Dialog buys Brisbane Google Apps specialist

IT services firm Dialog Information Technology has bought Brisbane-based Google Apps specialist Cloud Assist for an undisclosed sum.

The buyout bolsters Dialog's 1.5-year-old Google Enterprise national practice by "about five" technical specialists, representing a 25 percent increase up to 20 employees.

Practice manager Glenn Irvine told iTnews that the buy gave Dialog a well-rounded skills base in all three elements of Google's Enterprise portfolio - geospatial, enterprise search and Apps.

The company's existing strengths lay primarily in the geospatial and search platforms of Google's Enterprise portfolio.

Dialog is in the process of integrating the Cloud Assist business with its own. It is currently rationalising processes between the two firms.

Irvine believed the value proposition presented by the significantly enlarged Dialog would prove strong for Google in Australia and New Zealand.

While Cloud Assist had previously serviced SMB to enterprise deployments, Irvine said that being part of the larger Dialog Information Technology would bolster Cloud Assist's access to change and project management skills, and knowledge in dealing with larger enterprise deployments.

"[Google] now [has] a significant Apps player that they can comfortably walk in front of larger organisations considering the move to Google Apps," Irvine said.

Irvine saw a lot more enterprises "putting toes in the water one way or another" when it came to cloud service adoption.

"Email is an obvious area to start," he said.

"A lot of organisations look at it from an email transition [perspective] initially and then consider other aspects of the [Google] collaboration suite that they can take on board".

Irvine said that Dialog's Google practice had "operated positively from the outset" and was "really going from strength to strength".