Yesterday, the Department of Planning and Information Resources held a very well attended forum where they discussed the switchover from RoyalMail to the new Microsoft Live@edu software to manage our university’s email. Some of the key points brought up were:
- Your access information will likely change to a permanent, unique identifier (likely your R-number). Your e-mail address will not change.
- Migration of users to the new system will begin in the Summer of 2011, starting with the staff.
- Faculty email conversions are slated to begin (on a department-by-department basis) the 3rd week of the fall semester.
- Early adopters are welcome! Starting in the Summer, any faculty who wishes to convert their email early will have the option to do so. When we find the procedure for this, we will let you know asap.
- There is a hard limit of 10GB on the new email system. Requests for a more storage cannot be honored for any reason. This is due to the limits of the software implementation and is dictated by Microsoft.
- Mail stored in your webmail will be moved to Live@edu without any effort on your part.
- Mail stored on your local computer can be moved to the new system. There are a number of software packages IR is looking into that can facilitate this, but it will require some intervention by the user.
- Since there is a 10GB limit, you should make sure you have less than 10GB of mail stored on your local drive. Vince Yanusauskas put together a short handout to check the amount of email stored on your local computer. You can find that here. If you are storing less than 9GB, you have nothing to worry about!
- If you are storing files via Thunderbird or Outlook on your local hard drive, please post below how much you’re using. We’re interested in knowing how many faculty might run into this 10GB limit.
You can download the full presentations here.
Just following up on this – Jim Franceschelli posted this summary of the Forum to Bboard:
The February IT Forum focused on the upcoming email conversion to Live@EDU. All users should be aware of the changes and updated time line.
The Live@edu implementation time line has been adjusted to allow additional time for system configuration, testing, documentation, and developing training materials. The extended time line will provide users with more opportunity to clean up existing emails and to learn the new email and calendar system. Accounts for the new email system will be generated through a new identity and access management solution later this spring.
Testing the new Live@edu product has been very successful. P/IR has been able to successfully test a number of key concerns including the migration of address books as well as server and local email. Training materials are being developed. Training will be made available in both an on-line and hands-on format.
A department by department approach will be used to convert staff and faculty email/calendar accounts. The process will being with the conversion of P/IR division’s account in May 2011. IR plans to convert Staff email and calendar over the summer 2011, Students in August 2011, and Faculty in the fall 2011. At the time of conversion, a user’s server (RoyalMail) email will be moved to the Live@edu environment. Users will then be given tools and time to move their local email and address books to the Live@edu environment. The conversion process is scheduled to be completed by December 2011.
To prepare for the email conversion, all users should begin to organize their email. Users should retain emails that relate to official university business and delete personal or unnecessary email messages. IT Services will roll out a product (Identify Finder) to help users find and remove personally identifiable information (PII) from the desktop files. Future updates on the Live@edu project will be posted on the my.scranton portal and on bboard.
Additional information can be found in the IT Forum presentations and handouts located at: http://matrix.scranton.edu/pir/its/it-forums/index.shtml
[…] On February 22, a few interested members of the faculty and staff met to discuss what we could do to make sure the email transition to Live@edu goes as smoothly as possible. For details about the schedule and how the transition will take place, see this post. […]