Google wins e-mail contract

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. has won a contract to supply a key U.S. government agency with e-mail and collaboration tools, a significant milestone for the company as it increasingly competes with Microsoft Corp. in the market for enterprise software.

The U.S. General Services Administration said Wednesday that it has awarded a five-year, $6.7 million contract to Google, Unisys Corp., Tempus Nova and Acumen Solutions.

Unisys will provide the services and implementation of Google's software platform. The contract covers "cloud-based e-mail and collaboration tools that will reduce inefficiencies and lower costs by 50 percent over the next five years," the GSA said.

Google, which has positioned its Google Apps business as a rival to Microsoft's Office suite of software, won the GSA contract in competition with the Redmond, Wash., software giant.

Google strategy and business development executive David Mihalchik said that while the company does have federal government customers other than the GSA, "there are none of this size."

Mihalchik said the contract will have more than 15,000 employees moved over to Google Apps, following a bidding process that took place in the past six months. "Google is thrilled that GSA is moving to the cloud," Mihalchik said.

Curt Kolcun, Microsoft's vice president

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