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Hi, I’m Brad Feld, a managing director at Foundry Group who lives in Boulder, Colorado. I invest in software and Internet companies around the US, run marathons and read a lot.

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Huge Google Gmail Enterprise Win

Comments (15)

I’ve been keeping my eyes out for one of these.  I hope my friends at Microsoft have been also.  Apparently the New South Wales Department of Education and Training (that would be Australia) just dumped Microsoft Outlook/Exchange in favor of Gmail.

Before you say "ho hum – it’s only Australia" or "it’s not enterprise – it’s only academia", let’s look at the numbers.

  • 1.3m seats
  • Previous cost to implement Outlook/Exchange: $33m ($AU) over three years
  • New cost to implement Gmail: $9m ($AU) over three years
  • Outlook/Exchange storage/mailbox: 35MB
  • Gmail storage/mailbox: 6GB
  • Weekly emails sent: over 300k

That’s a non-trivial install.  (via TechCrunch)

Categories: AGILEAMY
  • togilvie

    1.3MM seats only sends 300K emails/week. I think there's something fishy with the numbers?

    • http://www.feld.com Brad Feld

      Agreed. I think it's one of two things. 1. The 300k / week email number is wrong (very low) or 2. There are a large number of inactive inboxes. Given the scale and the customer, I'm guessing it's #2.

  • Jake Kaldenbaugh

    I wonder what the discussion about data privacy was. I think the most interesting dynamic affecting this market will be the tension between cost savings and data privacy.

  • john r

    # 1.3m seats
    # Previous cost to implement Outlook/Exchange: $33m over three years
    # New cost to implement Gmail: $9m over three years
    # Outlook/Exchange storage/mailbox: 35MB
    # Gmail storage/mailbox: 6GM (you fixed it!!!)

    All of these #'s are manipulated. 1.3m seats on 300k messages, $33M in 'implementation' but spread over three years. A three year install? Installing mail is hard but not a 3 year deal. That (like the 9) has to be the 3 year cost to install, operate, blah, blah.

    But only use propeller heads will catch it. Good ole folks from marketing. Spinning the machine.

    You fixed my favorite botch (may have been you and not the article). I liked the 6 GigaMegs for storage better – kewl new word.

    • http://www.feld.com Brad Feld

      The botch was definitely me. I know the difference between a GB and a GM (which – in my book, is a lousy car).  I’m not sure there is spinning going on here – I expect these are both implementation and outsourced management contracts and the numbers (except for the weekly email messages) seem in line with what I’ve seen elsewhere.

  • http://www.feld.com Brad Feld

    Late breaking new – Om is annoyed (understatement) with Gmail. http://gigaom.com/2008/06/24/does-your-gmail-suck…

  • http://alankeister.wordpress.com Alan K

    I wonder what they do for shared calenders. Every org needs a good calendar system. Exchange is the only good one I know of. It sems like this Dept of Edu has saved some $$ but made life harder on their employees by adding another app and removing the integration between email and calendar.

    • http://www.feld.com Brad Feld

      I use Google Calendar on a limited basis to share specific calendars with people not on our Exchange server and it seems to work pretty well at this point.

    • Sean_Kelly

      They don't have shared calendars nor file sharing etc – that's another $30M contract.

  • Sean_Kelly

    Actually the problem was that the Teachers Union banned the use of email to communicate with student until the had received a “training” budget allocation. Which was not forthcoming at a price of tens of millions. The government basically said to hell with that…………..

    • http://www.feld.com Brad Feld

      Awesome! Teachers needing “training” to send email to students. That just makes no sense at all to me.

  • http://friendfeed.com/coolblueskies coolblueskies

    woof ! Thanks for the impressive snapshot illustrating the winds of change

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bfeld bfeld

    Agreed. I think it's one of two things. 1. The 300k / week email number is wrong (very low) or 2. There are a large number of inactive inboxes. Given the scale and the customer, I'm guessing it's #2.

  • togilvie

    1.3MM seats only sends 300K emails/week. I think there's something fishy with the numbers?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bfeld bfeld

    Awesome! Teachers needing “training” to send email to students. That just makes no sense at all to me.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bfeld bfeld

    Late breaking new – Om is annoyed (understatement) with Gmail. http://gigaom.com/2008/06/24/does-your-gmail-suck…

  • Jake Kaldenbaugh

    I wonder what the discussion about data privacy was. I think the most interesting dynamic affecting this market will be the tension between cost savings and data privacy.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bfeld bfeld

    The botch was definitely me. I know the difference between a GB and a GM (which – in my book, is a lousy car).  I’m not sure there is spinning going on here – I expect these are both implementation and outsourced management contracts and the numbers (except for the weekly email messages) seem in line with what I’ve seen elsewhere.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sean_Kelly Sean_Kelly

    They don't have shared calendars nor file sharing etc – that's another $30M contract.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bfeld bfeld

    I use Google Calendar on a limited basis to share specific calendars with people not on our Exchange server and it seems to work pretty well at this point.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sean_Kelly Sean_Kelly

    Actually the problem was that the Teachers Union banned the use of email to communicate with student until the had received a "training" budget allocation. Which was not forthcoming at a price of tens of millions. The government basically said to hell with that…………..

  • togilvie

    1.3MM seats only sends 300K emails/week. I think there's something fishy with the numbers?

  • Alan K

    I wonder what they do for shared calenders. Every org needs a good calendar system. Exchange is the only good one I know of. It sems like this Dept of Edu has saved some $$ but made life harder on their employees by adding another app and removing the integration between email and calendar.

  • john r

    # 1.3m seats
    # Previous cost to implement Outlook/Exchange: $33m over three years
    # New cost to implement Gmail: $9m over three years
    # Outlook/Exchange storage/mailbox: 35MB
    # Gmail storage/mailbox: 6GM (you fixed it!!!)

    All of these #'s are manipulated. 1.3m seats on 300k messages, $33M in 'implementation' but spread over three years. A three year install? Installing mail is hard but not a 3 year deal. That (like the 9) has to be the 3 year cost to install, operate, blah, blah.

    But only use propeller heads will catch it. Good ole folks from marketing. Spinning the machine.

    You fixed my favorite botch (may have been you and not the article). I liked the 6 GigaMegs for storage better – kewl new word.

  • http://super-lig.net super lig

    let’s look at the numbers. tik otesi -
    super lig

  • http://super-lig.net super lig

    let’s look at the numbers. tik otesi –
    super lig

  • Bilge Adam

    Before you say “ho hum – it’s only Australia” or “it’s not enterprise – it’s only academia”, let’s look at the numbers. Thanks you for good article.bilge adam

  • Bilge Adam

    Before you say "ho hum – it’s only Australia" or "it’s not enterprise – it’s only academia", let’s look at the numbers. Thanks you for good article.bilge adam

  • twitterist

    I think the most interesting dynamic affecting this market will be the tension between cost savings and data privacy. by twitterist twitter

  • twitterist

    I think the most interesting dynamic affecting this market will be the tension between cost savings and data privacy. by twitterist twitter

  • matematik

    thanks you for good article. by matematikci Matematik, Matematikciler

  • matematik

    thanks you for good article. by matematikci Matematik, Matematikciler

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