State of Wyoming opts for Google apps for entire government

Wyoming was the first state with a national park, Yellowstone, and now, it's the first state to adopt Google Apps for Government--which includes desktop videoconferencing and live online collaboration while creating documents--for its more than 10,000 state employees.

The state says it expects to save at least $1 million annually, more if employee productivity, server and licensing costs are factored in.

"In man-hours saved, I'm sure that $1 million is very, very conservative," said Flint Waters, the state's chief technology officer.

The state expects to spend less than the $5 million it allocated to make the move, which includes consolidating email from the 13 current platforms it employs to a single Google cloud-based platform.

"Just looking at the number of staff alone that were dedicated to handling the mail solutions when they were disparate across agencies, you're going to see a dramatic change in the amount of personnel required by the state," Waters said.

Waters said it has taken less than a year for the state to make the switch.

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