Go Outlook! The UCOP Migration to a New E-mail and Calendar Program

February 8, 2006

To : UCOP Community
From : Michael Shannon, Manager, IR&C Communication Services

Over the next few months UCOP will transition to a new e-mail and calendar program, called Outlook. This is an integrated solution for managing and organizing e-mail messages, schedules, tasks, notes, addresses or contacts, and other information.

The migration to Outlook is the next step in the Managed Desktop Initiative, which IR&C launched last year to better secure the UCOP computing environment, as well as to position us to replace our current e-mail and calendar programs, Eudora and Corporate Time.

There are several reasons why we have to replace our e-mail and calendar systems:

• UCOP employees have requested features that Eudora and Corporate Time simply do not provide.
• We believe that employees will realize more efficiency in their daily work in the use of Outlook.

Benefits of Outlook

• Integration of e-mail, calendar, address book, and directory services in one program
• A single password to access the desktop, e-mail, and calendar
• Storage of e-mail on the server to allow access to new and old messages from anywhere including the Web
• Integration with the Blackberry wireless service
• Wider support for a variety of wireless and smart phone devices (e.g., Treo)
• Improved collaboration through use of shared online folders
• Scheduling of meetings integrated with automated e-mail notification to participants

IR&C is developing a schedule to migrate several departments at a time to Outlook, with the transitions occurring between April and July.

Timeframe for the Migration Project

• February: Departmental PC coordinators trained in Outlook
• March - June: Training for employees available at the time their departments migrate to Outlook
• April - July: Migration of departments to Outlook for e-mail
• August: Launch of the Outlook online calendar

 

Moving to Outlook will represent a major change for many of you. IR&C will do everything we can to assist you in this transition. We will offer training for everyone who wants it; provide quick reference guides to Outlook for all employees; have Outlook experts available to address your immediate questions when your department makes the transition; and post additional tips and information on the Web. We also will regularly update you regarding the progress of the Outlook migration project, "Go Outlook," including ways that you can prepare for it. Several UC campuses have switched to Outlook recently and employees like it. I am confident that you will find many benefits to UCOP's new e-mail and calendar services.