Is useful for business?Jan RiskeBCM WS 2010/201121.01.2011

Agenda(1) Google Docs as subset of Google Apps(2) Components of Google Docs(3) Business Requirements(4) Features and functions(5) Costs(6) Benefits(7) Drawbacks(8) Conclusion

1. Google Docs as subset of Google Apps

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/index.html

1. Google Apps - editions

2. Components of Google DocsWordprocessorSpreadsheetPresentationDrawing

Document sharingCollaboratingDocument storagePossible data formats: XLS, XLSX, ODS, CSVDOC, DOCX, ODT, SXW, RTF, TXT,HTML (HTM, HTML)JPG, GIF, PNG, PDF

3. Business requirements• Availability• Flexibility• Reliability• Security• Customer Support

4. Features and functions• Pivot• Macros• Create, change, delete documents• Easily share documents • Realtime collaboration• Usability• Storage• Copy & paste between different documents

5. Costs• Hardware• Software / Update• Maintenance• Labor cost

6. Benefits• High reliability• Decreasing risk of data loss• High sophisticated replication• Increased productivity• Faster processes• Fast collaboration• Fast and reliable infrastructure

Short movie: real-time collaboration

7. Drawbacks• Weak standards in the cloud• Secrecy• Endpoints are not necessarily secure• Location of data• Compliance requirements• Availability• Breach disclosure concern• Vendor lock-in (dependency on the vendor)• Intentional data disclosure• Audits

8. Conclusion• Advantages – disadvantages• Cost saving – risk• Functionality - requirements

No recommendation possible! Yes, Google can be useful for business!