1: if I were going to roll out a product like this and I had google apps admins that are, almost without exception, total product advocates for google apps, I'd get them on board asap and give them a fat packet of training materials. Google has the resources to do this. The fact that they didn't do it shows lack of strategic vision. Let admins hold a half day session, give them video, handouts, whatever. They will sell the heck out of it and look like superstars if it's a decent product.
2: While Google+ appears to compete primarily with facebook, it also had the chance to cement the business market early on. Salesforce and others have been aggressive in pursuing this (chatter, et al). Would/will be a big differentiator for Google.
3. Additionally, apps wasn't always so aggressively positioned for just business and personal use. Early on it was very poorly positioned (looking back at some of the early how-to posts shows lots of "what exactly is google apps for your domain" type posts). There were certainly many, many power users that signed up in those days before it became clear just how poorly coordinated service rollout was between google and google apps.
4. Finally, regardless of what Google Apps is "meant for", what it is "used for" includes lots of users that are, indeed, excellent beta testers.
"if I were going to roll out a product like this and I had google apps admins that are, almost without exception, total product advocates for google apps, I'd get them on board asap and give them a fat packet of training materials. Google has the resources to do this. "
Are you kidding? You do't even get a "fat packet" when you sign a company with 95 employees. I got an email. Which had a link to log into the Admin account.
I had to write up training materials and provide them to the other employees. And don't tell me, all the docs are online. They'd (the employees) would never browse them. They too busy.
Google does a horrible job in this regard.
I got Microsoft knocking on my door this week. Trying to convince me to switch us to their cloud. They'll provide all the retraining and support. But they also trying to push Windows Server on me. So Google is lucky. :)
I'm an admin who deals with a very large number of mail flow patterns. Everything from multiple versions of Domino to all incarnations of Exchange, all the major Unix flavors Postfix, Exim, Sendmail, Qmail as well as most major anti-spam vendors. I can say that most of the people I deal with who have switched to the Microsoft Cloud have been less than happy. Just an anecdote for you if you reconsider the switch.
2: While Google+ appears to compete primarily with facebook, it also had the chance to cement the business market early on. Salesforce and others have been aggressive in pursuing this (chatter, et al). Would/will be a big differentiator for Google.
3. Additionally, apps wasn't always so aggressively positioned for just business and personal use. Early on it was very poorly positioned (looking back at some of the early how-to posts shows lots of "what exactly is google apps for your domain" type posts). There were certainly many, many power users that signed up in those days before it became clear just how poorly coordinated service rollout was between google and google apps.
4. Finally, regardless of what Google Apps is "meant for", what it is "used for" includes lots of users that are, indeed, excellent beta testers.