Case Study: Thomas Jefferson University saves $500,000+ and gains HIPAA-compliant cloud email and mobility with Microsoft Office 365 (Exchange Online)

University Saves More Than $500,000, Boosts Functionality with Cloud-Based Email System

Thomas Jefferson University, a large academic medical center with more than 5,000 faculty and staff and 3,700 students, needed to replace its aging on‑premises Mirapoint email appliance. The university faced strict HIPAA and data‑residency requirements, rising maintenance costs (about $80,000 per year) and a looming $500,000 hardware refresh, while also wanting better integration, mobility and calendaring capabilities for clinicians and staff.

TJU selected Microsoft Exchange Online as part of Office 365, negotiated a HIPAA business associate agreement, upgraded users to Office 2010 and migrated mailboxes between December 2011 and March 2012. The move delivered improved functionality and mobile access with familiar Outlook tools, no major outages, and more than $500,000 in avoided refresh costs plus ongoing savings from eliminated maintenance, enabling next steps like calendaring and SharePoint integration.

Thomas Jefferson University

Doug Herrick

CIO