Google is attempting to wean companies off Microsoft Exchange Server with a new Outlook synchronisation tool for business users.

Google has been aggressively wooing companies to its Premier Edition Apps service over the past couple of years, which it claims is far cheaper to manage than a dedicated Exchange Server.

The service offers hosted email, calendaring, online word processors/spreadsheets and more for $50 (£30) per user, per year.

However, corporate customers have sometimes struggled to convince employees to migrate from their familiar Outlook environment, forcing firms to maintain Exchange servers for employees who are reluctant to make the switch.

Google hopes to crack that problem with a free Outlook plug-in for Premier Edition and Education Edition customers.

The plug-in synchronises the user’s Google email, contacts and calendars with Outlook. It means the employee can carry on using Outlook as before, but the company no longer needs to maintain an Exchange Server.

The plug-in supports even relatively advanced Outlook features, such as global address lists and automatically checking colleagues’ calendars for free meeting slots.

The plug-in works with Outlook 2003 and 2007, although only on Windows XP and Vista machines, leaving Mac users with no choice but to battle on with the web interface.

The Outlook Sync tool can be downloaded here.

ANI