Google Apps Partner Gets Holocaust Museum Online in 90 Days

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is a public institution with a serious mission: “Inspiring citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide and promote human dignity.” And to that end, the museum relies heavily on Internet technology to help staff and students collaborate and learn, which led to the choice to transition over to Google Apps.

That’s not surprising. What’s really impressive is that Google Apps Authorized Reseller Onix Networking moved the Museum’s 500-strong staff to Google Apps for Government in 90 days.

The timeline went like this: The Museum piloted Google Apps for three months before deciding to begin another three months of transition period. The switchover was completed on the night of Oct. 31, 2011, so when Museum employees came in for work on Nov. 1, they had gone Google.

The intriguing parts came from Joe Kraus, the Chief Information Officer of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, who described the transition on the official Google Enterprise Blog. Apparently, more than 70 percent of those 500 employees attended trainings and webinars held by Onix, the migration project’s integrator. And so-called “Google Guides” were identified in the Museum — volunteers from within the staff who helped their colleagues get used to Google Apps.

With the transition complete, Kraus wrote how Google Apps is going to change how the museum works:

Our educators in Holocaust programs will use Google Docs to support online development of lesson plans. Our researchers and scholars will use Google Apps to develop their material on Holocaust history and the lessons learned. The general public, youth groups and teachers will be able to easily register for our many programs using Google Forms. Our staff will use Google Sites to collaborate on the multitude of cross- departmental programs and projects that we run each year to advance Holocaust understanding.

So there you have it: three months from decision to implementation of potentially business-changing functionality. If that’s not the cloud’s potential in a nutshell, I don’t know what is. And it’s the same value proposition that’s prompting other federal institutions to go Google, too.