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Computing and Systems Services (CASS) is introducing a new email and personal scheduling system that will make it easier for members of the UVic community to stay organized.
“The Enterprise Collaboration Services (ECS) project is, in its simplest sense, implementing a brand new email and calendaring system on campus,” says Nav Bassi, manager of the Project Management Office for CASS.
The new technology will improve email performance; it will standardize programs across campus so that everyone is using the same technology; and it will offer new features that will better support teaching, learning and research, Bassi says.
The old mail server is being replaced by a new one, called Microsoft Exchange. This means an entirely new look for webmail, which will resemble Microsoft Outlook. It will be faster, more user-friendly and more powerful, says Bassi. All email users will get more storage space as well.
Users of email clients supported by the new system—Outlook on PCs and Entourage on Macs—will get new email features, such as better handling of vacation messages. With Exchange, vacation messages can also be scheduled to begin and end on certain dates, and permission to access a mailbox can be delegated to a co-worker, so there is no need to share passwords.
The amount of change users will experience depends on the email client they use now, says Bassi. Someone using a supported client will see very little change but will have access to the new features. Someone using a non-supported client will see no change, but they won’t be able to access the new features unless they switch to one of the supported clients, in which case they will have to learn a new program—similar to switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox for a web browser.
Under the new system, students will also have access to the same calendaring system as faculty and staff. The new Exchange calendar will integrate better with email and will have new features, including the option to divert voicemail to email inboxes and remote access to messages and calendar.
System transfer will begin later this year for faculty and staff. Students will be responsible for transferring their own mail to the new server at a later date. CASS will provide extensive support documentation and free drop-in training sessions for the new applications.
For more information, check out the ECS website at ecsinfo.uvic.ca.
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