Google Docs Austin Ngau ISM 158 4/15/2010 Spring 2010

What is Google Docs? Create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online. Share and collaborate work in real time Safely Store and Organize your work Control access of who can view your documents Securely access documents anywhere with Internet access [1]

Cloud Computing “With cloud computing, the software programs you use aren't run from your personal computer, but are rather stored on servers accessed via the Internet, typically within a web browser. The browser accesses the web-based application and an instance of the application is opened within the browser window. Once launched, the web-based application operates and behaves like a standard desktop application; the only difference is that the application and the working documents remain on the host's cloud servers. “ says Michael Miller from InformIT. [2] [3][4]

Market Existence Back in November of 2008, OpenOffice was said to be five times more popular than Google docs. 5% compared to 1%[5] In September of 2009, An IDC surveyed 262 senior managers at various businesses to conclude, Google Docs is now widely used at 1 in 5 workplaces [6] A recent Forrester survey recently showed that 87% of corporate employees use , 79% use word processing and 71% use spreadsheets. On contrast only 24% use web conferencing tools and just 20% use document- sharing web sites like Google Docs. [7]

Business View - Objectives "The problem is people work on teams whose members aren't in the same location, so the opportunity is to build better Web-based tools to do that distributed work," says Ted Schadler, a Forrester tech industry analyst. [7] “Google making a few major bets: That what people want most is real-time collaboration on documents, that they'll do it entirely in the cloud, and that, when it comes to features, less is more.” quoted from Thomas Claborn from InformationWeek. [8]

Business View - Benefits Up to 50 users with the given permission can view and modify documents in real time. Users have an on-screen chat window to help communicate with one another that also lets you view who modified what and when. You can save your documents and spreadsheets to your own computer in DOC, XLS, CSV, ODS, ODT, PDF, RTF and HTML formats. No matter the file extension, users can store all their documents on Googles “clouds” aka Servers. (Note: Up to 1gb, additional storage for $.25 per gb per year) Highly accessible anywhere with an Internet connection Completely Free, good for companies on a budget

Business View - Cons Walking into a market which Microsoft if over 90% dominate in the office productivity market Security over files, since they will be on Google’s servers instead inside company firewalls. Not as robust as MS Word, which offers more formatting options, more sophisticated styles and templates, more flexibility in page layout, etc.

Business - Feedback "Google Apps saves us millions of dollars over five years … provides us with worldwide disaster recovery, unprecedented integration and device independence."Todd Pierce – VP of IT Genentech [9] “… everyone will benefit from Google's security controls, which will provide a higher level of security for City data than exists with our current system.“ Randy Levin – CTO City of LA [10] “"With Google Apps, everybody is running the same copy because it all comes from a central server. That's a more secure and a more powerful way to run your business."Marc Benioff – Chairman and CEO Salesforce [11]

Business - Reasons to Switch Highlights: Convenience Price Universal access Collaboration No upgrade Cycle [12]

Business - Product Although Google Doc is 100% free, for the more demanding users who require more space and rely more heavily on security.. Google offers Apps Premier at $50 a year. Which include the following: Features unique to Google Apps Premier Edition include: 10 GBs of storage per user – Offers about 100 times the storage of the average corporate mailbox, eliminating the need to frequently delete . APIs for business integration – APIs for data migration, user provisioning, single sign-on, and mail gateways enable businesses to further customize the service for unique environments % uptime – Service Level Agreements for high availability of Gmail, with Google monitoring and crediting customers if service levels are not met. 24x7 support for critical issues – Includes extended business hours telephone support for administrators. Advertising optional – Advertising is turned off by default, but businesses can choose to include Google’s relevant target-based ads if desired. $50 per user account per year – Simple and affordable annual fee makes it practical to offer these applications to everyone in the organization. [13]

Sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] google-docs-for-corporate-use/1 [8] leID= [9] [10] [11] [12] onid=FB1WZRYSZJPSFQE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN?articleID= &pgno=3&queryText=&i sPrev [13]