numerous "enterprise" packages in various capacities, I can assure you that most enterprise software vendors offer something that only barely qualifies as "support" anyway. The difference is that Google isn't lying about their level of support,
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#8nb. The article covers Postini, which is like SpamAssassin/DSPAM (or Zimbra for that matter), only it costs money. There are some details that I am eliding, but fundamentally, that's what we're talking about.
Postini likely adds a great deal of value to Gmail by virtue of the vastly larger corpus. If that means that Postini is no longer a viable product for 3rd-party deployment, tough shit for the 3rd parties.
What I don't understand is why a Postini user (eg.) wouldn't just switch to Gmail for Domains and forward everything through an IMAP relay.
I originally replied (on autopilot) regarding the existing Google Docs/Applications framework. If they don't merge the entire mess into a rollup offering, I'm going to be flabbergasted.
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#9It seems like the major criticism leveled by the article is that Postini customers want support and are willing to pay for it and google is not offering support and not making them pay for it.
Seems like the perfect opportunity to sell Postini support now that they aren't bundled anymore. Support isn't Google's core competency anyway, they're probably leaving this to others on purpose.
Re: Is Google's Enterprise Software Too Cheap?
#10The real problem is inertia. 'Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM', remember? It'll take a generation to get rid of the crap, but it will happen. The CIO at USC arranged a campus-wide rollout; more will follow. Once students (who then enter the workforce and, eventually, make decisions) decide that $free >> $discounted for Office, and things like a proper mail merge/track changes/export to Word are implemented, it's…
The flaw I see in that argument is that you have no guarantee of service. Some people (my employer) care about that, and some don't. I'm not saying it's insurmountable. I'm just saying that the idea of a Boeing or a General Motors converting to Gmail isn't going to come to fruition under the current model.