Google Apps aims beyond Microsoft Office. Following Google's announcement on Thursday that it would offer an enhanced version of its Google Apps, dubbed Google Apps Premier Edition, the company left no doubt about the direction in which it was heading. Not only has it added key business applications -- a word processor and spreadsheet -- to Google Apps, but the company is offering the kind of support corporate IT would expect: IT management tools, technical support, and service level agreements for uptime. Even all that, however, does not tell the entire story or give the scope of Google’s plans. In its press announcement and in an interview with a Google executive, Dave Giroud, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Unit, Google made it clear that it will offer APIs for business integration, thus creating a business platform not unlike what Salesforce.com offers with AppExchange.
If that happens it could become the center of an application ecosystem that leaves traditional desktop applications in the dust. Why use Outlook to work when there's Hotmail? (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- For years, I had a colleague who adamantly refused to use our corporate e-mail.
His coworkers didn't like the nuisance of having to remember to send messages to his personal account. But I could hardly blame him for his one-man revolt: In five years, we went through three back-end systems and four e-mail clients. By holding out, he saved countless hours having to learn new software and deal with the inevitable glitches. Not all corporate IT departments are likely to turn a blind eye to such obstinacy. But there's a quiet rebellion afoot against corporate e-mail, with employees using instant messaging and Web-based e-mail systems from Yahoo (Charts), Google, Microsoft (Charts), among others, to circumvent annoying policies and work more efficiently.
And a few companies, like videogame developer RedOctane, are adopting free webmail as their corporate messenger. Taking IM to work Some of the smartest tech companies are taking advantage of this groundswell. Google Updates Apps For Domains. UPDATED: Google is not a portal company, but the brainiacs at the Googleplex are happy to build one for your organization or small business.
They just prefer you call it a "start page. " Starting today, Google is updating its Google Apps for Your Domain product, Mike Horowitz, Google's product manager, told internetnews.com. The new start page is based on Google's Custom Home Page. It is supposed to be a central access point for Google Apps for Your Domain, a product Google launched in August. As internetnews.com previously reported, Google Apps for Your Domain includes tools for communicating and collaborating in the enterprise, such as Gmail Web e-mail, instant messaging, voice calling and collaborative calendering.
The service also includes Web page design, publishing and hosting via Google Page Creator. The standard package also includes 2 gigabytes of e-mail storage for each user, customization tools and help for administrators via e-mail or an online help center.