Google sweetens enterprise Apps deal

Google has been working hard to pitch its Apps productivity suite to the enterprise, but has come across a consistent snag: Companies are signed up for long-term volume licensing contracts with its competitors, especially Microsoft. Google has found that those companies came calling to look at switching to Apps when their contracts were up for renewal, but were otherwise locked up.

Rich Rao, the company's head of global sales for Google Apps, said that the company wanted to change that pattern and looked at how to get users running on Apps before their contracts with other vendors came up for renewal.

To do that, Google will let those companies still bound by enterprise agreement contracts with, say, Microsoft, to use the enterprise edition of Google Apps for free for the duration of their existing contract. What's more, Google will also help cover transition costs by paying its local partners up to $25 per user to help companies migrate over to Apps for Work.

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