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Nine months after Google daringly launched a sync tool to link its hosted Apps collaboration and communication suite with arch-rival Microsoft’s Outlook PC software, results have been poor.

Google states that most organizations using the Outlook sync tool are very satisfied. However, IDG News Service, over the course of several weeks and even after enlisting the help of Google’s public relations department, couldn’t find one Google Apps administrator whose employer isn’t a Google Apps reseller or integrator willing to speak favorably about the Outlook sync tool.

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Google maintains the product has accomplished its goal: to offer a viable option for organizations to continue using Outlook as a user front end after they switch communication servers from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. “Since Google added this plug in, demand for Google Apps has been increasing steadily,” said Jim McNelis, CEO of Google Apps reseller and integrator Dito, which has implemented Google Apps for about 200 clients.

However, the story has played out differently for those unhappy IT managers for whom the Outlook plug-in, introduced with much fanfare in June 2009, has fallen short and caused their end-users to complain loudly……

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