Google India is targeting to take on rival Microsoft with free offers to promote Google Apps and Cloud services among Indian enterprises and start-ups.
The main strategy of Google is to attract enterprise customers and start-ups from its rivals including Microsoft and AWS.
Google will cover the fees of Google Apps for any business locked into an enterprise agreement (EA) with its rivals – Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, etc — until its contract runs out. Google will also share some of the deployment costs to set companies up for success with one of the Google for Work Partners.
The internet search engine giant is trying to target the world’s second largest developer population in the country with the free cloud offers to break the challenges involving lock-in contracts.
If enterprises and start-ups dump Microsoft’s Office software, Google India will give free package of its software that normally costs $5 or $10 per user each month. For this, the technology company will waive the price for the Google for Work software for the duration of the customers’ existing contracts with Microsoft or any other supplier.
As an additional incentive, Google US had offered to pay up to $75,000 to each company switching to its software to cover the costs of making the change. Google India did not share the specific amount to cover the making charges.
AP earlier reported that Microsoft’s Office division generated $23.5 billion, or roughly one-quarter of the software maker’s revenue during its last fiscal year ending in June. The revenue includes sales of Office to consumers, too. Google did not share the revenue from its apps and cloud business.
Google will offer a simple contract with no additional traps such as lock-in contacts with enterprise customers. This will help most businesses with basic EAs and no dependencies to potentially unlock savings of up to 70 percent by switching to Google Apps for Work.
Google India will also offer up to $20,000 as free credits for Google Cloud services starting in 2016 to 1,000 Indian startups.
“Over the last few years, we have gained tremendous momentum in helping companies go Google in India and we’re confident that with these new initiatives, we will further bring down the barriers for companies to make the switch to Google Apps,” said Amit Singh, president, Google For Work.
In addition to leading start-ups, Hero Motocorp, Bombay Dyeing, Welspun Group are some of the top enterprise clients of Google in India.
“With the Enterprise Agreement offer and Cloud Platform credits for startups, we hope to see Indian businesses continue to rise,” said Mohit Pande, country head, Google for Work India.
Baburajan K
editor@infotechlead.com
