As an industry analyst I've certainly joined in with my colleagues in the exercise I'll call "what if'ing"...you know, the what if this vendor does this or that and how would so and so react, how does that impact the market and most of all is this the next big disruption?? Well, I will tell you (although it's probably no big surprise) that Google is often the "big" disruptor in many of those conversations. I can certainly see, in several areas how Google "could" be a disruptor in the enterprise software market. On the other hand there have been just as many reasons on the list of why they won't be the disruptive force. I've heard (and at times supported) concepts like Google is a search and ad word company and has no real designs on enterprise software, Google apps are mostly the product of individuals using their 30% time allotment to work on what they want, Google doesn't have a real coordinated business plan behind the apps...you get the point, and I could go on, but I won't. I won't because with todays announcement Google answered most of these objections / questions.
Today Google announced the launch of its new reseller program for Google Apps (messaging, collaboration, security and compliance + the Google platform). Google claims over 1 million current business customers, and 10 million active users (access their accounts at least once in 7 days), with over 3000 new businesses signing up daily for Google Apps. The reseller program is very comprehensive, here are some of the details:
- Available immediately
- Worldwide
- Reseller retains ownership of the customer & handles billing
- Recurring revenue model for the life of the customer relationship
- Comprehensive partner enablement program that includes marketing, sales and tech training and tools for ordering, provisioning, integrating and on going management
- Partners can sign up and start training now, start transactions in March
There are currently over 50 "beta" partners in the program. The opportunity extends beyond Google apps of course, and includes the opportunity to offer services and bundle / develop more comprehensive solutions using the Google platform or other platforms like Salesforce.com's Force.com. This announcement sets Google up to have one of the only VAR channels built from the ground up for "cloud" computing and clearly demonstrates their desire to become a leader in the enterprise productivity, collaboration, messaging, security and compliance markets.
