This is a special edition of our newsletter as we countdown to the outsourcing of WBS staff email to Microsoft's Live@EDU system. This will begin in late February and is likely to take until the end of March before all staff are migrated.

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?

The university is migrating from its current in-house Microsoft system to one of Microsoft's cloud-based services called Live@EDU. As part of this, WBS has also decided to migrate from its in-house staff email system (GroupWise) to this same Live@EDU service. Sharing a common email system should improve communications between WBS and the wider university. More details on the background to this project are available at http://help.wbs.ac.uk/groupwisereplacement

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

Prior to the migration there are a number of tasks I'd ask you to complete to ensure the process goes smoothly. It is strongly recommended you do these as soon as possible. If you have any problems please contact help@wbs.ac.uk

1. Ensure you know your central IT Services username (typically starts bs****) and password as this will be required to access your email post migration. See: http://help.wbs.ac.uk/groupwisereplacement/whattodo/itsusername/
   
2. Install Office 2010 (with Service Pack 1). Assuming you are running Windows 7 you will see Office 2010 in the list of applications available when you click the 'Run Advertised Programs' link on the desktop. Simply double-click the program name to install. Still using Windows XP? Please email help@wbs.ac.uk now to arrange an upgrade to Windows 7. If you use a Mac you are recommended to use Office 2011. Staff can download this for free from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/servicessupport/software/microsoft/officemacwah
   
3. Review and understand the mail limits imposed by the new system. In particular the limits to the number of messages that can be sent in a 24 hour period and the number of recipients. http://help.wbs.ac.uk/groupwisereplacement/whattodo/livemaillimits/ If you have needs that exceed these ensure you have the bulk-mail product Mach5 installed and working. If you have concerns about these limits please contact help@wbs.ac.uk
4. Did you start at WBS before 2008? If so you should check to see if you have any old messages in your local GroupWise archive. To avoid losing access to these please see http://help.wbs.ac.uk/groupwisereplacement/whattodo/groupwisearchive/
   
5. Let us know if you already use Outlook to access your GroupWise mail on your WBS-provided computer (help@wbs.ac.uk) so that we can assist you during the migration
6. Locate messages that are over 25MB and thus too big to migrate. Each message should either be deleted or the contents saved to your computer and then deleted. See http://help.wbs.ac.uk/groupwisereplacement/whattodo/25mbmessages/
   
7. Spring clean your mailbox. A few minutes spend doing this now will smooth the migration process for you and everyone else. See: http://help.wbs.ac.uk/groupwisereplacement/whattodo/springclean/
   
8. Let us know if your account, or one that you manage, is unusual in some way (help@wbs.ac.uk). Examples might be if the account integrates with an external system, such as the Helpdesk email address that automatically creates support calls in our call-logging system. If in doubt please get in touch.