The Texas Department of Information Resources is moving to the cloud with Microsoft Office 365 as part of a statewide IT modernization strategy. Office 365, an always-up-to-date cloud productivity service, will streamline and improve the state’s communication and collaboration capabilities for more than 100,000 employees, making it the largest statewide deployment of email and collaboration services in the U.S. Office 365 has already been deployed across multiple state agencies, including the Health and Human Services System, Department of Transportation, Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Information Resources, and Department of Insurance, with the Department of Criminal Justice and Alcoholic Beverage Commission coming on board soon. The move to Office 365 offers the state significant savings in IT spending because of greater efficiencies and increased capacity.

“No other solution provides the rich capabilities of Office 365, including webconferencing, real-time collaboration, and document and calendar sharing,” said Todd Kimbriel, director of E-Government for the Texas Department of Information Resources. “Office 365 will increase efficiency and help our agencies better serve the needs of citizens without compromising on security or privacy.”

Compliance was an important factor in the state’s selection of Office 365. Several agencies, including Texas’ Department of Criminal Justice, Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Department of Insurance, and Health and Human Services System, require access to data that is subject to complex security and privacy regulations.

Texas Department of Information Resources and Microsoft Corp. worked together to support the state’s requirements under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS), in order to maintain the state’s compliance posture and high standards for security and privacy. Microsoft has made a contractual commitment to the Texas Department of Information Resources by signing the CJIS Addendum in addition to a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement. As a result of this partnership, jurisdictions at all levels within the State of Texas, including cities and counties, will be able to take advantage of Office 365.

“Microsoft has been a long-standing strategic partner with a commitment to understanding and addressing the unique requirements law enforcement and health care practitioners must meet,” said Karen Robinson, Department of Information Resources executive director and State of Texas chief information officer. “The enterprise-class capabilities of Office 365 and Microsoft’s proven track record gave us the confidence we needed to move to the cloud.”

“We’ve worked hard to provide security and privacy solutions the State of Texas can trust,” said Michael Donlan, vice president for Microsoft’s State and Local Government business. “The familiarity of Office backed by deep investments in cloud security, privacy and compliance play an important role in how Microsoft is enabling city, state and federal agencies to move to the cloud.”