Google, BearingPoint Pair Up

The integrator launched a search solutions practice headed by Chris Weitz in its Mountain View, Calif., office.

“The idea is to provide the enterprise customization and verticalization in different industries that is possible using Google technology and the [Google Search] appliance, and extending that with custom extensions that we can build as a systems integrator,” said Weitz, managing director.

BearingPoint will build plug-ins to bring Google Search into corporate repositories, he said. The deal signifies Google&'s push to make its technology as ubiquitous inside the firewall as it has become on the Internet. In that quest, it faces off yet again with Microsoft.

Another integrator, who requested anonymity, said he didn&'t see much partner upside in this realm unless Google provides integrators with a usable version of its search engine. “Google appliances are easy to install and they work fast on fairly large document collections. If you have larger collections, you need a search package, and so far Google won&'t let you run any version of their engine on your network. If they decide to do this—say, allow indexing of 10 million to 100 million documents—there might be a play,” he said.

Weitz sees opportunity now: “We have decades of experience implementing enterprise applications around the world with 5,000 to 8,000 people working on enterprise applications, customizing ERP and CRM,” he said. “We have strategic Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft and other alliances.” Last year, Google began recruiting solution providers with expertise in legacy applications to open up corporate data to its appliances.

David Girouard, general manager of Google&'s enterprise group, said the companies fit fine. “We don&'t have a services business ourself, so there&'s no conflict of interest. It&'s a wonderful thing for us that customers can work with BearingPoint, which already has this incredible expertise. It&'s complementary to what we&'re good at.”