Google Office Gains New Enterprise Credibility

Capgemini Backs Google’s Software Push from the Associated Press covers how Paris-based tech and business consultancy CapGemini is going to start recommending and installing Google Apps on enterprise desktops, a move viewed as a big boost for Google’s “office” application aspirations.

CapGemini also works with Microsoft and IBM and “influences the type of software used on more than 1 million personal computers in companies worldwide” according to the article.

The Google Apps Premier Edition suite costs $50 per user account per year and includes phone support, additional storage and other services. Missing from Google Apps are a presentation application (coming soon) and a Wiki (coming as a rebranded Jotspot). Google bundles Sun Microsystem’s free StarOffice as part of its Google Pack, but it is not included in Google Apps for the enterprise.

In addition Google Gears is seeking to address, among other things, one of the persistent objections among enterprise users to working with Google Apps: they’re not available and can’t be used offline (e.g., on planes). Google Gears makes that possible.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in his recent Wired Interview, alluded to the company’s coming enterprise push:

Wired: I’ll phrase the question differently. Google gets its revenue essentially from one source — online ads. One could argue that it’s not diversified enough.

Schmidt: The criticism is valid. We do get the vast majority of our revenue from advertising, which is a business that a lot of other people would like to be in. But there are some new revenue models on the horizon. The most interesting is probably Google Apps, where we’re already beginning to get some significant enterprise deals.

Currently Google Apps doesn’t replace Microsoft Office (and many complain about data security with Google Apps) but Google is building out a formidable offering for businesses, app by app. Now CapGemini’s endorsement of Google Apps will cause many enterprise IT managers to take another look.