VandalMail Live

Abstract

At the start of 2007, the University of Idaho was actively pursuing an upgrade path for an outdated Sun Microsystems iPlanet e-mail system. The initial phase for employee migration to Microsoft Exchange was in progress and vendor review for outsourcing e-mail had just been completed.The Microsoft Live @EDU program was evaluated and was found to have features which would complement the Exchange system being introduced to campus during the same time-frame. Even though student groups had been involved in discussions with Microsoft, we were not prepared for what happened when we went 'Live' on March 1st, 2007.The migration process was blamed for loss of student class work. The end-of-semester time-frame frustrated students and faculty alike. We experienced an immediate backlash from some very vocal students who disliked Microsoft. Security concerns were voiced by many. Apple users felt ignored. These issues and many more erupted, all during the first week of the process to convert 16,000 student accounts to the Live @EDU system.Within three months all student accounts had been converted, some program deficiencies had been alleviated, and the entire staff was ecstatic that summer had finally arrived; but a year later we still are dealing with the vendor choice in ways we did not expect going into the partnership.This paper will explore the challenges we experienced bringing our campus into the Microsoft @EDU Program with a focus on methods we used to successfully meet these challenges.