Google comments on release of Office 365.
Yesterday marked the launch of Microsoft Office 365. Many of you have asked for Google’s perspective, so we thought we’d share some of their thoughts to help you make an informed choice for your business. Technology inevitably gets more complicated as it gets older. Upgrading platforms and adding features results in systems that are increasingly difficult to manage and complex to use. At times like these, it’s worth considering a clean-slate: an approach based on entirely modern technologies, designed for today’s world. Here are some things to think about as you compare Google Apps and Office 365:
Designed for Teams: Office 365 is for individuals, apps is for teams.
Most of us no longer spend our days working on our own. We work with others: creating, collaborating and sharing. With Apps you can work with multiple people in the same document. There’s no need to worry about whether or not it’s possible to share a spread sheet, or co-edit a presentation. You can see people type in real time, and share a file in just two clicks. Discussions bring people into your documents for rich conversations. You don’t need to buy additional licenses to work with others, or hope people outside your company have upgraded to the same software. If you have a Google account, you can collaborate.
“We’ve shaved eight weeks off of the end-to-end budgeting process using Google Docs, which translates into close to 30% time savings,” said Michael Rodger, Delta’s Director of Digital Innovation.
Productive Anywhere: Office 365 is built for Microsoft. Apps is built for choice.
Office 365 is optimized for Windows-based PCs and devices, which reduces your flexibility. Our applications are designed to work well on any device, on any operating system. Desktop, laptop, Chromebook, tablet, smartphone. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows Mobile. Edit on the go. Share from anywhere. Start on your computer, move to your tablet, finish on your phone. When the web is the platform, it just works.
“The initial reason we looked at Google Apps was cost savings, but the on-going value of access to information from anywhere totally independent of the device is where we’re seeing the real gain,” said Scot Adams, the CIO of Cadillac Fairview.
Google have a single, transparent, low price that meets everyone’s needs, and it hasn’t changed in 4 years. There are no extras for basics like phone support and robust productivity apps. No long term contracts or opaque enterprise agreements. We also don’t lock you in. By design, we make it as easy as possible for you to move off of Google Apps if you want. We have a dedicated team of engineers whose sole goal is to help you get your data in and out of our products for free. We believe that the way to keep you long term is to continue to innovate and make our products better so that you choose to stay with us.
Pure & Proven Cloud: Office 365 is about the desktop. Apps is about the web.
Google Apps are accessed in a browser. There’s no client software to install, secure and maintain. Upgrades and years of patience aren’t necessary to get access to the latest innovation, just click refresh. Our customers received more than 125 new features in the last year alone. Running a reliable and secure cloud-based service is challenging and requires you to rethink everything. This year Gmail has been available 99.99 per cent of the time, which translates to less than 5 minutes of downtime per month. That includes all downtime, planned and unplanned, of any duration, for any and all users. We make zero exceptions when calculating our uptime, and we’re transparent with you in the rare cases when things go wrong. You can’t just take legacy, desktop software, move some of it to a data centre and call it “cloud.” Apps was born for the web and we’ve been serving hundreds of millions of users for years.
Simple & Affordable.
Office 365 is 11 different plans, three editions and two tiers. Apps is $5/month with no commitment. Google Apps for Business and five of eleven Microsoft Office 365 plans. Check the image below to view a detailed comparison chart which shows the true power and value of Apps when compared to the current pricing and features model currently used for 365.
Read more here: http://goo.gl/VOtXc
Check out Google’s recently updated customer page featuring testimonials and case studies from a variety of companies: http://goo.gl/RkTJ0
Compare Apps & 365 on this concise chart.
