University of Minnesota deploys G Suite —with an expected annual savings of between $2-3 million

Challenge

Tired of managing multiple tools to keep the University of Minnesota’s student body and staff connected, the IT staff at U of M was in need of a cohesive system that would work across multiple platforms and provide support across the board.

"With G Suite, we have the brains and insights of Google and the entire G Suite community to help us update our communication and collaboration solutions on a continuous basis – and this innovation comes at no extra charge."

Bernard Gulachek, Sr. Technology Director, University of Minnesota

Solution

The grassroots G Suite usage among students and faculty at the U of M had grown to a user base of over 3,000 providing the tipping point for the IT staff. Rather than trying to force something else upon their student body they began a switch from a potpourri of other services to a consistent, integrated messaging and collaboration solution from Google. Faculty and staff subsequently began to migrate to Google for Education and in addition to Gmail, the institution uses Google Sites to compile and share research materials on the web, Google Calendar for group calendaring, Google Talk for instant messaging, and Google Docs for document collaboration – all integrated into a single, cohesive solution.

Organization Profile

Established in 1851, the University of Minnesota (U of M) is a public research university with two flagship campuses located in Minneapolis and St. Paul and four other campuses across the state. With over 67,000 students, 17,500 staff and faculty, and around 400,000 alumni, U of M has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States