Google Apps for Government has added another convert to its ever-growing list of government bodies that are switching to Google’s suite of cloud-based apps. This time, the latest member of the Google Apps family is the city of Columbia, MO.
A guess blog post from the City Manager of Columbia, Mike Matthes, details how he came to the decision to make the move to Google Apps.
He elaborates on how the move to Google Apps effortlessly brought his city into the era of 21st century technology:
After I moved to Columbia, I realized the city was challenged by an antiquated email system that couldn’t keep up with the latest technology trends and our employees’ needs. When my iPad acted as nothing more than a paperweight, I knew we needed a change.
[…]We quickly decided to move all 1,188 Columbia employees to Google Apps for Government after evaluating available email and communication solutions. With the help of Google Apps reseller Onix Networking, all city employees were flawlessly transitioned to Google Apps in April 2012.
Incidentally, Onix is also the Google partner that recently won out over Microsoft for a beefy contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior to beam up the whole agency into the Google Apps for Government cloud.
For smaller municipalities that may not have the funding to do a complete system-wide overhaul of updating their software, the Google Apps for Government option proves to be a fiscally advantageous decision. According to a Google spokesperson, “Google Apps for Government is allowing federal, state and local government agencies to use cutting edge communication and collaboration tools while saving taxpayers millions of dollars every year.” A few of those governments that have admittedly enjoyed those lower costs are the states of Colorado and Wyoming as well as the General Services Administration, which was the first federal agency to adopt cloud technologies.