Change to Google Apps for Work for free

In a bid to make it even easier for companies to switch on to Google Apps for Work, Google has devised a scheme that allows businesses to come on board even while on an ongoing contract with another provider. The offer is open for the next six months in the United States and will eventually be extended to other countries.

Google’s productivity suite incorporates a bevy of tools businesses could take advantage of, including Hangouts for voice and video calls (single or group), Gmail, Drive for cloud storage, Calendar, Sheets for spreadsheets, Docs for word processing, Slides for presentations, Forms, a web builder, and other administration tools.

The company will also chip in on a few of the deployment costs after the earlier contract’s expiration, and connect the new customer with a Google for Work Partners.

Google is escalating an attack on Microsoft’s lucrative Office software in an attempt to hit its longtime rival where it will hurt the most.

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. When they have fulfilled their commitments, they can pay on a month-to-month basis, and feel free switch away from Google Apps for Work if they so choose.

The move implies that Google is trying to entice Microsoft Office customers to try out the Google Apps productivity suite for free, for the remaining period of their existing enterprise agreement with Microsoft.

Google didn’t say how long this promotion would be available, but it’s only offered to those customers in the US or Canada, at present. But while that might help its representatives win over a bigger number of organizations from Microsoft’s on-premise install base, the company still faces an uphill battle against Office 365, which is showing no sign of slowing down.

Are you on the fence about switching your business to Google Apps? Now, Google must try to set itself apart from the online collaborative functions of Microsoft’s Office 365, Dropbox for Business, and a host of other enterprise offerings.

The customer must, in turn, agree to pay for the service for one year once their current enterprise contract ends.

“Nine years ago with Google Docs, we saw an opportunity to build something that would enable people to work together in new ways”, said Rich Rao, head of global sales at Google Apps for Work.