Case Study: Georgia State University achieves $1M projected savings and 50% annual email cost reduction with Office 365

State University Switches to Microsoft Office 365, Saves $1 Million in Operating Costs

Georgia State University, a large public research university in Atlanta with about 32,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff, faced an aging Novell GroupWise email system that had reached end of life. The university needed a modern, cross‑platform solution with far greater mailbox storage, better mobile access, stronger interoperability with planned Microsoft deployments, and lower ongoing IT infrastructure costs.

GSU migrated 6,500 employee accounts to Microsoft Office 365 with support from Microsoft Services and partner B2B Technologies, retiring on‑premises servers and moving to cloud‑hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync. The switch simplified IT management, freed the equivalent of 2.5 full‑time staff, increased mailbox size to 25 GB, improved mobile and desktop productivity, and cut annual email operating costs by about 50%—projected to save roughly $1 million over five years.

Georgia State University

Bill Gruszka

Director of Production Services