Case Study: Osaka City achieves smooth, secure telework for 2,000 employees with Microsoft Azure

Work-style improvements triggered by the pandemic were smoothly implemented through Osaka City’s ICT Strategy

Osaka City launched an ICT Strategy in 2016 to modernize resident services, streamline administration, and boost disaster resilience, then faced an urgent need to enable large-scale telework when COVID-19 struck. The challenge was to close the gap between government and citizens, maintain critical communications across nearly 500 offices and 20,000 staff, and quickly shift work and training online.

The city moved its information-sharing infrastructure to the cloud with Microsoft 365, deployed Microsoft Teams, introduced BYOD and Intune for secure device management, and used Azure ExpressRoute for reliable connections. The rollout enabled smooth telework for about 2,000 employees, increased daily video conferences fivefold (50→250), expanded BYOD users from 1,500 to 3,000, and supported remote training for 518 new recruits—while laying the groundwork for further DX with AI, IoT and low-code app development.

Osaka City

Kazuhiro Tsurumi

Planning Manager, Office of ICT Strategy