Staff members in the College's administrative departments will switch to Microsoft Online Services for e-mail, calendar and collaboration services beginning in the Fall, Ellen Waite-Franzen, vice president of information technology and the College's chief information officer, announced in a Dartmouth Daily Update bulletin on Wednesday. The transition is part of the College's long-term effort to replace the BlitzMail e-mail client and Oracle calendar program with a set of hosted online services.
Microsoft Online Services is an Internet-based system that includes tools for e-mail, calendar sharing, online collaboration and instant messaging.
The College's Task Force on E-mail and Technology had initially recommended to the Council on Computing last Spring that all Dartmouth departments adopt Google Apps as an e-mail and collaboration software solution. Computing Services, however, delayed the change after College President Jim Yong Kim advised the department in July to take more time in considering the task force's recommendation.
Kim, who had previously used Microsoft Exchange, requested that the staff in the President's Office be switched over to Microsoft Exchange when he assumed office, Waite-Franzen said.
Given the increasing need for integration with departments using Microsoft Exchange, Computing Services decided to re-evaluate available options for the remaining user base in July. The President's Office, the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the Norris Cotton Cancer Center and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice all currently use the program. Those who do not currently use Microsoft Exchange include staff in central administration offices, students and faculty members, Waite-Franzen said.
"It was the time to look at the Task Force's recommendation with the understanding that Microsoft Exchange was going to be playing a bigger part," Waite-Franzen said.
Computing Services, working with the College's senior administration, ultimately decided to transition staff in central administration offices to Microsoft Online Services in part because these users work closely with the departments that currently use Microsoft Exchange, Waite-Franzen said.
Computing Services has not decided which system will be implemented for faculty and student users. The Communication and Collaboration Tools for Faculty and Students Study Group is currently considering both Google Apps and Microsoft Online Services and plans to make a recommendation to the administration by May 25, according to Associate Dean of Faculty for the Sciences and computer science professor David Kotz, who is chairing the study group.
The study group must evaluate several factors in choosing a service, Kotz said, explaining that the group must ensure that the recommended solution will be compatible with the already-implemented Microsoft solutions to allow students and faculty to work effectively with the administration and other departments.
"There is a temptation to assume that Microsoft Online Services will integrate better, but I'm still keeping an open mind," Kotz said.
The study group has developed several scenarios that would require integration with Microsoft Exchange and is awaiting feedback from both Microsoft and Google to determine if their respective products would be compatible with Microsoft Exchange, Kotz said.
Student opinion seems to "strongly prefer" Google Apps, Will Hix '12, a Student Assembly-appointed member of the study group, said in an interview with The Dartmouth. Hix based his opinion on a survey which has not yet been published conducted by the Assembly on student opinion about the transition.
Hix added that although he believes the results of the survey, which was developed in conjunction with the College's Office of Institutional research, are reliable, he was unable to give exact figures because the study had not been approved by the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects.
The study group will ultimately have to consider all aspects of the situation before recommending either product, Hix said, adding that he would strive to make the student voice heard during deliberations.
Presidential Fellow and member of the study group Molly Bode '09 echoed Hix's sentiment.
"We are going to consider student opinion but ultimately we will have to consider other factors as well," Bode said.
