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The trouble with going Google: four reasons why I got out

Having been in the enterprise productivity apps game for only three years, Google has made impressive strides with Google Apps, its Web-based messaging and collaboration suite.

Since the 2007 introduction, Google has gone from zero to more than 2 million business customers with high-profile examples including Jaguar Land Rover, Motorola, Konica Minolta and fashion conglomerate Roberto Cavalli.

Google has also won Google Apps deals with government agencies such as City of Orlando and City of Los Angeles (where all is not rosy) and sold state-wide school district migrations in Maryland, Oregon, Iowa and Colorado.

Google Apps' big draw is still price. For $50 per user, per year companies get 25GB of e-mail storage through Gmail along with Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Groups. Collaboration apps such as Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Video are also included. As part of the deal, Google promises 99.9 percent uptime reliability and 24/7 customer support with Google Apps.

But Google Apps doesn't work for everyone.

Both Aisle 7, a small health and wellness marketing company, and Serena Software, a mid-size maker of change management software, left Microsoft for GAPE (Google Apps Premier Edition) then switched back, choosing Microsoft's more expensive cloud-based service, BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite).

Among the pain points both companies cite: Hits to e-mail productivity and insufficient customer support.

1. E-mail Interface Quirks

Aisle 7, a small health and wellness marketing company that provides content for Web sites and in-house kiosks for stores such as Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, moved to Google Apps for its 32 users in early 2009 mostly because of the low price and 25GB of e-mail storage space.

Hamstrung by an Exchange server that was failing and costly to manage, Aisle 7 needed to save money, says IT manager Jake Harris. Aisle 7's did not want to have Google Apps replace Outlook and Office, but rather complement them.

"We quickly realized that the attitude of our users was: 'Take Outlook from my cold dead hands,'" says Harris. "Only 10 people were using Gmail for e-mail initially and within three months it was down to two people. Most did not like how threaded messaging and meeting requests work in Gmail."

A big selling point for Aisle 7 was Outlook Connector (officially called Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook), a plug-in that synchronizes Outlook e-mail, calendar and contacts with Google Apps. "Google promised that it would have the same feature parity as when you have Exchange on-premise. But neither Outlook Connector nor Gmail worked well."

In Gmail, a frequent irritation for Harris was that there is no way to re-send a message (as opposed to forwarding), which can come in handy if you have a regular e-mail that you send out each month. This is something that you can do in Outlook.

In Outlook Connector, a problem for Aisle 7's users was with meeting requests.

One example: If Aisle 7 users included an attachment in the meeting request, the invitees would not see the attachment nor would they be able to accept the meeting request, and the organizer wouldn't know there was a problem.

Also, if users received a meeting request in Gmail using Google Apps that was sent using Outlook, they could see the date, time and invitees, but could not see notes written in the body of the invite by the organizer.

2. User Revolt

Redwood City, Calif.-based Serena Software moved to Google Apps in late 2008 for 1,100 users, intending to forsake Outlook and Office and fully use Gmail and Google Docs. That is until a small revolt from users and the legal team, which had issues with how confusing threading can be in Gmail.

"Once users lose confidence in a tool it's hard to get them back," says Ron Brister, Serena's Director of IT.

Users were happy to abandon the Gmail interface for Outlook Connector, but Outlook Connector never worked well, says Brister. "Outlook Connector actually broke a number of times," he adds.

Like Aisle 7's Harris, Brister takes umbrage with the way distribution lists are set up in Outlook Connector.

"With Exchange when you send a group e-mail it populates the "To" field with all members of that group," he says. "In Gmail and Outlook Connector all you see is the e-mail address in the 'To' field. You can't reply to one person or see who's on the list. It's just an http address. You have to reply to all or add people individually and reply that way."

Another source of aggravation for Brister was with Gmail's calendar invites. If you add an attachment to a meeting invite the attachment has to be a link to a Google Doc or it won't go through. The solution was to send follow up e-mails to the group with the attachment.