New York State is the latest state government that has chosen Office 365 to consolidate their email systems, provide access to familiar Office applications, and place shared calendars in a cloud-based system for more than 120,000 employees who work for state executive agencies.
“I’m continually impressed by the forward-looking nature of our state customers when it comes to maximizing their available resources,” said Michael Donlan, vice president of state and local government for Microsoft. “In this move to the cloud, Governor Cuomo’s administration is equally focused on ensuring the productivity and efficiency of its employees along with the security and privacy of its citizens across New York.”
The migration is expected to be complete by the end of 2013. Among the benefits Office 365 will provide:
A standardized platform for email, document creation, calendaring, contacts, and improved collaboration along with the ability to share files more efficiently across state executive agencies.
Increased mailbox size of 25 gigabytes. (The current email capacity to these state agencies is 500 megabytes.)
Secure access to email and files virtually anywhere, anytime, from multiple devices including laptops, smartphones, and tablets. This will help mobile workers and remote employees to provide valuable services to the state’s residents.
Always up to date Office applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Publisher, available from multiple devices, rather than restricted solely to a desktop computer.
In April 2011, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed a commission to undertake a comprehensive review of New York State government and identify ways to make it more modern, accountable and efficient. One of their recommendations was consolidating the state’s email systems.
Currently, state agencies are using more than 27 different email, word, and data processing systems, so moving to a common platform may save approximately $3 million annually in license fees, hardware, maintenance, energy, and personnel costs. This cloud agreement is the first of its kind to be put in place for the entire state. From the County of Santa Clara to the City of Chicago, state and local governments across the country are saving millions of dollars by moving to Office 365.
In July, the City of San Jose selected Microsoft Office 365, Windows Azure and StorSimple to expand productivity for more than 5,000 city employees. This move will reduce operational costs, and deliver improved services to over 984,000 residents in the heart of Silicon Valley.
New York joins other state and local governments – including the City of San Francisco, California; the State of California; the City of Chicago; the State of Texas; the City of Kansas City, Mo.; the City of Seattle; and the State of Washington – who focused on deploying Microsoft’s cloud based productivity services for improved communication and collaboration capabilities, which help them more effectively meet the needs of their residents.
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Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff