Achieving rapid service deployment in an academic environment

Abstract

Rapid product or service deployment is most commonly thought of in the corporate, rather than academic, environment. Utilizing a rapid deployment process and a number of highly dedicated team members, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign deployed a new email system for approximately 10,000 users in 2 months after delivery during 2002. We were able to do this without the large influx of additional personnel often seen in corporate deployment projects. Before the deployment, we developed and tested auxiliary software needed to support the email system. Utilizing the assistance of vendor-supplied professional services, user accounts and user data were migrated from the legacy email system to the new email system. One of the keys to the success of this rapid implementation was use of the implementation timeline as one of the criteria for the selection of the new email system.Such factors as working the timeline into the decision process and partnering with vendors are applicable to other projects as well. The paper will provide guidelines for application of the rapid deployment process for other projects and institutions. In addition to identifying benefits of the rapid deployment process, this paper will discuss weaknesses in the process, as well as process improvements that will be made for future rapid deployments. Also addressed will be planned deployment of the new email system for an additional 40,000 users on our campus, in light of lessons learned in the initial deployment.