In many cases, customers seem eager to switch from the costly and complicated Windows environments, he says. “Since we’ve been doing Google Apps, people say, ‘That’s wonderful, thank you, but when you can help me with the desktop?’ I’ve heard that a couple thousand times in the last few years.”
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Microsoft still argues that Google Docs isn’t capable of importing all Microsoft Office documents without losing formatting, a problem for people who have to share documents with users of the nearly ubiquitous Microsoft Word.
Google has steadily improved compatibility with Microsoft Office formats, but Girouard admits that it’s not perfect and criticizes Microsoft for using the Office install base as a club against Google.
“Ownership of a proprietary format is the famous final stand,” Girouard says. “At some point maybe we’ll be saying, ‘Oh my goodness, Microsoft Word is not very good at importing a Google Doc.’ But that’s the luxury they have of leaning on their format compatibility, having a proprietary format that everybody uses. But inevitably, in my mind, it’s a terrible way to promote yourself to say, ‘We have a proprietary format, other people can’t handle it as well as we can, so you should use our products.’ It’s kind of an anti-innovation message that I think doesn’t do the market justice and it doesn’t do them justice. We’ll get better very quickly at importing Microsoft documents because we have to. But if that’s their angle to tell people you should stick with Microsoft, I think it’s a dead end.”
In addition to improving compatibility with Microsoft Word when importing documents into Google Docs, Google offers “Cloud Connect” to let users continue to use installed versions of Microsoft Word while syncing the documents online and collaborating on edits.
Although Google espouses a “100% Web” work environment, it will provide offline access to Gmail and Google Docs in the Chrome browser later this year and is partnering with Citrix to stream Windows applications to Chromebooks. Chrome computers aren’t just for Gmail and Google Docs customers, either, Girouard insists.
“I feel like they should legitimately stand on their own,” he says. “Of course, they work together really well. But I don’t see us as the company that needs to get people to be 100% on Google and that’s all they use. It’s just not how we design products.”
Google claims its own surveys show 75% of workers could be moved from Windows PCs to Chromebooks, but even Google isn’t claiming that many people will actually make the switch. Enterprise IT moves slowly by nature because of inertia and hardware refresh cycles, and customers want to see others use a product successfully for a time before making the leap themselves, Girouard notes.
“We’re providing bridges because we don’t think Microsoft is disappearing from these companies entirely,” he says.
Perhaps Google’s biggest success in the enterprise is Android. When consumers started ditching their BlackBerries and “dumb” phones for iPhones and Androids, IT shops adapted relatively quickly, allowing access from new types of smartphones to existing corporate email systems. (See also: “The complicated new face of personal computing”)
Android as a business tool “is happening with us or without us, frankly,” Girouard says. “One of the things we just figured out recently is over 90% of Google Apps businesses are using Android phones. Not necessarily exclusively, but they’re using some Android phones. Which, I think, is pretty cool.”
Google will continue to improve Android phones, and now tablets, for business use. A Google Docs app was recently released for Android, although without offline access. That’s likely to come later. Girouard isn’t saying when, but he notes that the same HTML5 caching capability that lets iPad and iPhone users view Gmail offline is essentially what will be used to provide offline Google Docs access in PC Web browsers.
Google is providing a Web service for IT shops to centrally manage Android devices. But one thing customers probably won’t see is business-level support for Android phones. Given the involvement of carriers and device manufacturers, who often install their own software on Android phones, it’s unlikely Google would provide anything close to 24/7 phone support for Android, even for businesses that have deployed thousands of them. That kind of support will be reserved for Google Apps and Chromebooks customers.
“That’s not a situation where Google is in good position to be the only support of choice,” Girouard says. “We are providing a cloud service to manage Android devices, and Chromebooks as well. But the Android devices themselves, if you have a bad SD card, I don’t think that’s something we’re going to get in the middle of.”