Mayor Bloomberg and the City of New York announce partnership and pilot program with Zumbox:
From NYC.gov: Delivering on a promise made in his 2009 State of the City Address, Mayor Bloomberg launched the New York City IT Infrastructure Services (NYCitiServ) initiative, an ambitious effort led by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) to unify the City’s information technology operations for the first time. Today, there are more than 55 data centers across 42 City agencies, which make management of facilities and services expensive and inefficient. A consolidated environment will improve the resiliency, security and recovery capability of the entire system – while helping to green the City’s IT infrastructure and make it more energy efficient. The first consolidated data center will be in operation in early 2010. Through NYCitiServ’s combined efforts the City could achieve significant IT infrastructure savings over the coming years.
City agencies conduct countless mailings every year encompassing everything from water bills to changes in recycling guidelines. Starting today, the City will begin sending mailings through a pilot program with Zumbox, a secure electronic mailbox company that creates individual accounts assigned to a street address. This service allows City agencies to create communications specifically tailored to them, including mailings about promotions, events, or City work that is going on in their neighborhoods; citywide notifications and PSAs including recycling guidelines or locations of City facilities; and home and business-specific government notifications like property tax notifications. Depending on the success of the pilot, the City may reduce paper mailings, which will reduce paper waste, reduce mailing costs for City agencies, and provide targeted, real-time information to New Yorkers.
Update: Also see the Press Release
Update II: Following is the transcript from Mayor Bloomberg’s speech in which he references the City’s use of Zumbox:
“We all know that we cut down too many trees; we all know that we then have recycling problems and waste problems. And if we can do some of these thing electronically, it is much better for the environment.
To get the ball rolling today, we are joining with San Francisco and Newark in becoming one of the first cities in the nation to use a new, secure electronic mailbox company that provides new ways for governments to communicate. It’s called Zumbox, and it will give us the potential to communicate a wide range of notices from property tax statements to recycling regulations and business-specific information specifically tailored to the needs and interests of individual New Yorkers.”
