Monday, July 20, 2009

Postal Services Group of New Zealand Post goes Google

In the last 12 months we've seen enormous interest from organisations large and small, across Australia and New Zealand, in learning more about the benefits of cloud computing and Google Apps. Some inquiries are from SMEs looking for low-cost and flexible ways to scale their business infrastructure; some are from CIOs of major organisations keen to harness the power of the cloud's in-built collaboration characteristics to transform the way their companies operate. But they share a common belief that a cloud revolution is taking place, and they want to be at the leading edge of it.

A number of Australian and New Zealand universities have proved that the cloud model is highly effective in large organisations - collectively, around 1.7 million students across the two countries are connecting with fellow students and teachers via Gmail, and enjoying the work anywhere, any time benefits.

That's why we're so happy today to announce that the Postal Services Group of New Zealand Post is rolling out Google Apps to just over 2,000 employees before the end of the year, making it the largest non-education deployment in Australia/New Zealand to date.

While it's true that moving to a cloud computing model represents significant cost-savings to the Postal Services Group, it's most exciting to hear about the transformative power they believe Google Apps will have on their organisation. CEO Peter Fenton says the shift will allow people to work together more creatively, collaboratively and flexibly - empowering staff by moving to an any time, anywhere model. He also says that bringing cutting edge technology into the organisation is going to help them retain employees and attract talented graduates, who expect the same powerful web-based solutions in their work life as they have in their personal life.

As a division of one of New Zealand's most iconic and important organisations, it's inspiring to see NZ Post's Postal Services Group blazing a trail for cloud computing adoption by large enterprises in the Asia Pacific region.