Faritec takes Google to business

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 19 Jun 2008

In the first tangible move by the global Internet giant in SA, Google has partnered with JSE-listed IT services company Faritec to offer Google enterprise solutions in the country.

Google has had a local presence since the appointment of country head Stafford Masie last September.

According to Faritec regional executive Gordon Love, the company has invested millions of rands to develop skills for the Google contract. Love would not disclose the amount, because the company is in a closed period awaiting the release of its results.

"We anticipate the growth from the Google partnership to be exponential, with conservative sales estimates of R20 million within the first year of trading." While Faritec expects good returns in the first year, it says real take-up of these solutions will only pick up in around 18 months.

The largest task for the company will be to commoditise Google products, which are largely available for free download on the Internet. Love says a large part of the cost will include Faritec 24-hour support services and increased storage space - from 4G allocated in the free services to 25G in the paid-for service. Users are also guaranteed a 99.9% uptime.

The menu

Faritec will provide Google products in three basic areas:

* Google Enterprise Search, which uses server technology installed within an enterprise. The product is essentially the Google search engine used to retrieve data centre information from behind the firewall.
* Google Apps Security and Compliance, which will focus predominately on anti-spam, content filtering and secure messaging services provided as a hosted service. Google Apps refers to a collection of several applications and utilities, all of which are offered as Web-based services. Applications include e-mail, calendaring, instant messaging, word processing, spreadsheets and presentation tools.
* Google Geospatial, where Faritec will develop software that will be superimposed on Google Earth and Google Maps to create a "different view of the organisation".

In the initial phase of the partnership, Faritec will focus on selling the Enterprise Search product to corporate business. "Search is a real and tangible product; we already have four signed deals in SA for this product," adds Love.

"Our primary objective is to position the Faritec brand as the key Google Enterprise professional partner in the minds of customers and to ensure the full value of the Faritec Google offering is understood by the market," he says.

Big promise

Love claims the Google Enterprise products can bring an average business's total cost of ownership, with a 5G mailbox and all the products installed, down to R696 per year.

Google EMEA head of sales Jesper Frederiksen says: "The technologies in the enterprise suite are extremely popular and demonstrate true Web innovation spilling over the firewall and into the enterprise."

While Faritec is the company's only enterprise sales partner, it is by no means the last. "Google does not like exclusivity. If another company can provide what we are looking for, we will pursue it as an added option. However, there is nothing on the cards at the moment."

He says the companies have been in discussions since January. "Faritec will have the task of informing our possible African customers that we do actually provide business-to-business products."