1. Page 1 LIVE@EDU STUDENT E- MAIL AT USC Rita Anderson, University of South Carolina Ryan Rucker, SC Department of Transportation

2. Page 2 Previous Environment Exchange 2003 –On-site (USC campus) –Students limited to 50 MB mailboxes –Automatic Inbox cleanup –EVERYONE has an e-mail account on all campuses

3. Page 3 Previous Environment (cont.) Bundled with Faculty/Staff –Students, faculty, staff share same domain (@mailbox.sc.edu) –One GAL (Global Address Book)

4. Page 4 WHY Outsource? Reduce Cost & Increase Service Level –Eliminate 10-12 Servers –Save $125,000 per year –Offer Students Significantly More Storage Limited Staff Protect USC Network Bandwidth

5. Page 5 The RFP? Vendor Chosen Via RFP –Microsoft was a natural fit for USC USC Was Already Familiar with Exchange Key Decision was Whether to Outsource Both Faculty and Staff E-Mail and Student E-Mail or… Just Student E-Mail. Decision Panel Included: –Graduate Students, Student Affairs, Faculty, and Research Support

6. Page 6 Some or All? Whether to Include Faculty and Staff Was the Primary Question. –Key Benefits Obvious Cost Savings of Eliminating On-Premise Exchange System Not So Obvious Cost Savings of Supporting E-Mail anti-virus, spam management, and other tools. Significantly More E-Mail Storage 25 GB SkyDrive

7. Page 7 Some or All? Key Stakeholder Concerns –Recent ‘Painful’ Migration from GroupWise to Exchange –Privacy and Confidentiality –Disaster Recovery –One-Size-Fits-All Spam Management –Severe Limits on E-Mail Volume/Frequency per User

8. Page 8 Decision #1 Decision: Outsource Only the Student E-Mail System –At Least for Now –Gartner Predicts that Hosted E-Mail Will Become the Norm in Higher Education –All USC Student E-Mail Will Be Hosted By Microsoft Live@Edu –All Student E-Mail Traffic Would NOT Pass Through the USC Network.

9. Page 9 Decision #2 Decision – Require an E-Mail Address Change for the Students –On-Premise Exchange Serviced Both Faculty & Staff As Well as Students –Username@mailbox.sc.eduUsername@mailbox.sc.edu –Forced One Group to Change E-Mail Address 40,000 Students Vs. 10,000 Faculty & Staff Easy Winner: Faculty & Staff –URL for E-Mail Also Changed

10. Page 10 Mitigating Factors 6 Month Transition Plan for E-Mail Address Change Launched in January, 2010 On-Premise System Available Through Spring Semester. Automatically Forwarded E-Mail to Live@edu through Spring Semester Automated Address Updates –Blackboard, Listservs, All University Administrative Applications Shutdown at End of Spring was Hardly Noticed.

11. Page 11 Decision #3 Decision – Force an End Date on the E-Mail Account –Live@edu Enables ‘E-Mail for Life’ –But Sheer Volume of New Accounts Each Year Would Be Overwhelming –Funding for Alumni E-Mail Support Was Unclear –Decided to End Live@edu Account When Active Directory Account Ends –Goal Was to Provide an Optional Alumni Account –Deferred Until USC Banner System Implementation is Complete

12. Page 12 The Implementation A Few Customizations…. –FERPA Compliant Address Book –Campus Branding –Password Synchronization with Active Directory –‘Hide’ Direct Login Sites and Social Network –…Challenge is to Maintain the Customizations Through Multiple Microsoft Releases.

13. Page 13 The Implementation Contracted with CSI Technology Outfitters for ILM & PowerShell Expertise. Developed Extensive Use Case Documentation Implemented Password Synchronization Upgrade From Release 3 to Release 4 –Managing Restrictions through User Groups to Defining Role Based Policies

14. Page 14 Testing Functionality of E-Mail –Test Exchange POP3, and IMAP configuration in multiple clients Outlook 2003, 2007, Express, and Entourage –Test in multiple browsers IE, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome –Test on mobile devices iPhone, Droid, Windows Mobile, Blackberry

15. Page 15 Testing Functionality of Skydrive –Identify what is the Skydrive and how can it be used? –Test in multiple browsers IE, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome

16. Page 16 Testing Student Interns –Four I.T. undergraduate majors –Assisted in the testing and creating FAQ’s and support documentation of Outlook Live –Planned for Student Pilot

17. Page 17 Training After testing was completed: –Created all FAQ’s and Support Documentation Included mobile device configuration, client configuration, using Skydrive, social networking, and other features. –Worked with PR staff and Web team to develop website for FAQ’s/documentation –Once site was up, edited and tweaked until everything site looked perfect –http://www.sc.edu/studentemailhttp://www.sc.edu/studentemail

18. Page 18 Training Trained UTS Staff –iCare Technicians –Help Desk Staff iCare Technicians Learned Detail Instructions to Migrate the Contents of Old Exchange mailbox to Live@edu Numerous Instructional Reminder E-Mails to Students

19. Page 19 Demo Demo system

20. Page 20 Early Deployment Team Had Originally Planned For: –Student Pilot –Opt in Group Ran out of time so only Student Pilot. 100+ Students Test Drove Live@edu Completed Survey of Experience Xbox Giveaway

21. Page 21 Student Pilot Results Please rate your experience: It was easy to log into the new system and read email. Answer Count Percentage Very easy (A) 96 82.76% Some trouble (B) 20 17.24% Too difficult (C) 0 0.00% No answer 0 0.00%

22. Page 22 Initial Go Live Go Live Date – 1/5/10 –4 Days Prior to Spring Semester Start –Several Weeks After Microsoft R4 Upgrade Help Desk Call Volume –Over 400 Calls in the First Week –Highest Volume of Calls for Semester Start Where and How to Login Account Provisioning Errors (R3 to R4 Related) E-Mail Forwarding Was Broken by Upgrade Some Live@edu Failures

23. Page 23 One Month Later… Help Desk Call Volume Back to Normal Project Team ‘Racing’ to Upgrade Tools to R4 In General, Students Were Happy with New System. By May, –We Shutdown the old Exchange Student E-Mail with no complaints. By August –Incoming Freshmen Had No Problems with E- Mail

24. Page 24 Lessons Learned Limit Customizations Requiring an E-Mail Address Change or a Webmail URL Change is Difficult Maintain Separate E-Mail Domains for Faculty & Staff and Students Involve the Students from the Start Students are Adaptable Have a Solid Support Plan Alumni E-Mail Has Not Been a Key Factor, but It Seems to be an Opportunity Missed. Live@edu Works Great for Our Students!

25. Page 25 For More Information…. http://help.outlook.com www.sc.edu/studentemail Ryan Rucker ryan@ryansitservices.com 803-399-0449 www.ryandrucker.com Rita Anderson ritaa@sc.edu 803-777-7507 ritaa@sc.edu