Google unveils initiative to widen enterprise reach

Will offer Google Apps for free to companies locked into contracts with other service providers till the end of the contract period

Google has come out with a multi-million dollar initiative in India to get more businesses to use its enterprise solutions as it looks to wrest market share from global rivals, including Microsoft.

Under the initiative, Google will offer its Google Apps for free to companies locked into contracts with other service providers till the end of the contract period, Google for Work President Amit Singh told reporters.

It will also chip in with some of the deployment costs for setting up Google Apps.

"Google Apps is available for about Rs 1,500 per user per year. So, say an organisation has 1,000 users, you can make an estimate of how much we are investing. Also, we will bear some cost of the deployment. This is a huge investment for us as we strengthen our position in the Indian enterprise space," Google Country Manager (Google for Work) Mohit Pande said.

Google already works with the likes of Hero MotoCorp, Bombay Dyeing and Welspun as well as start-ups like Commonfloor, ixigo, freshdesk and housing.com. It also has Snapdeal, Flipkart, Ola, Paytm and Freecharge.

Google will also offer 1,000 start-ups in India up to $ 20,000 each in free credits for Google Cloud Services starting 2016.

"With the second-largest developer population base, India is poised to be home to next generation of global software firms. We are committed to partner with these next-gen companies as a trusted provider of affordable, collaborative productivity solutions on cloud," Singh said.

With these new initiatives, Google aims to further bring down barriers for companies to switch to Google Apps, he added.