Richland School District Wraps Up Migration to Google

If it’s migration schedule is anything to go by today marks the final day of their seamless Groupwise to Google migration. In a matter of days the district has successfully migrated it’s users onto the Gmail platform and implemented some basic training for its users so they get the best functionality out of the service.

Check out some of the reasoning behind the move below and read more over at http://cld.so/70VWJ9

Why Are We Changing?

GroupWise has been great, but a few factors make this the right time to make a change.

Market Share

Third party product integration can be tough with GroupWise due to its diminished market share. GroupWise is a great product, but if third parties don’t buy into the platform, it’s tough to make it play well with others. Google has a huge and growing list of third party integrations.

Web and Mobility

GroupWise doesn’t have the best support for web access or mobile clients, which is a big driving force in the market today. Google does this well.

Better Ecosystem

Google provides a great end-to-end story from low cost Android and Chrome OS powered solutions to the cloud, making a nice experience for the end user.

Cost Savings

Much of what Google offers is free to education. There are significant cost and administrative savings to be realized when we don’t have to provide the software licensing, storage, servers, operating systems and upkeep of those systems.

More Features

Users will have more freedom and flexibility. Mailbox sizes will be larger and faster, users can leverage personal devices to access their information, and Gmail integrates very nicely with many of the other Google services that our users leverage today.