By Jim Lundy
Aragon Research attended Google’s Cloud Next event last week where customers discussed their shift from Microsoft Office 365 to Google G Suite. Momentum has been building with more firms shifting to G Suite. This blog discusses some of the reasons for this trend.
The Office Suite Wars 2009-2019
The war between Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 has been raging for the last ten years, going all the way back to the time when Google won LA County over the objections of Microsoft. After that win, Microsoft went on the war path and was effective at countering Google’s cloud-based G Suite messaging.
The Switch to Google G Suite
It began last year—what I refer to as the shift. I was at a Cisco Conference, and an SVP from Verizon announced that they were switching to Google G Suite. Since last year, there have been more accounts making the shift. At Google Next 19, there were several firms talking about why they made the decision to go with Google instead of Microsoft.
Google Smart Compose will automatically suggest text to complete a sentence.
Accomplishing Work with Smart Compose
Google has been quietly adding intelligence features to G Suite over the last several years. For email, Google now predicts the end of your sentences as you are typing. Google calls this Smart Compose and adjusts what it suggests based on your individual writing style. This is a huge productivity increase.
Additionally, if you have an appointment that is a distance away, Google Calendar will notify you when you need to leave based on traffic.
Google Assistant Is Coming to G Suite
One thing Thomas Kurian announced last week is that Google Assistant will soon be integrated with G Suite. That can’t happen soon enough. We would note that Google Assistant now has Google Duplex integrated into it, so it can now make restaurant reservations for a user with no help. The Google Assistant integration with G Suite Calendar is going into beta now.
Google Voice is Here
While Google Voice has been around for nearly ten years, it was a consumer service. Now, after a three-year global beta test, Google Voice for G Suite is here and it may be the nudge many people are looking for. The UCaaS market has been on fire and now Google is in the game. For ten, twenty, or thirty dollars a month, G Suite users can add the right calling plan that works for them. Feedback on voice quality from the beta test has been strong, so this looks like a winner.
The one thing we like about the $30 a month plan is that it gives you global calling. Both small and large enterprises will benefit from this.
The Battle for the Enterprise and the Rise of Digital Work Hubs
Aragon has been discussing digital work hubs and the need for tools to help people accomplish their work in ways productive for them personally—instead of forcing them to work based on how the tool works. We feel Google and others are headed in this direction. Google has momentum with G Suite and that was even before Thomas Kurian joined. Now that he is there, it will be interesting to see the shift in focus and intensity.