UPDATED: Queensland government invests $26.5m in Microsoft Office 365

The Queensland Government is investing in collaboration with a mass investment in Microsoft’s Cloud-based Office 365 service.

The state government will deploy Office 365 for Business licenses to 149,000 employees for messaging, email, and social network Yammer.

Each government agency will determine when to begin its transition.

Minister for Science, Information, Technology, Innovation and the Arts, Ian Walker, told ARN the three-year contract is worth about $26.5 million; this is about $13.7m less than the previous three-year deal.

According to a statement from Microsoft Australia on behalf of Queensland state director, Sharon Schoenborn, the move is part of the Queensland Government’s objective to transform digital services, standardise and simplify ICT across its departments, and enable new forms of collaboration and interconnectivity.

It falls under the wider ICT Strategy 2013 to 2017 blueprint which intends to enhance services for Queensland residents through better use and analysis of government data and cost-efficient technology.

“It’s a good news story out of the Queensland Government’s ICT Renewal Agenda and ICT Strategy 2013 to 2017 that benefits government and Queenslanders,”

“It is also a significant step forward in our plan to modernise the government ICT environment and move toward the vision of ICT-as-a-service. It sees us move from a government-owned and operated model to one that leverages… solutions to deliver flexibility and economies of scale that drive innovation and transformation.”