LA County brings its 100,000 employees together with Office 365

[Guest Aimee Riordan]

 

 

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Los Angeles County is moving more than 100,000 employees working in more than 30 departments to Office 365. The county is the largest in the nation, and it’s decided to go with Office 365 to get all employees on the same platform and “on an even playing field,” said Richard Sanchez, Los Angeles County's chief information officer.

 

 

This move gives L.A. County workers access to the tools that come standard in Office 365, such as email; productivity apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint; voice and video conferencing and other collaboration tools; the ability to work from anywhere and virtually any device; and built-in security and privacy compliance. It also allows the county to simplify and unify all of its employees.

 

 

Microsoft spoke with three business decision makers at the county: Richard Sanchez, CIO; Peter Loo, chief deputy CIO; and Captain Paul Drake of the Sheriff’s Department. Each emphasized the fact that the county is made up of more than 30 federated departments, each of which had to agree to adopt Office 365 on its own.

 

 

All departments – even the ones that couldn’t afford upgrades – are now getting the same access to the tools. Offices with tight budgets, such as the Department of Children and Family Services, will now spend less time worrying about technology and more time working on cases and directly with families; saving even just five minutes per case can exponentially increases the agency’s capacity to take on and resolve more cases and ultimately serve more county constituents. The technology will also create opportunities for each department to develop solutions specific to their own needs and leverage solutions created by other departments.

 

 

The county is thrilled to see what employees generate. “We’re going to set them free, and see what they come up with,” said Sanchez.

 

 

Here’s a look at Los Angeles County departments and team.

 

 

1|6

Rich Sanchez in the Office of the CIO, World Trade Center in Los Angeles.

Rich Sanchez: “This is an investment in our future. That’s the beauty of the technology and of Microsoft, we know the tool won’t go away and we will continually get updates as the software develops. That’s huge for our departments, nobody will have to invest in technology that may be out-of-date within a year.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more, check out the press release.

 

Microsoft News Center Staff

 

 

Continue reading...