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Eagle Mail Takes FlightEastern Michigan University implements MeritMail solution for its campus community.By Brian Warkoczeski, February 2009
In 2007,
Eastern Michigan University
(EMU) was experiencing serious issues with its aging email infrastructure, and periodic disruptions were creating an increasing amount of frustration on EMU's Ypsilanti campus.
"Eastern had e-mail disruptions, and they were unacceptable," according to Connie Schaffer, Interim CIO at EMU. "During the summer of 2007, email was offline for about a week. It was a mess. It was awful, and the university was anxious to move to a much more reliable system."
EMU began the process for acquiring a new email system by creating a project charter, which described the email project, outlined the
objectives, and established deliverables. The project charter was then endorsed by EMU's leadership and information technology (IT) department, and an email selection committee was appointed by the university.
The 21-person committee was co-chaired by an IT staff member and a faculty member and featured a diverse group from the university community, including students, faculty, and non-academic representatives.
"We brought them together with the charter and said go to it," Schaffer said. "We said we want a solution that's extremely reliable and performs well. We also told them to keep their minds open. We had no vested interest in whether the system is housed and run by EMU professionals or housed and run elsewhere."
The committee considered Google's free email service, Microsoft Exchange, MeritMail, and Novell's Groupwise.
"Members of the selection committee assessed the PROS and CONS for each of the candidates. They used scripts to test if the candidates satisfied a long list of functional requirements," said Schaffer. "Before the tests got underway, we did not know much about MeritMail. By the time members completed their work, the selection committee knew MeritMail was a breakthrough, collaborative messaging service. They unanimously recommended that EMU use MeritMail for students, faculty and staff."
Transitioning to New SystemAfter selecting MeritMail and signing a contract on June 30, 2008, EMU and Merit Network began the implementation process.
"We appointed a project manager and leaders of project teams who, in turn, selected members of their teams. We had a branding and communications team, a documentation team, a policies and procedures team, a training team, and a technical implementation team. We developed a project plan and schedule based on a work breakdown structure and determined a realistic date for going live with MeritMail which we branded as EagleMail," Schaffer said.
Merit's IT team and Member Relations team met weekly with EMU's team leaders for project status meetings. Merit's IT team prepared the new
MeritMail system for the email switchover, and Member Relations organized "Train the Trainer" sessions for Eastern Michigan's IT and help desk staff.
Meanwhile, EMU actively communicated information about the upcoming email transition to its university community. They created a logo for the new email system, EagleMail, and used multiple methods to educate their email users.
"Communicating frequently was very important. We had kicked off the primary communication to students, etc. in early September. We had an email homepage with lots of information about the project. There was also a status page that was updated periodically. We also had a professional development site and a training site," Schaffer said.
For the email transition, EMU decided that a clean switchover from the old system to MeritMail would be best. Brad Robertson, information technology director at Merit Network, and his staff of administrators implemented the switch over a weekend, with the new EagleMail system going live on October 3.
"They disabled access to their legacy email system on a Friday, and then we initiated a final synchronization pass to copy all data that wasn't already imported into MeritMail," according to Robertson. "This process was completed over a single weekend."
Over 50,000 email accounts were created for faculty, staff, students, and affiliates. For alumni, EMU provided over 150,000 mail-forwarding-only accounts, which allow alumni to forward messages from their old EMU email addresses to their current email accounts.
"It only took three months to implement EagleMail and migrate everyone from the old system to the new system," Schaffer said.
The BenefitsThe powerful functionality of MeritMail's email, calendaring, and document sharing features is what most excited Connie Schaffer and the EMU email selection committee.
"It's a collaboration suite, and that's the thing that blew us away. If you think about it, in higher education collaboration is what we're about. There aren't many articles, proposals, or projects that are completed by one individual—they're typically collaborative. By facilitating collaboration, you will advance academic and administrative programs on your campus."
"MeritMail does a nice job of integrating applications within the application. The calendar and email are seamlessly integrated. I had one faculty member say, 'Damn, this is the best thing IT has done for Eastern Michigan University.'"
"Looking back, I've been involved with a lot of IT projects, and this one went exceedingly well," Schaffer said.
About Eastern Michigan University
Since 1849, EMU has been committed to the highest standards in the classroom, the community and the world. With 22,000 students of all ages and walks of life from around the globe, EMU combines a world-class university with a thriving, connected community environment. EMU became a Governing Member of Merit Network in 1987.
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