Google Mobile Access Saves Cities Costs

Governments in currently 45 states have adopted Google for mobile, cloud and cost savings for cities. The GSA stated, “The U.S. General Services Administration is the first federal agency to successfully migrate its employees to a cloud-based email service using Google Apps for Government. Our own transition to the cloud will save millions in taxpayer dollars annually. We expect that using a cloud-based system will reduce email operation costs by 50 percent over the next five years and save more than $15.2 million for the agency in that time.”

The migration of US government federal and state agencies which have been using Google Apps have saved over millions of dollars in support, server infrastructure and maintenance. Increasing employee productivity, reducing infrastructure costs and licensing are key benefits from Google. Google Apps is updated automatically for users in which the IT team can forget about the hassles of downloading and deploying patches.

The City of North Las Vegas was affected in the past economic downturn. The project with Google to face such challenges included moving its 1,300 North Las Vegas employees to Google Apps for Government because cloud applications are more affordable than server-based systems and meet the city’s security needs. Google’s security practices were adopted due to its ability to meet security standards, even more secure than their legacy system.

Moving to the cloud saves governments significant costs and time. In the past, The General Services Administration's made a decision to award a $6.7 million, five-year task order to Unisys, a Pennsylvania-based contractor that has an extensive local presence.  The partnership had created opportunities and cost savings.

Budgets are a known concern for all city governments. In challenging times, Google Apps offers a rare win-win offering which allows agencies to lower costs while providing better tools for employees. The Google Apps only costs less than $5 per employee per month. This can save up to 50% annually for many government organizations.