This project is now considered complete (April 2012). The information is kept here for archive purposes.

Overview

In January 2011, IPSC approved the outsourcing of the University staff email service (Microsoft Exchange/Outlook) to the Microsoft Live@edu service and this has subsequently been ratified by the University Senate.

The current service needs to be replaced to ensure IT Services (ITS) can continue to provide an email service which meets the requirements of their customers. Before deciding on the Live@edu service, various options were considered including keeping the service in-house, but were dismissed due to anticipated cost or technical fit with other University systems.

Over 20,000 University of Warwick undergraduate students have been using Live@edu since October 2010 and ITS expect to start the migration for staff towards the end of this calendar year.

The School has decided to roll the WBS staff email system (GroupWise) into the wider University email system and to be part of this migration to Microsoft's Live@edu system.

What is Live@Edu?

Microsoft Live@edu is a complete suite of online hosted services designed for and offered especially to educational institutions. It combines rich Microsoft-hosted services, including university-branded Windows email, Office Live Workspace and storage to help staff and students manage their work, share and store information and collaborate with other staff and students in real time.

What is the project going to do?

This project is going to migrate email for all staff who currently use the WBS GroupWise email system to Live@edu. The migration in intended to include all live emails, future calendar appointments and personal address books although this is subject to the capabilities of the migration tools. More information will be provided once the migration tools have been tested.

The migration in WBS is intended to start in the second half of February. It will likely take until the end of March before all WBS staff accounts are migrated.

Who will manage the service?

The service will be managed by IT Services with day-to-day support provided by WBS Solutions.