You can also link to other products and services. For example, LTech's QuickStart for Google Apps enables you to install, configure, and migrate to Google Apps from your existing messaging platform (Microsoft Exchange or POP) for a fee that begins at $999. CompanionLink for Google Calendar allows users to synchronize appointments and recurring events (including details) between Google Apps and Microsoft Outlook, PDAs and phones.

Also of interest to IT is Google's assertion that because it hosts the service, there's nothing to install and updates are automatically applied. That's mostly true, but users will still have to download Google Talk to use that IM feature (you can disable Chat for your users if you wish).

The competition

Many media outlets have billed Google Apps Premier Edition as an attempt to encroach on Microsoft Office, but that's comparing apples and oranges. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is hardly strong enough to wean anyone away from Microsoft Word or Excel, and many of the other Office applications are missing entirely from Google Apps. So no, GAPE isn't an Office killer and isn't designed to be.

Google Apps Premier Edition's most notable competitor (in terms of interface and ease of use) is probably Microsoft's Office Live Premium (OLP), which offers 50 2GB e-mail accounts and a decent Web site builder for $39.95/month. Office Live Premium offers several features Google lacks, such as Web site reports. Furthermore, OLP lets you create and administer documents in a shared library easily; with GAPE you can share documents using Google Docs & Spreadsheets, but not with the elegance of a shared library.