Google's launch of its applications service has showed a major amount of marketing, expanding its Gone Google campaign to new audiences in the UK, France, Japan and Australia.

Ray Jones, the head of communications and external affairs for the Chartered Institute of Marketing, explained that such a pervasive campaign acknowledges that a lot of research has been done on the part of Google, with the company identifying search and display online as a key market.

He continued: "It seems to me that Google [has] honed their message for those people - for people on increasingly scarce budgets a campaign like this, focusing on the problems people endure every day, makes it seem like a very focused campaign on a clear market."

Mr Jones added that the campaign also acknowledges how competitive the market is for Google, given that Windows 7 is being released very soon.

However, the expert has confidence that Google clearly knows its target audience and taken into account any possible competition, even from powerhouses such as Microsoft.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.