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Google Docs in the Enterprise

Very few people know that Google has other services/apps than web search. I use GMail and I love it. All my email addresses forward to that mailbox (except for my Yahoo! email which would still suck even if Microsoft backed them up as long as they don’t have POP and mail forwarding).

One particular client scheduled a meeting once and GMail prompted me for a response (if I was going or not). It appeared as if it was a GMail+GCal thing. It made me think they were using Google Apps (twitter reference).

After the meeting, we were supposed to update a task checklist (originally an Excel file). I told them to just upload the file on Google Docs and share it to everyone. They gave me this look where I lost them somewhere in that line so I brought up the topic that they used GCal to schedule that meeting. It turned out that they were using an Exchange server and GMail interpreted the message and sent the appropriate response.

I showed them Google Docs and after our next meeting, they mentioned that they got so amused with it, they started to use it on more of their documents. Quoting one of them, “we learn something new everyday.”

This client is one of the oldest companies in the country in the field of telecommunications (a couple of friends recommend them). The way Google Docs was used was not really enterprise level but this makes collaboration a whole lot easier. I was tempted to show them Basecamp but I think I should let them get used to Google Docs first. Adding another tool might overwhelm them (avoiding Web2.0 reference).

Focusing on collaboration, which one would you use: Microsoft SharePoint or Google Docs? How about weighing the price and features that met your needs?

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 01.19.36 and is filed under Techitude, The Web/Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.