The news of the day is Capgemini's partnership with Google to boost the enterprise version of Google Apps Premier Edition. The global consulting services company said the move will "extend its portfolio of desktop solutions, enabling it to support more client employees, regardless of their locations, platforms and roles." In explaining the decision, Capgemini cited Gartner's estimates of 25 percent annual growth for SaaS through 2010 and its hopes to capitalize on SaaS growth by adding Google Apps to its desktop solutions portfolio.
Every day seems to bring multiple announcements of new SaaS products and services, and it seems that nearly all applications are to be delivered in SaaS format sooner or later, if they aren't already. Google Apps is still considered lightweight in comparison to Microsoft Office by most, but that could certainly change. Juan Carlos Peres of InfoWorld reported on the news with the headline "Web-based desktop apps get serious," but was quick to point out that Capgemini's CEO did not expect Google Apps to displace Office but rather to fill the niche needs for enabling document collaboration and bringing Office-like capabilities to more workers.
ZDNet's Dan Farber also commented on the move, pointing out that it may not be an easy sell given that companies might be concerned about entrusting data to Google and about the lack of offline capabilities in Google Apps, but that it was a good move for both Capgemini and Google overall.
Mary Jo Foley, also of ZDNet, had an interesting post in which she cited Microsoft's apparently official reply to the Capgemini announcement. The announcement, attributed to a "corporate spokesperson," claimed that competition was good for the industry overall but then listed ten questions that it suggested companies ask themselves before switching to Google Apps. The concerns seem to be valid, but thus far no one is really touting Google Apps as a replacement for MS Office, so one would wonder why the apparent defensiveness, and why Microsoft doesn't just add more collaborative features to MS Office.
Foley also posted a commentary on the announcement, in which she brought up some interesting points about price, demand, and integration. She also pointed out that no one has yet fully explained the claim that Google Apps is "complementary" to Office despite the frequent denial by Google that it sees the application as a competitor to MS Office.
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