Keller Williams Moves Real Estate Agents to Google Apps for Business

It is certainly no secret that Google and Microsoft have been business rivals for many years now. And with good reason being that they both offer some pretty impressive products, especially as it relates to business.

Therefore, it should be interesting to see how Microsoft Office 365 will respond to the recent news that Keller Williams Realty, a well-known real estate company in the United States, has publicly stated that it will be moving its real estate agents over to Google Apps for business. If you’re wondering why that made national (business) headlines, it’s because what that essentially means is that approximately 93,000 real estate agents will be making the switch.

If you are aware of some of what Google Apps for Business has to offer, you might be able to understand why. It has top-notch security features. Because you can save your documents inside of a cloud, it affords you the ability to access your calendar, email and pertinent documents from virtually any device. You can share files, documents and presentations with your employees, vendors and clients. And there are even features that assist you with creating invoices and budgets.

According to Jason Tang, technology executive director for Keller Williams, there’s another reason why making the decision to go with Google Apps for Business seemed like a logical step. Due to the fact that you can integrate it with other Google-related features such as YouTube, Blogger, Google Voice and even Picasa, it will provide the real estate agents within that company with the opportunity to develop their clientele at an exponential rate.

Plus, thanks to the progressions in technology, many real estate agents rarely spend a lot of time in a physical office space. Therefore, Google Apps for Business also makes conducting business much more convenient. Even if an agent is sitting in an airport or at a coffee shop, with the help of their tablet or even their smartphone, they can still create a virtual office; one that will not hinder them from completing some of the things that are on their daily agenda.

This is not to say that Keller Williams did not take out some time to strongly consider Google Apps for Business’s competition. It’s just that they we on record stating that they didn’t seem to be too impressed with what Microsoft Office 365 had to offer for the price and of course, when you’re running a company, value is a top priority. In fact, Tang actually stated that Google Apps for Business offers a great cost advantage over Microsoft Office 365. That plus the fact that so many other Google Apps can be added to the platform, it was simply a deal that could not be passed up.

Now that Keller Williams has made their “move” official, it will probably be only a matter of time before other real estate companies like Movoto may decide to go with Google Apps for Business too. And while right now it might appear as if Google has “won” over Microsoft, don’t underestimate what Microsoft may come up with as a direct result.

After all, a new year is almost upon us. A time for even newer products to come out on the market.