Most people tend to think of Google Apps as more of a small business play, as the biggest companies are still pretty much locked into the Microsoft Office suite, which still ranks as one of the biggest cash cows ever in the software industry.

But Spanish banking giant BBVA has made the move, and we have to wonder if other big banks may take note of cloud-based app suites, from Google or Microsoft. BBVA will adopt the entire suite of Google Apps, with an eye on transforming how its employees collaborate. The move will transition about 110,000 employees in 26 countries from Microsoft Outlook to Google Apps by the end of 2012. The cost savings will likely be significant. It’s unclear if Microsoft fought back with an Office 360 offering.

While BBVA has committed to phasing out Outlook as the email service, it has not committed to phasing out the Office suite entirely. For now, it is only encouraging the use of Google docs over Microsoft applications. The decision to quit Microsoft completely or not will be made later, according to smart planet.

Still, this is a huge win for Google, and we may seem more firms make the change. I doubt a massive bank will take this step, however. The costs of transition would be huge, perhaps prohibitively so.

For more:
- here’s the article

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