Google Offers Free Google Apps for Work

“We’re going to meet the needs of customers with EA”, says Google Apps head of global sales Rich Rao.

This move seems to have the same end game as yesterday’s announcement that Google Apps for Work will be free for enterprises under contract with other providers.

Microsoft’s “Office 365 Commercial” is its competitor to Google’s Apps for Work, with a user base up by 74% during the 2015 fourth quarter from the year-ago period, according to Reuters.

The company claims that customers can see cost savings of up to 70 percent by switching.

While Google was ahead of the curve with regards to hosting office tools online, Microsoft has arguably had an easier time selling its service based on the simple fact that it’s been creating office tools for almost thirty years (the first version was revealed at COMDEX in 1988!).

There are a few caveats, of course.

To this extent, Google is limiting free usage to 3,000 people per defecting customer, and it will pay up to $75,000 to cover the cost of any particular company who dumps Microsoft’s software. Google Apps for Work, previously Google Apps for Business, is a group of cloud computing efficiency and collaboration software tools and software offered on a payment foundation by Google.

Google is clearly making a play for those Microsoft shops on Office who Microsoft is trying to flip into Office 365 shops.

Well, we’re at a point now where Google is so confident in its place in this battle, that it’s offer one heck of a deal to any company that’s thinking about transitioning over to Google Docs (and likewise, Google Apps). Google’s new tactics, which won’t come cheap at least in the short run, are a clear signal that they are fully committed to competing with Microsoft and not letting them amass a substantial lead. The company didn’t say how long this promotion would be available, but it’s now only offered to customers in the United States.

Google Apps for Work, which includes Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Drive along with calendaring and communications tools like Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, and more, as well as an IT dashboard for management, starts at $5 per user per month, or increases to $10 per user per month for unlimited storage space and “Vault”, a system for eDiscovery of emails, chats, docs and files.