State of New Mexico (Attorney General's Office)

Project: E-mail & Office Productivity Tools

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office (NMAGO) has nearly 200 full-time employees, including 120 attorneys. Most work in the office revolves around creating, storing, and accessing documents in a secure IT environment. The office had historically relied upon the case management functionality of its e-mail system to track official documents ranging from legal briefs to news releases. However, this system did not offer a secure back-up function, leaving vital and sensitive documents exposed to possible loss in case of a server failure. One possible solution, migrating to a system of in-house servers, was cost-prohibitive in the short and long term, with the upfront investment calculated at $300,000. For this reason, the office explored alternative IT upgrades.

When investigating alternative email systems, NMAGO selected Google Apps Premier Edition to meet its needs. This solution provides the necessary backup capabilities, and the mail search function also eases the difficulty of locating specific files. Without the need for in-house hardware, employees now have an unlimited ability to access, save, and archive their emails and documents. This transition has also been beneficial from an environmental perspective, as it has reduced the need for paper versions of files. NMAGO is now able to avoid costs such as the $50,000 spent a few years ago for replication software to store data to a disaster recovery site. The office has reduced costs and energy use through reduced hardware acquisitions and reduced workloads for IT staff. Additionally, the office has reduced time and money spent on licensing.

NMAGO’s successful migration to the cloud is an example of what the office’s CIO calls a “fundamental shift in the way information is transported to users.” The CIO and his team believe that the sharing platform offered by cloud-based solutions is easily replicable and can be used to meet various government needs. They “believe cloud computing offers a new way for government to be more responsive and helpful to the public, and save more money than ever before."