Google
Enterprise is no more. The company's decade-old division dedicated to corporate
customers has a new name: Google for Work. Name change aims to better reflect Google's business customers and shift
focus from the term 'enterprise', reports InformationWeek.
"In
many ways work itself has changed in the last five years as mobility has come
into play," said Amit Singh, president of Google for Work, at a press
briefing in San Francisco on Tuesday. "I think Google for Work better
reflects the new market environment we're all working in.
"This
is one of the big growth opportunities for Google," Singh added, noting
that almost 60% of the Fortune 500 companies are using paid services from
Google for Work.
Google
executive chairman Eric Schmidt offered this explanation in a blog post: "We never set out to create a traditional
'enterprise' business -- we wanted to create a new way of doing work. So the
time has come for our name to catch up with our ambition. As of today, what was
called Google Enterprise is now simply Google for Work."
Corporate
name changes can be inconsequential; they can also reflect fundamental
corporate realignment. Apple's decision in 2007 to drop "Computer"
from its name represents an example of the latter. The company's switch to
"Apple Inc." announced the company's new focus on mobile devices and
marked the end of the desktop era.
Google's identity shift is
a bit less than that. It's a declaration of commitment and a promise of
persistence, something that many Google users, businesses and consumers, have
had reason to doubt. Since Larry Page became CEO in April 2011, Google has shut
down more than two dozen products, leaving many users wary about the longevity
of Google services.
No comments:
Post a Comment