Almost everyone working in business has used Microsoft at one time or another. It is not just the operating system which has its quirks and foibles. It include programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and what have you.

The fact that Microsoft has rarely created these programs is besides the point. It has taken them, given them the Microsoft touch and now they are embedded in corporate minds around the world. Which is why Bill Gates became a very rich man. (And is doing wonders with this money for which he deserves a special place in Heaven.)

Google see this as a potential market. Google is playing with itself. It is not dealing with reality.

Even if the software it produces is as good as the Microsoft offering, which it is not, the fact is that the vast mass of people working in business have become used to doing it the Microsoft way.

Give a person a machine set up with Microsoft Word and no more instruction is needed. The Windows operating system is used by the majority of PCs on the planet. And almost all of them use Microsoft software, plus a lot of other stuff which, if it gets important, Microsoft will buy and remake in its own image.

Google launched a competing productivity suite called Google Apps and the thought was it would compete with Microsoft Office. This highlights the problem with Silicon Valley and, to a greater extent, Redmond. The people think they are living in the real world. No they are not. They are living in Fairyland where bringing your dog to the office is OK and you get free massages and you think of these really, really cool ideas.

Some of the ideas which might look well in a rainbow colored office fall flat on their face in the real world.

It was thought, it is still said, the main difference between the Microsoft and Google offerings was that consumers could get free versions of Google Apps and Google’s offering is web based rather than being software you buy and install on your local PC.

That is not the main difference. The main difference is that the vast majority of customers are used to working with the Microsoft programs — they may be lousy but they are our lousy — and they are not going through the painful process of learning a new way of working.

Now Google has announced that it is looking to better compete with Office by seeking out third-party resellers to sell its Apps to corporations. Since the launch of Google Apps in 2007, sales of the software have been direct to business over the Internet.

Google has no doubt seen that the vast majority of the Office sales Microsoft enjoys are done through its vast network of resellers. According to Reuters, a full 95% of all Office sales are made through Microsoft resellers.

Tiffani Bova from Gartner Research said, ‘We feel that Google has had limited success in winning customers with a singular sales channel.’

Google is still a light years from placing pressure on Microsoft Office. Many companies still prefer to have software in house rather than web-hosted applications. And most workers are very unwilling to learn new basic skills.

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Entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 1:19 am under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Gareth Powell.
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