The federal government’s IT consolidation program being undertaken by Shared Services Canada expects to save some $50 million by improving the way government offices handle email.

Shared Services Canada generated savings “almost immediately” by taking a government-wide approach to integrating the government’s IT infrastructure, said Diane Finley, minister of public works and government services, in her speech at the Government and Technology Exhibition and Conference (GTEC) yesterday in Ottawa.

“Email transformation will result in $ 50 million of taxpayers’ dollars saved,” she said.

Shared Services Canada was created in 2011with a mandate to transform how the government manages its IT infrastructure in areas such as email delivery, data centres and telecommunications services of 43 federal departments and agencies.

No specific numbers were provided on how much money has been saved by Shared Services Canada so far.

In operation for a little more than a year now, the program also aims to reduce federal government data centres form 300 to fewer than 20 and reduce 3,000 overlapping computer networks.