In a bid to expand its Google Apps for Work enterprise, the Mountain View-based company has decided to offer a plan to persuade huge companies to veer away from Microsoft Office.
In a blog post, Google has announced that it is now offering companies under an enterprise agreement (EA) — for instance, the Microsoft enterprise agreement — its Google Apps for Work free of charge.
Google's productivity suite incorporates a bevy of tools businesses could take advantage of, including Hangouts for voice and video calls (single or group), Gmail, Drive for cloud storage, Calendar, Sheets for spreadsheets, Docs for word processing, Slides for presentations, Forms, a web builder, and other administration tools.
The company is currently selling these products for a price of $50 per year or $5 a month for each user. Microsoft, on the other hand, offers Microsoft Office 365 Business at $5 a month per user for its basic Essentials version and $12.50 every month for its Premium version.
"If you're worried about switching to Docs because you still have an enterprise agreement (EA) with another provider, we'll cover the fees of Google Apps until your contract runs out," reads the blog post. "We'll even chip in on some of the deployment costs and set you up for success with one of our Google for Work Partners."
The tech giant will also offer $25 to approximately 3,000 users in hopes of persuading them to make the switch from Microsoft Office to Google Apps for Work. Companies may use this amount to build their employees' capacity on the apps' advanced features or to allot the money for transferring their data.
"It's cash from us, on behalf of customers, for resellers," says the head of global sales for Google Apps for Work, Rich Rao.
Once the companies' EA is over, Google will then be offering a contract with "no traps or gothas." Companies need to pay for Google Apps for Work for a year once their current agreement has lapsed. When the one-year term concludes, businesses may then go month-to-month if they prefer.
Companies located in the U.S. or Canada looking to know more about Google's latest offering may visit this page.
Google notes, however, that it is still actively working on bringing similar offers to other markets around the world.
