Google Launches Apps Cloud Calculator – Another shot at Office 2010

Almost at the verge of calling it a desperate attempt, Google has launched Apps Cloud Calculator that calculates the savings your company can achieve if you use Google Apps instead of Microsoft Office products (or for that matter, even Lotus products). Instead of the general talk about why cloud is a better alternative, Google substantiates its stand and has assigned numbers to certain key usage of an IT system. For instance, IT Manager’s hourly wage : $70/hr Avg Email Inbox size: 0.5 GB Avg. number of spam messages an employee receives : 77 Avg. number of people in a team/group: 10 Number of document revisions: 5 Planned/Unplanned downtime : 150/month. Google cites certain data points about employee productivity – for instance Average employee is 2.8X productive (within 6 months) if he starts working mobile. Employee communication increased by 36% within 6 months after adopting Google Apps. Less headache for IT department as they do not need to worry too much about installing patches (5 minutes for each user to update and restart their m/c after each Patch Tuesday ). MS had 71 critical and important alerts in 2009 – so imagine the unproductivity that transcends through the entire company. Minimal Data Loss – 60% employees have data and 1 out of 10 laptops are stolen in the first year of purchase (FBI data). Now if all your data is on the cloud, you don’t have to worry about data loss. Similarly, you do not need to worry about Data recovery cost. Few weeks back, Google also shared a comparison between its offering and Microsoft 2010 promises that essentially puts Google Apps much ahead of Office 2010 . Google is pitching *real time* collaboration and less TCO (zero maintenance) vs. Microsoft which is playing a Better Software+Service game. Who wins? Only a CIO can tell. Recommended Read: Review of Microsoft Outlook 2010 Review of Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Related posts: Fortnightly Theme – Office 2010 and Online Office Space Online Office apps: Challenges/Misconception and Future Giveaway – 2 Copies of Microsoft Office 2010