Information Technology Announces New Email, Calendar, IM Tools
October 11, 2012
Big changes are coming regarding the way in which campus community members use email, calendar, instant messaging and other collaboration tools at UC Merced.
After conducting an extensive review of two products -- and with guidance from the Email, Calendar and Collaboration (ECC) Committee which examined and analyzed the two choices over a six month period -- Information Technology announced the selection of Microsoft Office 365.
Interim Chief Information Officer Faust Gorham said the new tools will allow IT to better serve the growing campus community. The ECC committee concluded that while either of the considered solutions would meet the needs of our campus, IT needed to investigate further to determine costs and implementation timelines before a final decision was made. Those factors, in addition to Office 365 earning a slight advantage in the committee’s findings, and that Microsoft tools are already in heavy use on campus, Office 365 became the clear choice. The ECC issued a final report detailing their evaluation process, findings and recommendations.
Highlights of the Office 365 platform include:
- Increased email capacity with 25 GB mailboxes for all users;
- A modern calendaring system that directly integrates with mobile devices, Outlook and the web;
- Lync, an instant messaging and audio/video sharing system, and
- Enhanced mobile support.
A two-week pilot of the IM system ended recently and IT is analyzing the results and related feedback. Once the analysis is complete, implementation of the IM system will be announced. Staff will be migrated in groups while individual faculty will be enrolled in time blocks, by academic school. An email and calendar pilot is expected to begin the week of Oct. 15 and those results are expected by mid-November. IT has posted a timeline detailing the migration.
Gorham said IT will keep the campus community informed of the process through announcements, news updates on the IT website, through Panorama and other communication resources. Questions about the migration to Office 365 can be emailed to Faust Gorham.
