Chicago, a city in the U.S. state of Illinois, has adopted a cloud services agreement with Microsoft over the course of the next four years, which will ultimately save the city $400,000 per year. The new cloud services agreement includes email and desktop applications such as documents and spreadsheets, likely to be Microsoft’s Office 365.
“The new cloud system encompasses all email and desktop applications (such as documents and spreadsheets) for 30,000 City employees across all City departments. Previously, the City managed three separate email systems internally, providing challenges to efficiency and security. With the cloud, the City is streamlining and consolidating these three systems into one, reducing outages, improving security and ensuring that all employees who need access to email and desktop applications have them. Additionally, with this cloud strategy, the cost per employee decreases by nearly 80 percent, resulting in a savings of $400,000 per year over the course of a four-year agreement with Microsoft,” the press release stated.
One of the major benefits from making this move to the cloud, aside from saving so much money, is that city employees can now do their jobs more effectively which saving taxpayer dollars and creating a streamline between operations across the City.
“We are leveraging new technologies to streamline and modernize the way we do business in order to provide the residents of Chicago with the best service at the best price, which has been a fundamental part of my approach as Mayor from the moment I took office,” Chicago Mayor Emanuel stated.
