Google vs Microsoft - The fight for the word processor

1. How many business end-users determine the applications they use within an organization? Many organizations either have their own IT department or outsource IT to a third party. And these IT departments often make decisions based on their own skill-set (probably Microsoft based), its supportability, and security issues, why would they choose Google?
2. Security! Lots of businesses like to know their data is sat in their offices. They like to hold a DVD containing all their businesses hard-earned data. After all, all a business is at any time is its data. Will they be comfortable it sitting somewhere on the Internet? – probably many places on the Internet.
3. Many end-user applications are no longer stand-alone, and in the future will become even less-so. Microsoft is pushing Sharepoint, furthering back-office integration into front-office applications. This will strengthen the marriage between front/back office systems; bring users various benefits which will make using alternatives feel restrictive. And as before, end-users will probably play little part in deciding back-office systems.
4. Everyone agrees Microsoft Office is better – so the argument comes down to one of cost (or Total Cost of Ownership). So do all businesses make decisions purely on cost? It plays a part in many decisions but for astute businesses it’s unlikely to be the only consideration.
5. If we look back a few years there where a number of “cheaper” and perfectly good alternatives to applications like MS Word, but why did these loose market share? The fear of receiving a MS Word document from your biggest customer and not being able to read it. Or sending a document and the customer not being able to open it. If you haven’t got any customers then you’ll be fine!
6. I, like most people, don’t like being told “you can’t do that” – with MS Office I’m always learning new ways of improving my documents and presentations. I don’t like being limited by a tool. So how will I feel using a cut-down offering? i.e. Will I be searching for an illusive function to draw a circle? The problem is – any word processing or presentation development software will immediately be compared to the industry standard – MS Word & PowerPoint.
7. You’ve already bought MS office; you are not going to throw away that investment any time soon. When you look at upgrading you may then consider a move – but what about your investment in back-office infrastructure? Even small businesses probably have MS Small Business Server. It becomes a scary proposition.

But on-line office solutions are great, great for small start-ups and home-users, who will probably continue using them initially as they grow due to historical reliance and stored data.  But unfortunately start-up businesses are in the high-risk category and most don’t make it past a few years, so this change will probably be negligible to Microsoft’s current dominance.

I guess time will tell.