Getting support for Google Apps from Google can be one of the few remaining issues companies have for “goingGoogle” here in New Zealand.
With little (but not zero) official NZ presence from the Google Enterprise team the perception for many is that Google help is just support@google.com
Here’s the logic that many use to arrive at that:
- Google comes from the “online consumer world”
- Support for “online consumer products” is provided … online
- Google Apps is also (and increasingly) targeted at the “corporate world”
- The “corporate world” expects to be looked after by people
- Google comes from the “online consumer world”
- … and around we go
And I have no issues with anyone that thinks that way as it’s very common.
It is changing though.
Traditionally the corporate world received their support from “people” by paying for it – they had licence maintenance deals, 24hour Gold Support Contracts and the ever annoying Software Assurance Program.
Of course the vendors themselves rarely provided the support but outsourced them to local partners and their supply chain. Why is that, because it costs a fortune to provide this service.
In this approach Google seem to be no different in moving towards such a “community” (not eco-system) of third party suppliers and resellers - of which we are a part. Google are, however, also very active in the “online” world in the same way that the “open source” community is. This, I suspect, is a foreign world to most corporates – who has change, Google or the corporates?
At the moment, the pervading view seems to be against Google and their support approach, Computerworld: Can Google really hack it in business?:
“There’s no one to really call if you’re having a problem,” says Greg Arnette, who as CTO of email archiving vendor Sonian is both a Google Apps user and a competitor to Google’s Postini service. While phone support is included in Google Apps Premier Edition, “They do everything they can to direct you to the online forums,” he says.
We at WaveAdept are working hard to:
- Work with Google to ensure our NZ client issues are addressed appropriately
- Create a sustainable and cost effective “support system” for NZ Google Apps users
- Ensure the Google Apps reseller community step up to the line and resolve this very real issue for NZ clients
For more information we urge you to join up to the complimentary “NZ Google Apps” communities on Google Groups and LinkedIn.
See you at the Support Desk!
Tags: google
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Google apps is giving us (an IT company) a great way for us to bridge the gap between having an ISP pop account to an Exchange server, for our clients from the 2 to 15 seat market.
And you guys have certainly hit the nail on the head. Businesses that try and do the apps setup would have a really hard time with setup or troubleshooting issues.
I hope you get to be the NZ google apps guys.
@getithere
Jamie Nelson
Google Apps setup is, for any mildly competent IT person, the easiest thing in the world.
Support when it doesn’t work because of a client issue is, again, pretty darned easy.
However, talking to the machine called Google has been daunting in the past.
This post from a friend here in Wellington about Blogger (admittedly not Google Apps) is heartening as it highlights a definite a sea change going on within Google that is occurring very quickly:
http://jackyan.com/blog/2010/01/googles-rick-klau-restores-social-media-consortium/
AND, companies such ourselves, Cloudbreak and others in NZ are stepping up to the mark.
A mere 12 months ago this wasn’t that case so just think how different it will be in another 12 months