Web-based desktop apps get serious

Capgemini , a major global services provider, has just partnered with Google to enable large-scale adoption of the enterprise version of Google Apps. Capgemini will provide training, support, integration, and other services to large organizations that implement Google Apps Premier. It’s a small but momentous event, signaling increasing enterprise interest in free Web-based apps that look and feel like Word, Excel, and other Microsoft Office software.

Google Apps was added to the portfolio of products Capgemini supports because the company believes demand for SaaS (software-a-service) productivity suites will grow strongly in coming years. Steve Jones , a CTO at Capgemini, is quick to note that Google Apps will not displace Office, but will fill two niches: enhancing the ability of knowledge workers to create documents collaboratively and bringing Office-like capabilities to workers who would not otherwise have them.

Nonetheless, adoption is bound to increase. “I’d expect more and more IT services companies will offer that kind of help desk and support around the Google Apps Premier environment,” says Rebecca Wettemann , an analyst with Nucleus Research .

“Now is the time to definitely have advanced technology folks and strategy people, the ones who look a year or two ahead, to look at this stuff and stay abreast of it, even if the time isn’t yet right to purchase,” says Burton Group analyst Guy Creese . “A huge mistake would be to look at the offerings today, say they’re immature, and then not pay any attention.”

At this point, with viral adoption of Google Apps happening under IT’s radar, attention is already being paid by rank in file employees. And Google is far from the only provider. Several smaller vendors with strong offerings, including Zoho  and Zimbra , compete directly with Google Apps. Cisco Systems now offers its WebEx WebOffice  platform for collaboration, while a number of applications in Salesforce.com’s AppExchange venture into desktop productivity territory

Waiting for Redmond’s shoe to drop

Conspicuous by its absence is Microsoft, which has been unable or unwilling to come out with a hosted suite comparable to Google Apps. Many wonder if Microsoft is having a hard time figuring out how to develop a hosted version of Office without cannibalizing its offline business. “A challenge for Microsoft is to figure out how to get people to buy the next version of Office if there is also an on-demand version,” says Wettemann.

Yet few doubt that Microsoft will eventually respond with a direct competitor to Google Apps and other similar suites. When it does, the effect on the market will likely be significant. “I think Microsoft needs to worry about it now because it takes a while to get right,” Creese says. “In hosted office suites, it’s going to take a while for companies to figure out how they want the thing to work.”

In defense of the current strategy, Microsoft officials have said that Office has steadily gained hosted service components for years, and that combining local PC software with services in the cloud is the right approach. Steve Ballmer elaborated on this point last May at the Software 2007 conference.

Last week, Microsoft released a unified installer to help users download updates for its family of Windows Live hosted services. Yet those who have been waiting for Microsoft to make a power move found the announcement underwhelming and dismissed it as cosmetic.

Not a desktop substitute

While many organizations ponder SaaS productivity suites, thousands of others have already implemented them. Web-based suites save on hardware and on time and effort for software installation and maintenance. They also make it easy for employees to share and collaborate on documents for a fraction of the cost it would take to implement an in-house messaging and collaboration system such as Microsoft SharePoint or IBM’s Lotus Domino/Notes.

Disadvantages include security concerns over hosting sensitive data with a third-party outside the corporate firewall, as well as downtime incidents that leave the organization without access.

Upon close inspection, exiting SaaS suites reveal themselves as strong in certain areas and weak in others. In a recently published and widely discussed 55-page report, Creese took a microscope to Google Apps Premier, dissecting its pros and cons in detail. For example, Creese found the suite lacking in archiving features, such as records management and electronic discovery, as well as in analytics capabilities, such as analysis of content creation patterns.

Google responded with a statement saying that the suite gives organizations “a new set of choices, many of which will complement and extend the power of the desktop, enhance group productivity and improve collaboration.”

Indeed, after weighing the pros and cons of SaaS suites, most analysts, users and vendors generally agree that these will not eliminate the need for packaged software suites. Because each model has its advantages, they work best in tandem, complementing each other.

“We’ll see more and more organizations that look to a tiered strategy for the way they deliver desktop applications. So rather than have a standard desktop, I may give Office to the folks in finance who really need Excel, while the folks in marketing may be fine within the Google environment,” Wettemann says.

The network effect

At Adison & Partners , an executive recruitment consultancy, adopting Cisco’s WebOffice has had a major positive effect, says Managing Partner Jim DiPietropolo .

The 8-person company has been office-less for the past several months, awaiting the completion of its new digs, which got delayed. With people working from home, having documents and calendars stored centrally in WebOffice servers has prevented the workflow from getting disjointed. “It ties everyone together,” he says.

Beyond helping with this temporary issue, WebOffice lets DiPietropolo and his employees be nimble in responding to client queries and requests while out of the office, by tapping remotely into databases and getting information on the fly. “From a business development standpoint, this has been a differentiator for us,” he says. “This ability to instantaneously respond [to queries] really impresses clients.”

The significance of the Capgemini announcement, however, is that desktop SaaS solutions are moving upscale, from small businesses like Adison & Partners to global corporations – where dispersed knowledge workers are warming to the idea of collaborating on the same document in real time. “Having a single version of the truth changes the business process,” says Capgemini’s Jones, who notes that the e-mail round-robin that occurs in conventional document collaborations is eliminated.

“Really, what we’re talking about is bringing software-as-a-service innovation to the desktop,” says Jones. “The main way that people interact with a corporation is through the desktop. We are delivering software-as-a-service solutions into that market.”