Google now eats Google Apps fees for switchers w/ previous enterprise agreements

The company, additionally, points out that numerous features that businesses think are missing from Google Docs are actually present, and that more and more useful tools are being added constantly. Google will allow such customers to use Apps for Work, for free while they are bidding their time for the EA to run its course, giving users a few time to get familiar with the new Google work environment at no extra cost.

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.

Google appears to be targeting companies and government agencies that now pay for Microsoft’s suite of word processing, e-mail, calendar, spreadsheet and other programs, although it didn’t mention Microsoft or any other vendor by name. Google is working with its partners to provide businesses engaged in volume-licensing agreements with Microsoft enough incentive to entice them to make a switch. What Google has found is that those companies came calling to look at switching to Apps when their contracts were up for renewal, but were otherwise locked up. If you use Microsoft Office on the desktop, you’ll know Redmond’s engineers are very keen for you to turn to OneDrive for all your cloud storage and syncing needs.

He promised switchers a “simple contract with no traps and gotchas” and claimed businesses with basic enterprise agreements and no dependencies could save up to 70 percent by moving over to Google Apps for Work. Companies have to sign up for a year-long commitment to pay for Google Apps after the expiration of their contract with another provider like Microsoft. Although Google won’t charge for Apps for Work until the end of the EA, Google for Work deployment does cap out at $25 per person, so there will still be a few money to be spent.

Google reports sales for its Apps business through the “Other Revenues” section of its income statement, along with services such as Google Play and products like Chromebooks. Hypothetically, if a company with 3,000 employees takes advantage of the offer instead of paying for Google Apps for Work, Google could stand to lose around $500,000 in a year (the suite has different rates per user on its monthly and annual contracts).

Google didn’t say how much it has budgeted for this attempt to lure away customers from other providers.