IN BRIEF

SAN FRANCISCO

Google office products to get sales boost

Technology consultancy Capgemini will begin recommending Google Inc.’s online suite of office software to its corporate customers, bolstering the Internet search leader’s effort to drum up more sales to big businesses.

The partnership to be announced today represents the first time one of the world’s top technology consulting services has embraced Google’s software bundle, which includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets and calendar management.

Capgemini, based in Paris, influences the type of software used on more than 1 million personal computers in companies worldwide.

The consulting company’s major customers include drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Capgemini also will continue to support business software made by other vendors, including Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp. — the dominant forces in a field that Google only recently entered.

Hoping to diversify beyond the online advertising market that generates most of its revenue, Mountain View-based Google in February began selling a souped-up version of its office applications for a $50 annual fee per user.

PHILADEPHIA

Fed official says rate cut may not be needed

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said that while the surprise loss of U.S. jobs in August was “not encouraging,” it doesn’t on its own justify lowering interest rates.

“We want to be careful not to overweight one piece of information,” he said in an interview late Saturday after a speech in Waikoloa, Hawaii.

“I’ve not made up my mind at all” on whether a rate cut is needed, he said.

Plosser said he and the other district bank heads are speaking with business contacts around the country to gauge the economy’s response to the rout in credit markets and the deepening housing slump.

He said “there’s a lot of conflicting data out there that’s going to be tricky to get through.” PHI