Fairfax Media rolls out Google Apps

Becomes one of Google's largest clients.

Fairfax Media will roll out Google Apps for Business across its entire organisation by November this year.

Google partner Cloud Sherpas has been engaged to work on the rollout which will make Fairfax one of Google's largest enterprise clients in Australasia.

Fairfax's chief information and technology officer Andrew Lam-Po-Tang said in an email to staff that the rollout would occur under the media giant's Fairfax of the Future program, a major restructuring effort designed to reverse the company's flagging fortunes.

"We are working on our implementation plan now," Lam-Po-Tang said.

It is unclear exactly how the Apps product will be used, with some users retaining the ability to run Apps in parallel to the Microsoft Office suite.

"While everyone will have Google Apps, some power users will still need access to Microsoft Office applications," Lam-Po-Tang said.

"For these staff, Google Apps will supplement, not replace, Microsoft Office."

The Australian Financial Review — part of the Fairfax stable — reported that Microsoft licenses would be re-assessed individually when they came up for renewal.

Google Australia said in a blog post that the move would allow Fairfax "to focus on being a media company and not worry about also being an IT provider".

The firm also touted the collaboration features of its Google Docs and Google+ Hangouts as beneficial to reporters.

Google partner Cloud Sherpas is yet to respond to requests for comment on the project.