CSC delivers Google Apps to Los Angeles city employees

Los Angeles city employees have ‘gone Google’ for their e-mail and other applications. And according to city officials, the cloud computing solution will have far-reaching benefits for all public sector agencies in the state.

In a multi-channel media blitz yesterday, Los Angeles city officials announced that their employees would be running gmail and Google’s other suite of web-based tools, with system integration performed by Computer Science Corporation (CSC). According to company and city officials, the cloud computing solution will have far-reaching benefits for all public sector agencies in the state.

At 44 different departments and 30,000 city employees, Los Angeles is the second largest municipal government in the country. According to blog post by Randi Levin, LA’s Chief Technology Officer, “going Google” will improve collaboration, make remote access easier and expand storage, compared to the Novell-based GroupWise system they used to have.

CSC was chosen ahead of 14 other vendors to integrate Google’s cloud solutions, Levin said, due to the company’s computing integration and security expertise. CSC will provide end-user services, including solution architecture and design, integration with the city’s identity management system, migration of live and archive email data, set-up, and training for city trainers and administrators, the company said.

“CSC looks forward to working with Google to support the mission-critical communication and collaboration efforts of Los Angeles’ more than 30,000 employees as they focus on improving citizen services through transparency,” Tom Anderson, president of CSC’s North American Public Sector Civil and Health Services Group, said in a statement.

But the benefits of using Google Apps may have implications far beyond LA’s 30,000 employees.

According to CSC, the company will also offer immediate standardized pricing for Google Apps and CSC Cloud Orchestration Services to all public agencies within California. “This contracting approach,” said the company, “enables California public sector agencies to realize similar benefits in innovation, productivity and cost avoidance without the need for a lengthy and complex procurement cycle, maximizing value for California citizens and taxpayers.”

And in the aforementioned blog post, Ms. Levine said Google would save the city millions of dollars by freeing up resources and reducing overhead. One example she cited was that by freeing up the nearly 100 servers used for the existing email system, the city would save $750,000 annually on electricity bills alone.

“In short, this decision helps us to get the most out of the city’s IT budget,” she wrote.

The contract has a three-year base period and two one-year options, according to CSC, And In an accompanying YouTube video, Ms. Levin and the assistant general manager of the city’s Information Technology Agency, Kevin Crawford, said the contract would save the city $5.5 million.

Total ROI, “could be upwards of $20 million,” when productivity savings are factored in, Levin said. “There are many, many good things that are going to come out of this.”



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