Bloomberg is running an article on Kevin Turner (Microsoft’s COO), how he is re-organizing Microsoft sales, and fighting competition from Google.

A few facts from the article caught my attention. First and foremost:

Twenty-eight percent of technology buyers in a Goldman survey this month said they were trying Google applications or plan to in the next year, a percentage Goldman said was higher than expected.

28% is a huge figure. Obviously they are not all going to defect to Google. But the fact that such a huge percentage of those surveyed is considering the switch is astonishing.

Moreover, even those not leaving can already start affecting Microsoft’s margin. In the introduction, Bloomberg’s Dina Bass is telling a story of Turner personally flying to Procter & Gamble Co. to prevent them from defecting to Google Apps. I am sure P&G could use the competitive situation to get a pretty good contract from Microsoft!

I wonder how many other customers will start employing the same technique.

The article is also saying that Turner had to give P&G CIO Filippo Passerini “an early look at plans for Web-based systems”.

See the full story here.

Tags: Cloud Computing, Google, Google Apps, Microsoft, SaaS
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