Why we chose Exchange Online

Winston-Salem - population 230,000 - is but another in a recent spate of city governments that have chosen to move to a cloud service for e-mail and collaboration. With tighter budgets than most corporations, government agencies have been the first wave of cloud adopters, setting off a war for Uncle Sam's business between Google and Microsoft.

Good e-mail platform

"Groupwise is a good e-mail platform, however there have been support issues and Groupwise only works with BlackBerry smartphones, which is a limitation," says Winston-Salem CIO Dennis Newman.

Of the 2,700 seats that Winston-Salem is deploying, 2,100 are fully-functional desktops and 600 are "deskless" workers - labor positions like sanitation pickup and landfill workers - who don't have desks nevertheless still need occasional e-mail and network access.

Constrained budget

"I have to improve innovation with a constrained budget," says Newman. "Because we were able to package Microsoft cloud and local products in one enterprise agreement, we ended up with more bang for no additional cost."

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