Google Apps get thumbs-down from big bank

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 27 February 2007 06:56

Business IT - Technology

A major bank has tested Google Apps but found the search giant's software-as-a-service (SaaS) answer to the ubiquitous office programs don't meet its users' needs.

According to a story in today's Australian Financial Review, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) - one of the 'four pillars' of the country's banking system - conducted a six-month evaluation of the web-delivered applications but concluded they would not do the job required.

The spokesperson quoted in the report expressed "genuine disappointment" about the outcome, suggesting the SaaS model is gaining mindshare among corporates.

Applications such as CRM, SFA and ERP typically present a very small quantity of data to a user at a time - one customer's details, perhaps. This makes them very suitable for web-based delivery. But someone used to running a spreadsheet or word processing application and seeing speedy response even with the largest documents may be disappointed by the relatively sluggish UI that seems to be a feature of SaaS.

Another point is that you might imagine a bank would be very careful about how and where its data is stored and protected. While you or I might be comfortable with leaving letters and emails on Google's servers, I think we would all hold our banks (and other companies that provide us with goods or services) to a much higher standard of security.