Poll: Was The City’s Switch To Gmail A Good Or Bad Decision?

Last month the City of St. Louis changed their email accounts so they’re now hosted by Google’s Gmail service at a cost of $275,000.  Why?

This spring, a city department head admitted he sent an email from his work account urging acquaintances to attend a $500-a-head golf tournament benefiting the campaign of his boss, Mayor Francis Slay. (St. Louis goes Google, ends ‘archaic’ email system)

In short the system the city had used for years had virtually no tracking information. When the above email was sent the holes in the city’s 20th century email system became apparent. Also:

Employees complained that their old service did not work well with mobile devices and computers outside of the network. Now, in an effort to fix the system and cut costs they have switched to Google’s cloud based service. (St. Louis City Switches To GMail)

What do you think? Good decision? Bad decision? Comment below and vote in the poll (right sidebar) now until Sunday July 8, 2012. Final results to be published Wednesday July 11, 2012.

— Steve Patterson