Going Google Could be a Dead End Street
Google recently launched a “Going Google” billboard campaign in several major US cities, including our beloved Chicago. The ads focus on Google Apps for small and medium businesses: Gmail, Calendar, Google Documents and Google Chat.
The Savvy CIO is always interested in the best solutions for Chicago small businesses, and believes cloud computing is often a smart and cost-effective. So we took a closer look at Google Apps for small businesses: the good, the bad and the ugly.
Not to spoil the ending, but boy does it get ugly.
The Good
Lower cost. Hosted email and calendaring means no hardware, storage or maintenance costs, and no big initial investment.
Integrated solution. Google delivers web-based email, calendars, contacts, documents and instant messaging and the sharing capabilities small businesses need.
Reliability. Google offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee for the premier edition of Apps.
The Bad
Lacks business features. Google Apps was designed as a free service for consumers where Google could serve up targeted ads. It still lacks many “must have” features for businesses, including email folders, tasks, and integrated calendaring.
No support for PC and Mac based products such as Outlook, Mac Mail, iCal and smartphones. (Google Apps does support email and calendar sync with Outlook, Mail and smartphones. Thanks for setting us straight, Nicholas.)
Loss of control. By hosting with a huge corporation, small businesses surrender control over their own email. For example, if you had to produce email records for a legal issue, Google will not release information without a subpoena.
The Ugly
Limited support. If Google Apps isn’t working right for you, prepare to spend hours on the phone trying to get a resolution. I’ve even heard of Google simply refunding a subscription rather than working with a client to resolve the issue.
No way out. For your data, at least. If Google isn’t a good fit, there is currently no way to migrate away from Google Apps while keeping your folder structure, calendars and contacts.
It can’t stay this cheap. Google Apps is a cost center today. If it is going to be sustainable, Google either needs to charge more or make more money from you and your staff (e.g. more advertisements).
Privacy concerns. Google’s privacy policy is considered the worst on the web by the Privacy International Group.
There are hosted email and collaboration solutions that are an excellent fit for small businesses. Google Apps isn’t one of them. At least not yet.
Here are what we consider to be the three best hosted email solutions for small businesses.
Are you using Google Apps? Have good or bad or ugly impressions? Let us know what you think.
Great article. However, I don’t believe that “No support for PC and Mac based products” is accurate. unless you are referencing the (very true) “limited support” issue. Google Apps for Your Domain most certainly supports Outlook, Mac Mail, and smartphone devices for both email and calendaring. And GAFYD offers extensive help text support to configure a broad variety of devices.
Nicholas,
Thanks. Turns out you’re right about Google Sync, my apologies for missing that one. That’s a solid step forward for Google, and one that was easily fixable for them. I expect the lack of business features will come up to speed before long as well. I’m afraid some of my biggest reservations (privacy, support, control) are part of Google’s business model and not likely to change.
Thanks for chiming in.