Sprint to Partner With Google Apps for Business
Google Apps for Business will now be accessible to Sprint customers starting in August of this year. Sprint is teaming up with Google to become an official reseller of the service. This move will increase the scope of services and support for third party products Sprint currently offers.
As Mike Fitz, vice president of business solution commercialization at Sprint explained, “Google’s versatile toolbox makes it simple for businesses large and small to integrate best-in-class, cloud-based solutions. As a trusted wireless leader, we offer the most comprehensive approach across all business segments. When combined with the flexibility of our new Fusion pricing plans, Sprint delivers the perfect balance of mobility and collaboration tools that today’s business require.”
Customers will get a full array of deployment and support services including free 24-hour support and online training. Besides, businesses are able to tap into Sprint’s vast mobile expertise. According to a press release, “It can help build the “complete solution” tailored to specific needs that will help businesses build a new workforce experience, simplify IT management and ultimately fuel growth.”
Sprint, however are not abandoning Apple in this partnership, as Sprint will continue sell iPads and iPhones. As John Tudhope, Director of Marketing for Enterprise Services for Sprint explained, “Google Apps work extremely well across iOS, mainly because of the browser-based access.”
Google Apps for Business has been in business from as far back as 2006, although it was going by a different name “Google Apps for your Domain”. It has been growing steadily through a reseller program that currently has about 6,000 resellers. Amongst these is Verizon, Sprint’s direct competitor, also being a wireless mobile provider. However, Sprint is confident that it is the only mobility company to offer Google Apps as a mainstream product. “it hasn’t been a real focus of Verizon…We’re the first mobility partner to go hard, all-in, with Google in this announcement.” said Tudhope.
Google is excited by the partnership. Murali Sitaram, Director of Global Strategic Partnerships at Google said, “We are pleased to welcome Sprint to the Google Apps Partner Program, where they will provide Google Apps and added services to help customers work the way they live.”
Sprint will offer Google Apps for Business at the same rates offered by Google. The standard package, which has a storage limit of 30GB for file synchronizing and sharing, is offered at $5 per user per month or an annual price of $50 per user. Businesses can choose the unlimited package at $10 per month per user or an annual rate of $120 per user.
