Microsoft Alleges Google Apps Carry Hefty Hidden Fee
May 9, 2011
“Microsoft Attacks Google Apps with “Google Tax” marks another 22 caliber shot in the skirmish between Microsoft (the new IBM) and Google (the new Microsoft). Yep, the 22 slug is an allegation that Google imposes a “tax” on users. Interesting but many companies impose a tax on users. Some achieve the revenue with a partner fee, some with training costs, and others with strongly recommended engineering and consulting services.
After interviewing “more than 90 small and medium sized organizations using Google Apps,” Microsoft discovered that:
…For 9 out of 10 companies surveyed, Google Apps are used in parallel to Office.
Additionally, the majority of companies surveyed:
will continue to standardize on Microsoft Office, while they only evaluate free trials of Google Apps, and do not intend to spend money on deployments.
Among the small and medium sized businesses surveyed, I learned that “Only two in five adopted Google Docs and two out of three companies still use Office as their primary productivity solution.”
Microsoft, the article asserted, “has created an iceberg info-graphic that reveals Google’s hidden costs.”
There is a much recycled graphic metaphor depicting the tip-of-the-iceberg up front costs of $50 (per user), and the annual costs and one-Time costs as the unseen base of the iceberg. How hefty are these charges? The article suggests that these fees amount to almost ten times the “visible” costs, in addition to unknown costs for end-user training, staff training, and lost user productivity. I think the “lost productivity” means a person familiar with Word has to waste time trying to make Google Apps deliver the same functionality.
The bottom line is that user prefer Word. Is there a tax for using Microsoft Office? The article sidesteps this issue. In Enterprise Technology Management, a publication of ISIGlobal.com, Stephen E Arnold summarized Google’s pricing of its Google Search Appliance. The Google “tax” may be evident in those data as well. To see the US government’s Google Search Appliance fees, navigate to www.gsaadvantage.gov and search for “GB 7007” or “GB 9009”.
Jane Livingston, May, 9, 2011
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