A few weeks ago, Google announced a new plug-in that will sync Google Apps—the enterprise versions of Gmail, contacts, and calendar—with Microsoft’s Outlook, letting customers use Outlook on their desktops if that is what they are comfortable with, and Google Apps will run on the backend. Of course, the plug-in ended up running into a few problems. But the takeaway of the news is that Google is trying to make it simple and cost-effective for enterprise customers to make the switch from more commonly used enterprise applications, such as Microsoft’s Outlook, to Google Apps. Today, Google is adding the ability to migrate from another popular enterprise app, IBM’s Lotus Notes.
The new tool lets customers migrate mail, calendar and contacts from Notes to Google Apps. The syncing tool, which Google says is a native Notes application, can be installed and configured in less than 30 minutes, for multiple users at once. The tool has already been tested with 40 of Google’s enterprise clients, including JohnsonDiversey (10K users) and Valeo (32K users). The tool is free for Google Apps Premier and Edu customers.
Google says that the migration is easy to deploy, requires no downtime (users can continue to use Notes even during the migration process), gives customers the ability to migrate multiple offices simultaneously or separately, and allows for centralized event logging to manage and monitor migration across any number of Domino servers and sites.
Currently there are 145 million licenses for Lotus Notes. Google pitches that the 17 percent of the business email market that’s on Lotus Notes will save a considerable amount of money by switching to Google Apps. How much? Google says that the enterprise version of Gmail is a third of the cost of on-premise email solutions like Notes and Outlook/Exchange. One of the clients who has used the tool, Hamilton Beach, claims a projected savings of 60 percent over the next five years. As a whole, Google says that Google Apps is three to four times less expensive than traditional on-premise systems.
There’s no doubt that Google is making a big push to become a player in the enterprise space. Google currently has nearly two million businesses using Google Apps, which first launched in 2006, and hopes to grow that number. Google has been making a strong case for businesses to switch to Google Apps, especially focusing on convincing Microsoft enterprise customers. Google recently took the beta label off Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and GTalk, which is also part of its strategy to entice enterprise customers to switch to Google Apps.
And that’s one smart way to convert users. If Google is doing this more often, then expect more people to be converts in the future. Let’s see how this plays out.
- Darren at AdExcel dot Com
yeah really…hope for better
You are thinly veiling your spam, Darren.
i like competition.
With these strategies Google will definitely get a % increase. Still I don’t see it as becoming a big player in the Enterprise Solutions area. Maybe thats shortsighted on my side, but for me they still are not yet there.
I agree, IT departments don’t like their data sit on other peoples servers, especially when ads are delivered along with the CEO’s state of the union addresses.
aren’t ads absent of the paid-for versions?
Ads are definitely absent in the paid version.
Well, actually, it’s a toggle. You CAN run ads, but… you know… why would you?
NICE! I used to use Lotus Notes at work and HATED it.
(805)768-4521
http://bit.ly/oBsDJ
Wooowwwwwwwwwww
LOtus note like boat in ocean.
http://blog.aminooo.com/?p=73
nice…. hope it will be much better than Lotus
This is awesome. As a user of lotus and gmail it is very welcomed. I plan to switch completely to google apps.
I will test facebook functionalities with techcrunch
There is a god. Thank you.
Just wish there were more gods than Google…
ditto @James
There is only 1 GOD and that is Christ!
What app would Christ use?
I’m bettin’ (big money) he would convert everyone to cloud apps on the Jesus phone which makes Google Apps even more welcome.
Christ would probably use a cross-platform app, don’t you think?
I wish Google would also allow for easy switching from Microsoft Outlook Express as well. To port the messages from the Outlook Express Desktop Client to Gmail — while retaining dates, etc. This would help a lot of people switch.
One migration tool a strategy does not make.
The Hamilton Beach story on migration has been widely dissected by Lotus customers and partners and found to be a pretty inefficient baseline in terms of measuring cost savings.
http://www.edbr...rom-lotus-notes
As for Google’s migration announcement, pretty much table-stakes to go after the most fertile ground. It’s a commodity offering that essentially means running two (or more) infrastructures. Reaction on my blog: http://www.edbr...lotus-customers
Your analysis of the Hamilton Beach story and your commentary here is absurdly biased.
You start by saying that a “poor implementation got blamed for everything” despite having never spoken to the customer to actually understand the details.
Whether you are correct or not (and I don’t believe you have enough data to make an informed opinion), it’s only fair to publicly state alongside your comment that you are a Lotus employee.
David Koretz
President & CEO
BlueTie
David, I’m more than a Lotus employee, I’m the IBM executive responsible for Notes/Domino. There, full disclosure.
I’m not sure where exactly your data comes from that I never spoke to the customer. I have had both direct and indirect interaction with the customer. And while I may not be able to fully analyze the GAPE environment they moved to, I can most certainly analyze and comment with authority on what was wrong with their Notes deployment. And since we’re IBM, we did try, many times, to partner with the customer to improve the Notes deployment.
If you can tell me how a white paper is sufficient to demonstrate the value and complexity of a migration from one system to another, then I’m all ears.
The thing is, if you implement Notes, you shouldn’t be ABLE to implement it so badly you need to go back to Lotus/IBM and pay more to get it fixed.
This is why people switch to Google – it’s not the cloud so much, or the unreliability of the on-site tech staff… It’s that most onsite enterprise software is sold in as incredibly cost-saving, but turns out to be very costly to “get right”. And you guys totally know that, and while it’s not lying per-se, it’s definitely not coming from a place of sincerely wanting your client enterprises to succeed. You want to make bank!
Also, on-premise installs are by nature much more static. It’s definitely an added cost to add a feature, period. Business doesn’t have the time or money anymore to deal with the ever-increasing costs for something that isn’t a core competency.
How will the on-site solutions evolve to compete with GAPE and the like? That’s what I want to know…
Contacts manager and Tasks are direct plays at enterprise space as well.
The Google cloud is notoriously famous for sniffing through your emails / conversations and displaying ‘relevant’ ads on your inbox page. No responsible / sensible organization would want to take this risk of making their confidential information available to Google. Even though Google might claim that user information is kept strictly confidential, when it comes to enterprises, one cannot trust. One of
the most popular diggs on the web http://digg.com...is_watching_you corroborates this fact. I am sure in the enterprise space, specially the large ones, Microsoft or IBM do not have to worry.
Good move in the right direction. Will interest the enterprise(s) out there using lotus notes.