Why more businesses are going Google Apps

If your organization is contemplating a cloud-hosted productivity suite such as Google Apps or Microsoft 365, it might want to take a look at some new data collected by BetterCloud, one of the companies that helps businesses manage their Google Apps implementations.

The biggest takeaway from its research (see the chart below) is this one: While businesses usually think first about replacing their email and calendar with a cloud-based solution, the longer they stick with the service, the more apps they use.

This is showing up in much higher usage rates for Chat and Docs among the BetterCloud customer base. The chart shows the percentage of respondents that reported that at least half of the organization uses the listed app.

The BetterCloud data reflects the responses of 2,719 Google Apps administrators representing 2,413 Google Apps domains.

As I mentioned before, BetterCloud is one of the integrators and developers that has cropped up on the Google Apps Marketplace. Its main tool, called Flash Panel, is a cloud management and security application that is among the top 10 most downloaded apps on the marketplace.

The survey also offers some rather revealing data about Google Apps versus Microsoft Office.

According to the BetterCloud data, approximately 60 percent of Google Apps customers are minimizing their future investment in Office.

"And it seems that the longer customers have been with Google Apps, the less likely they are to continue investing in Microsoft Office licenses — 64 percent of customers who have been on Google Apps for two-plus years said that they are minimizing further investment in Microsoft Office," BetterCloud wrote in its blog.

This is partly generational: As more educational institutions use Google Apps as a tool, the less likely future workers are to be familiar with Office.

To read more of the survey results, visit the BetterCloud blog.