An Assembly budget panel on Tuesday approved a $56.6 million request by the Department of Technology to purchase a single, more secure email system for state agencies and departments.
The approval comes as the department moves to retire its two state email systems and use Microsoft Office 365 for its email, as well as other software such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
California’s agencies and departments have typically used one of two email systems — CA Mail, an in-house email scheduled to go offline at the end of the year, and California Email Services (CES), a contract with Microsoft that expires in October.
Moving all state entities to one email system would give the Department of Technology the opportunity to negotiate for volume pricing on behalf of individual departments and agencies. In addition, departments could upgrade to newer versions of Microsoft products at no charge, and software updates and patches will be taken care of by Microsoft, according to the administration’s budget proposal.
There could also be a security benefit. Office 365 is compliant with several major security standards — FedRAMP, FIPS, HIPAA, IRS 1075 and will enable two-factor authentication, single sign-on and mobile device management capabilities. Those features will help protect state email, documents and networks, administration officials have argued.
The Department of Technology request is spread across three years: $10.5 million in 2017-18, $17.6 million in 2018-19 and $28.5 million in 2019-20. That’s enough funding needed to subscribe 50 departments a year to Office 365, according to the budget proposal.
It also seeks authorization to redirect four positions within the Office of Technology Services from the expiring CES system to the new Office 365 system.
The Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration approved the request by a unanimous 5-0 vote. If approved by the full Legislature, the money would come from the Technology Services Revolving Fund.
