Going Google: End Users and VARs are Targets

Google has reportedly launched a new ad campaign, dubbed “Going Google (News - Alert),” which intended to spur adoption of Google Apps as an alternative to Microsoft Office.

 

Commuters in New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, Calif. will see a series of ads for Google Apps starting today. The ads will run for a month, portraying how and why some 3,000 organizations are signing up to use Google apps each day.

 

The "Going Google" campaign aims to stimulate end-user demand for Google Apps within business and other entities and likely to help create a stronger value added reseller channel, as well.

 

The logic there is simple: many smaller and mid-sized organizations rely on their VARs to create and sustain information technology capabilities. As part of the campaign, Google undoubtedly will highlight recurring revenue possibilities for higher-value applications.

 

That sort of thing has grown in importance as profit from the traditional hardware and maintenance business has continued to dwindle. But Google will have to work hard if it wants to augment or displace Microsoft, which with Cisco remains a mainstay capability and offer for many VARs.

 

If the gambit ultimately succeeds, Google Apps might wind up being a lead application many VARs sell in 2010 or 2011. That would be quite a change, indeed.