Microsoft claims Office 365 is more enterprise-ready than Google Apps

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

A month after the announcement of its cloud-based enterprise productivity suite Office 365, software giant Microsoft believes it has more to offer enterprises than Google, a Microsoft executive recently said.

Microsoft’s Senior Director for Business Online Services Marketing Eron Kelly recently told InfoWorld that enterprise users are switching to Microsoft after testing Google’s own online application service, Google Apps. Kelly said Google Apps lacks vital capabilities, such as delegate access, which enables users to let someone else manage their calendar.

“I think Google represents an interesting consumer service. They put an enterprise name on it, and it’s getting people interested.” Kelly said. However, Kelly added that Microsoft has seen users migrate from Notes to Google Apps and then to Microsoft.

A Google representative dismissed Kelly’s claim and noted that Google does have directory integration and delegate access.

“The truth is our business is accelerating and our retention rate is actually [greater than] 90 percent,” said Google spokesman Andrew Kovacs.

Microsoft’s upcoming Office 365 suite will feature the latest versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Lync Online and Office web apps on one unified platform. It is currently in beta testing and a full version is expected to be available in 2011.