While Microsoft every once in a while highlights the stories of companies moving from products developed by rival companies to its own productivity and collaboration solutions, the transition also happens the other way around.

This is the case of Airbus, who has decided to abandon Microsoft Office and instead switch to Google’s G Suite for cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools, with all its 130,000 employees to be part of the transition expected to complete in the next 18 months.

Instead of switching to Google, Airbus could have very well embraced Microsoft’s Office 365, but the company hasn’t provided any information regarding its decision not to consider Redmond’s productivity suite.

“We expect it to take up to 18 months to reach every one of our 130,000 employees but our teams are already starting to work on a plan which will involve you and of course our social partners,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders was quoted as saying.

“Strategic choice”

“It goes without saying that assuring business continuity is an essential part of that play, as is training - you will have all the support you need. Many of you will be directly involved in the programme and I am confident you will embrace this move to a world where technology makes things just as easy at work as it does at home.”

Without a doubt, Microsoft is losing one big client here, despite the substantial growth that its cloud offering has recorded lately. As the cited source highlights, Microsoft Office 365 has more than 29 million subscribers at this point, with the Productivity and Business Processes unit growing to $8.95 billion in the last quarter.

Airbus says the migration to Google’s solution is part of its digital transformation and explains that it’s all just “a strategic choice” that is supposed to help “shape the company.”

Microsoft hasn’t obviously commented on losing one of its biggest clients, though it’d be interesting to see what the company has to say since it’s so committed to its Office suite.