replacement” alternative to some of these issues, he Salesforceand Googlecalen- and Zoho were in nego-
on-premises licensed soft- said, but their absence dar software. tiations to be at least part-
ware, Pombriant said. means that even corporate “We have got a bunch ners, if not to consummate
Not all industry observ- users who want access to of manufacturing and an outright marriage.
ers were fully embracing Google Apps may face biotech companies” and Salesforce.com consid-
the alliance. For some, the opposition from IT and one large bank that have eredbuying Zohotoleverage
announcement has again their business managers. started major Google Apps the company’s collaboration
raised questions about Creese said there are situ- deployments, Singh said. software suite, which Zoho
why Google hasn’t been ations where Google Apps One organization that has positions as an alternative to
successful in getting major could be successful, perhaps gone public is the Republi- Google Apps and Microsoft’s
corporations to widely in enterprises that need low- can National Convention, Office suite, Vegesna said.
deploy its Web-based pro- cost productivity apps and whichisrunningthe organi- Such a deal appears to
ductivity applications, par- be all but dead now that
ticularly the Google Apps Salesforce.com has pro-
Premier Edition. claimed Google as its apps
With Salesforcefor Google platform of record.
Apps, it looks like Google is Salesforce.com officials
hoping that Salesforce.com declined to comment for
will be able to jump-start this report, but Vegesna said
the migration of Google Salesforce.com and Zoho
Apps into the Enterprise, began discussing a rela-
said Guy Creese, research tionship—possibly even an
director with Burton Group. acquisition—in 2006.
In an interview with e Week, However, Zoho’s concern
Creese said the Salesforce. Salesforce.com’s Benioff, left, and Google’s Schmidt expect that about Salesforce.com’s cost
com deal was unlikely to the partnership between their companies will drive on-demand structure, which according
add significant momen- computing deeper into the enterprise. to estimates from Zoho
tum to enterprise adoption are “a bit leery of spending zation on Google Apps and includes spending eight
of Google Apps. all that money on Office.” isalsousing Salesforce.com, times more on marketing
While the “integration The good news, he said, is Singh said. than R&D, prompted Zoho
within the Salesforce.com that users get “nice cheap He said Appirio has also to offer to partner first.
application is quite nice,” e-mail and a word processor worked with Telecommu- “Let’s date first before
Creese said, the Salesforce and everything they need to nications Services of Trini- we get married,” Vegesna
for Google Apps deal is “an get their jobs done because dad and Tobago to deploy said he recalled thinking.
installed base play—non- theyaren’tpowerusers.” The Google Apps Premier Edi- “We thought we’d experi-
Salesforce.com customers requirement for users such tion and to transfer users’ ment as an AppExchange
won’t be touched by this as this is that “they must be e-mail boxes from an older partner, and if it goes well,
initiative.” prettymuchself-contained,” e-mail system to Gmail. maybe we’ll take it up to
In a blog, Creese wrote he said. For all the interest the the next step.”
th at Google still fac es a H o w e v e r, N a r i n d e r Salesforce.com-Google deal A deal was long dead even
tough sell in getting For- Singh, founder of Appirio, generated, it might not have before April 14’s Google-
tune 500 enterprises to which provides applications happened at all if Salesforce. Salesforce.com bond, accord-
switch from Microsoft Office and services to support the com had acquired Zoho two ing to Vegesna, who echoed
applications to Google Apps adoption of both Google years ago. That’s what Zoho Vembu’s blog when he said
because Google Apps is still Apps and Salesforce.com, Evangelist Raju Vegesna told the companies’ corporate
missing important features claimed that a significant e Week in a phone interview cultures were at odds. ´
that enterprises want, such number of large corpora- following the publication of
as role-basedadministration, tions have at least launched a controversial blog post Web 2.0
the ability to work offline, pilot programs to deploy by Sridhar Vembu, CEO Clint Boulton keeps up-to-
records management for Google Apps to workgroups of Zoho parent company date on all the happenings
with Google, Yahoo and the
documents and automatic of 200 to 1,000 users. Appirio AdventNet. like with his Google Watch
footnoting. built an application that syn- Vegesna said that as late blog. At blogs.eweek.com
Google is working on chronizes data between the as 2007, Salesforce.com
