New York chooses Microsoft for email upgrade

e-mail symbol

New York State has signed a new contract with Microsoft to consolidate and upgrade email systems for some 120,000 employees. The move to Office 365, will put state email and a number of administrative business processes into a consolidated, collaborative cloud environment.

The migration to Office 365 will be complete by the end of this year, adding New York to a growing list of cities states using the software. Seattle, Kansas City and Texas also recently announced moves.

The decision to go with Microsoft follows a 2011 state task force review of technology systems which determined that consolidation of email services and increased collaboration among calendars and other administrative processes would improve efficiency. At that time, New York had 27 different email, word, and data processing systems.

The move is expected to save the state approximately $3 million.

“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.