We’ve been learning a lot at Cloud Hypermarket about what the main points of interest for business are when it comes to choosing between the main vendors of email based Software-as-a-Service suites - Microsoft and Google. On deeper inspection there is quite a disparity between Microsoft’s BPOS offering and Google Apps premier, each offering its own bonuses. As far as features are concerned you can compare Microsoft's BPOS and Google Apps on Cloud Hypermarket. However it seems to me that the main difference between the products has very little to do with functionality.The vast majority of IT managers I have talked to have grown an affinity with Google and have spent time focussing on that, whilst remaining fully blinkered about Microsoft’s offering (some seem to refuse to acknowledge its existence). In this case Microsoft’s familiarity seems to have been working against it. IT managers have had years of having very little competition to Microsoft when it comes to dealing with email. They’ve literally had to use Outlook and Exchange. In 2009, 36.7% of all email, both domestic and business, was used through Microsoft’s Outlook client (see chart Outlook 2000, 2003, Express and Outlook 2007). Source: Campaignmonitor.com

Is it any wonder then that after years of dealing with new versions of Exchange, SQL servers and the likes, many IT managers have welcomed the arrival of Google as the new kid on the block. Enthusiatsts and IT managers are the folk who put Google there in the first place as they rejected all other search engines in its favour. Over the years, the domination of Microsoft has seen them grow into a big business brand like Coca Cola and McDonalds, which carries with it the stigma and opposition that such companies carry. I still see campaigns against Microsoft written on the internet with taglines such as ‘things Bill Gates does not want you to know’ – despite the fact that Bill Gates works pretty much full time on his charities, leaving the running of Microsoft to others. The more reasonable IT people however still understand that competition for Microsoft is a good thing as it is in any industry. Competition inspires advances which are invaluable for future advancement, even more positive in the current climate with the ‘green’ factor being such a strong selling point – Microsoft has used their energy efficient data centers as a marketing tool in the Software-as-a-Service war, which is good for all of us (and you have to wonder whether it would of happened if there wasn’t a battle for domination of the cloud email market). The Google Apps product got a great start and it is easy to see why IT managers (not exactly enamoured with the release of Vista at the time) liked the idea of moving their company email across to a new vendor in the guise of Google. The constant presence and familiarity of Microsoft has made them unpopular with IT professionals and fanatics.

As the chart shows, Microsoft are also the leaders in domestic email, with Gmail languishing behind even users who view their email on an iphone (the numbers are non exclusive so if you view your gmail account through Microsoft Outlook, it counts as a ‘hit’ for both). This points to something slightly different when we look at company email users. Financial Directors and companies without IT teams are not so involved in such predjudices. They don’t look at Microsoft and Google in the same way as IT folk. Instead they see the use of being able to move their email to the cloud and stay with the familiar interface of exchange as a huge positive. It means they won’t have to pay to re-train their staff to use a new system (which is required no matter how simple that system may be). If they hire new members of staff, they would expect them to be familiar with Microsoft Outlook, Exchange and in many cases SharePoint. If they are not familiar, existing staff will be able to help out in most cases until they are and as everyone grows up with Windows and Microsoft Office at home, we are ready made to use it in the workplace. Automatic and full integration with Outlook add to the opportunity to move company email to the cloud with minimal fuss. Various features of Google apps mean that when attachments are opened with Google Docs, they don’t open as originally formatted. The ‘conversation’ grouping of email can make things harder to find if you are not familiar with the interface. Small changes like this can be seen as major drawbacks for company email, with each hiccup or delay, essentially costing a company money.

Therefore, familiarity has become a major factor for company email in the cloud. On one hand IT professionals are close to the brands and have ideological opinions about Microsoft and Google. In many cases they have decided on a vendor long before evaluating the offerings. On the other hand, familiarity is a positive for end users. Office managers are keen to avoid the moaning that is sure to follow any major change in such a commonly used office application. Whether there is going to be a winner in the battle for market share of company email between Microsoft and Google remains to be seen, with battles being won daily by each giant. One thing is for sure though – familiarity will play a large role in the battle for the domination of the company email market.

For impartial evaluation of Google Apps Premier, Microsoft BPOS, Microsoft Exchange Online and competitors – compare cloud email suites now.