President of As he also aims to bring the ease of working with Google apps and services to the workplace, Singh laid emphasis on
"Indian users far surpass mobile usage in many other markets. Bringing Android to work is supportive of that strategy," Singh told Economic Times in an interview.
Singh added the company began focusing on the Indian market three-four years ago, beginning with Google apps such as Gmail and Drive, and moved to small businesses to make it affordable for them.
Meanwhile, he said Google invested in gaining confidence, including independent third-party assessments of its security and data protection practices.
Nearly 600 organisations and more than 10,000 employees are now using Google's first party, paid services such as Gmail, said Singh, who joined Google in 2010.
He said he was surprised by the fast pace of adoption of cloud in the five years since he has been at the helm of affairs.
As businesses around the world look to go digital and adopt cloud technology, Google sees an opportunity to expand into a market dominated by mobile users who prefer the Android platform.
"While India started later because it was risk averse, the curve is much faster. (There's) start-up energy, people are genuinely excited about building new models with technology," he told ET.
Google for Work can be deployed across Android devices from different manufacturers and exists as a work container separate from the user's personal use apps and services. This, the company says, can be an advantage over Microsoft Office 365, which is its biggest competitor in the first party services arena.
“Microsoft is entering a new space; they're a great desktop-centric company. As you move to mobile first, cloud first, they're not either of those things yet. They are investing a fair bit, but their product is truly yet to become that," Singh told the financial daily.
Having said that, Singh also said that Microsoft had an advantage in having a channel partner system built over the years, which helps the company reach out in larger numbers to small and medium businesses (SMB), a market Google is looking to tap.
"We are looking at both SMB and larger enterprises as cloud acceptability in India goes up. With India pricing going up, we are creating awareness in tier 2, tier 3 cities... that Google is available as an alternative," said Singh.
Google for Work has a sales force which includes marketing, support and operations functions. It has signed on customers such as Hero Motors, Royal Enfield, Housing.com, Bombay Dyeing, Snapdeal and Welspun. In October last year, Google for Work announced a partnership with consultancy PwC, a relationship Singh considers a big win for the business.
(Image:Reuters)