Migrating the City of Montreal to a third computer system in five years is absolutely necessary even if it will be “a headache for many people,” the Plante administration said on Monday.
Posted at 7:32 p.m.
Switching to Microsoft 365 just a few years after migrating to Google Works will allow the City of Montreal to avoid many compatibility problems with other public institutions and with its own police department, argued the elected head of security technologies. information to the executive committee, Magda Popeanu.
“We are a responsible administration,” she said. “We do not play politics with technological choices. »
At the end of September, Montreal announced that it was turning to Microsoft to provide its basic computer system (email, videoconferencing, word processing, tabulator, etc.) to municipal officials. Google has been providing it since 2019.
The contract with Google had come under criticism from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) because the tech giant failed to guarantee its long-term prices. Montreal has decided to turn the page and choose Microsoft without relaunching a call for tenders. Microsoft is on a government list that allows the metropolis to do so.
On Monday, the official opposition to the municipal council expressed concern about this new change of direction.
Elected official Abdelhaq Sari pointed out that Montreal will have to trash hundreds of thousands of dollars in training and equipment purchased during the transition to Google.
His vis-à-vis, Magda Popeanu, said she was rather optimistic. “Of course it’s going to be a headache for a lot of people. But we accept it, we have to do it. We will do it respectfully, gradually, by doing all the necessary training,” she said. “The transition is not going to be a disaster. We learn. We are in a time of transition and change. »