Google India Makes Google Apps Affordable to Bring SMBs on to the Cloud!

Google believes that Indian SMBs will adopt the cloud in a big way, paving the way for the cloud revolution to spread across the country.

According to the latest estimates from the India Cloud Market Overview, 2MNN-2MN6, the Indian cloud market is expected to grow by 5M per cent in the next three years. Looking at the opportunity, Google India is now aiming to target the small businesses in the country.

Google India has recently announced new affordable pricing for ‘Google Apps for Business’. The company aims to make it easier for the small businesses in the country to reap the benefits of working in the cloud. New and existing customers based in India can buy ‘Google Apps for Business’ for os N5M per user per month if they’re on the flexible plan, and for os N5MM per user per year on the annual plan. This is around a 45 per cent reduction on the previous price.

India is home to around 47 million small businesses, yet only N per cent of these businesses are online. According to Google, making Google Apps more affordable will help small businesses in India to move to the cloud and access a business-ready package of communication and collaboration tools.

With Google Apps, the businesses can access secure and flexible cloud-based communication and collaboration tools. Google Apps offers easy solutions for Web mail, calendars, cloud storage, and video meetings through Google’s consumer products, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs and Hangouts. These tools work together seamlessly, and all that’s needed to get up and running is an Internet-connected device. Companies can securely access all their data and services from a mobile phone running Android, iOS or BlackBerry platforms.

Google Apps offers a 99.9 per cent availability guarantee, zero scheduled downtime and 24/ 7 support, which also comes with security and support, without the need to manage hardware, security updates or software patches. Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs and Slides now also work well offline.

oicky hapur, director, Enterprise Sales, Asia–Google Inc, says, “Small businesses, not just in India, but across the globe, have very few choices when it comes to deploying technology at the work place. Overall, they have three kinds of choices—either they use very expensive software, which is designed for large companies; or use software which is a misfit for their set-up and lacks functionality, is insecure and unreliable; or they have no real option of using technology. Google Apps changes that in a major way. It is a cloud-based productivity and communications suite that combines ease of use for consumers with security, reliability, control and the support that the businesses need. If you look at what we offer in the product, it includes not just business mail and the calendar, but also social collaboration tools.”

Google has a number of programmes under way to reach out to the SMBs in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. hapur comments, “With our local teams and partners, we have a host of programmes that will target the SMBs in smaller markets across the different segments. They will help us build awareness around the cloud and the need to get online. We are also building a number of awareness campaigns to reach out.” The company is running a number of campaigns, both on the online platform as well as on-ground campaigns.

The search giant is also looking at training the SMBs for the purpose. hapur says, “We believe that the technologies that we bring to the table are fundamentally consumer technologies that already have a wide scale adoption, both globally and in India. So, the training needed to adopt these technologies is very limited. The degree of training required is actually very low, because these are already used technologies. But having said that, we do have a network of partners who provide various support, deployment and training services, so that we can help the business adopt these technologies well.”

If you are an SMB that wants to reach out to Google to avail these services, all you need to do is register yourself on the company’s website. The people from Google will soon revert to you to take this forward!