Google's Greene Hastens Cloud Expansion in Race With Amazon - Bloomberg Business

Google searches for a better way to connect with enterprise customers

"Greene is also changing the way Google sells and markets. She’s hiring across the board and demanding staff work more closely together and talk to customers more often. That includes creating a team that meets with enterprise customers to ensure Google is building what they need. That’s normal for traditional enterprise companies like Salesforce.com Inc. and Oracle Corp., but new territory for Google which specializes in self-service Web offerings. The West coast cloud sales team doubled to almost 50 people over the last few months, while the Google Apps team that works with independent IT vendors like startup Avere has grown substantially, say people familiar with the company.
Google is also spending more on marketing to compete against enterprise-focused rivals like Microsoft. Google’s pioneering, Web-based suite of work apps now trails Microsoft Office365 in revenue, Forrester Research estimates. "We have, like, the best office productivity suite, but people don’t know it," said Greene, who is hiring a chief marketing officer. Google is splashing out on billboards around San Francisco ahead of a conference this week for cloud customers."

Google's Greene Hastens Cloud Expansion in Race With Amazon - Bloomberg Business