Going Google Apps for Government

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

Multnomah County employees had been using an aging, in-house supported enterprise email and calendaring system that was both complex and costly to maintain. Further, many County Departments perceived the system to be slow. Storage limits were minimal and costly to expand, the system was not intuitive or user-friendly, and the pricing model was locked-in for three years at a time – with no regard to a fluctuating work force size. Most importantly, the County had no disaster recovery or email archiving capabilities. In October 2010, Multnomah County deployed Google Apps for Government, becoming one of the first local governments nationwide to use cloud-based email and calendaring services. This new platform allows County employees full access to email and information on demand, thus vastly improving both employee efficiency and collaboration. Further, it was a extraordinarily cost-effective switch, saving taxpayers approximately $100,000 each year in licensing and related costs and up to $500,000 in staff time and staff costs. The program itself was planned and implemented in a mere five months – a County record for successful enterprise system implementations. The implementation of this new software system has transformed the way the County goes about doing its business, both internally and externally. In addition, a vast array of resources is now available for county employees to further benefit the communities that they serve.