Internet Solutions - Office 365 / Google Apps Cloud Emails Solutions

"Google is too big of a change for my users, Office 365 is easier and more familiar." We hear comments like this a lot, and usually these ideas form because Microsoft tries to convince people that they're true.

In the first post of this series, I started to debunk this myth by looking at how the different, disjointed products in the Office 365 suite can cause confusion for users. In today's post, I'll prove that statement false once again by comparing the clients users need to access these products.

Let's revisit this infographic:

Not only does Office 365 have overlapping products in each of the designated areas (email, file storage, chat and social), but it also has several client options to access each of these products. Google Apps, on the other hand, is very simple, as each area has one product, each of which can be accessed via web or mobile. For Google users, the client options are very simple: either access the products through your web browser or use specific, purpose-driven mobile clients such as the dedicated Gmail and Drive apps. For Office 365 users, the client options are significantly more complicated.

When it comes to email, Office 365 users have several client options. First, there's Outlook 2007 (with limits), Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 " that's three right there. Then there's Outlook 2013 Web App (OWA), which makes four. And don't forget Yammer, because that also has an "inbox" and can be accessed through a specific client or a web interface, bringing the count to six. Of course there's the Windows 8 application for the 3.3% of people that use it as well as a new Outlook app for iOS. There is no Outlook app for Android, however, so if you have an Android you have to use either the native mail app or a third party app. That brings us to nine different clients, depending on what device you use, just to access email.

As I outlined in the previous post, there are four different options for file storage in Office 365: OneDrive Business, OneDrive Consumer, SharePoint Online and Yammer. So how do users access these products? OneDrive Business and OneDrive Consumer each have a web interface and a mobile client, while SharePoint Online has a web interface for the desktop and for mobile (there is no mobile app). Last but not least, there's Yammer, which has a desktop application, a web interface and a mobile application. That's another nine clients to access the four different file storage locations. Confused yet? Let's move on

For chat, Office 365 users have access to Lync and Yammer, both of which can be accessed via a desktop client, a web interface or a mobile app. That brings us to a total of six different cleint options for two separate chat products. And let's not forget that Microsoft is now connecting Lync with Skype " possibly introducing a third chat product with another set of client applications.

Finally, that brings us to enterprise social. This may be the easiest category of all because, even though there are technically two social products in the Office 365 suite, you can only use one at a time, so users need to pick. As discussed in the previous post, Microsoft is pushing for Yammer, so let's assume you're using Yammer. In this case, you still have three different client interfaces from which to choose: the desktop application, web interface or mobile client.

If you've been keeping track, that's a whopping 26 different interfaces, depending on type of mobile device, with which users are potentially faced in Office 365. In contrast, Google Apps users have two, standard interfaces for each of the four applications, making for a total of eight interfaces. Eight or 26+ which do you think is easier for your users to learn?