NZ Post picks Google over Microsoft

NZ Post has embraced ''cloud computing'', choosing Google over Microsoft as its provider of email and messaging software.

More than 2000 staff employed in its Postal Services Group will switch to Gmail and a clutch of other Google-hosted applications in a move NZ Post expected would save about $1 million over three years. It expected another $1m in productivity gains.

Staff will have 500 times more space in their inboxes to store email, and would be able to work and communicate from anywhere they could access the web.

Google trumpeted the win as evidence cloud computing  - renting software provided online - was now mature. Regional enterprise head Richard Suhr said the Postal Services Group had become an ''innovation leader in the Asia Pacific region''.

IDC Research analyst Stefan Nordbruch said the deal was significant in its size and scope. Till now, large users of Gmail in New Zealand had tended to be universities, some of which provided accounts for students. The NZX is another high-profile Google Apps convert.

NZ Post spokeswoman Tracy Voice said the state-owned enterprise did not plan to ditch other Microsoft Office applications, such as Microsoft Word, even though Google offered online equivalents. It would not save much on Microsoft licensing costs, but would not need to spend as much on its own information technology infrastructure.

Sources suggested NZ Post's move would be watched by the wider state sector, coming a few months after the State Services Commission told government agencies that not all spending on Microsoft software represented good value for money and advised them to avoid some Microsoft products.

Microsoft New Zealand managing director Kevin Ackhurst said cloud computing was becoming increasingly prevalent but it was a player.

''The upcoming launch of Microsoft Office Web Applications will allow consumers to access Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote free of charge, as part of Microsoft's Windows Live service, which has more than 400 million users worldwide.''

- © Fairfax NZ News