14 DAY TRIAL // Google is said to be close to signing a deal with General Motors to provide the large automaker with Google Apps. If completed, the deal would be a huge win for Google which has been building up its enterprise offerings and market share.
No one is confirming anything on the record, but the Wall Street Journal says that Google has signed a deal to provide Google Apps to more than 100,000 employees.
The deal, however, still has to be approved, so both Google and GM are keeping quiet for the time being.
GM has been using the rather old school, but still incredibly popular with businesses, Lotus Notes, created by IBM. But the carmaker is apparently looking to update its system and has been reviewing offers from both Microsoft and Google.
GM is said to be looking for something a bit more modern, like webmail and a cloud infrastructure. And, apparently, Google has taken the lead.
Google Apps offers email, powered by the enterprise version of Gmail, but also collaboration through its Docs suite, which includes document, spreadsheet and presentation editors.
Google Apps bundles several other products and it also makes many of Google's regular products available to those with an Apps account. Very recently, the very hyped Google+ social network became available to Apps users as well.
Google Apps competes with Microsoft's traditional business software but also with its new cloud version, Office 365. However, Microsoft still dominates the space and Google Apps has a very small market share, despite several tens of millions of users.
Getting the GM contract would be a huge win for Google, not only because of the size of it, which is rather big, but because of the symbolism, people will take notice if GM chooses Google over Microsoft. They'll also notice when Google starts bragging that GM is in its portfolio.