Microsoft Asks Partners to Prevent Customer Defection to Google Apps

At present, Office 365 is selling at a $1 billion run-rate, but in certain areas of the cloud software market, Google Apps is proving to be a strong rival for Microsoft.

The senior corporate planning manager at Microsoft, Therese Connor, has stated that partners of Office 365 should work hard to not let customers move to Google Apps.

Connor said: "It can be incredibly costly to actually win the account back. In some instances, we've had to buy out the contract as an example."

According to Connor, Microsoft is struggling to rival Google in the U.S. corporate territory managed (CTM) space; this consists of around 18,000 customers.

The use of older versions of Exchange and Office has meant that in some cases, Microsoft has lost to Google.

However, Connor acknowledged this, and noted that some customers have moved away from using Microsoft cloud apps because they are "overwhelmed" by the "complexity" of Microsoft's licensing and pricing terms.

Microsoft has a "whole host of complex SKUs" which can be "dizzying" for customers, whereas Google only sells two SKUs for Google Apps, Connor said.

Microsoft partners are having some success against Google within the CTM space, which is currently a cloud battleground. Peters & Associates is a Microsoft partner in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, and the vice president of that company, Ric Opal, last year regained a 500-seat account in the CTM.

Opal said: "At the end of the day, the people were asking for their Office experience."

The COO at WPC, Microsoft, Kevin Turner, stated that 250 customers had been regained over the last year, after having switched to Google Apps.

Despite this, one anonymous partner that sells cloud software from both Microsoft and Google, said that many Microsoft customers are also moving to Google.

The anonymous source commented: "If we move a customer from Google Apps to Office 365, it's just as tough to move them back because they've just made a commitment. Both can be very sticky if they're well deployed and managed."

Although some cloud app customers are switching between the two companies, the large majority seem to be sticking it out with what they have, as it is difficult to switch.

The director of partner community at Level Platforms, Dave Sobel, said: "Cloud services are really hard to transition to and back from. All of your data is in the cloud, so you need a transition tool." (CY) Link