January 15, 2009 by Andy Russell
Today Google is set to name 50 new affiliate companies. These companies will have the right to resell online applications on its behalf, whilst maintaining all customer relationship and billing responsibility. Essentially Google is setting up franchises.
Wannabe resellers applied online over the last few weeks for the chance to buy Google Apps premier edition for 20% (RRP $50 per year) and then sell it on for a profit. The names will be announced today though the first product won’t actually go on sale until March.
Whilst they are allowing resellers a certain amount of autonomy Google will offer training, support and tools for sales, marketing, reporting etc.
It appears that this is just the beginning of Google’s attempts to expand via other people’s companies, as Jim Murphy from AMR research points out, “This is the beginning of what is likely to be a foray into building more of a partner ecosystem for Google…Relative to companies like Microsoft, they’re way behind in that area.”
So, is getting into bed with Google a good idea? Well, the market would appear to be there for the product. According to Google over a million businesses already use Google Apps, with another 3000 businesses signing up every day.
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