The University of Wisconsin is planning to implement a new combined calendar and email software that could save the institution an estimated $11 million in operating costs and about $30.5 million in workforce efficiency over five years.
A campus-wide team working on behalf of the “Administrative Excellence Initiative” is planning to implement this new software system called Office 365 to UW faculty, staff and students as early as summer 2013, according to a UW statement.
Brian Rust, communications director for the Office of the Chief Information Officer, Division of Information Technology, said at this time, UW campus members are using more than 30 different types of email and calendar software. By consolidating email and calendar existence, the university would save both time and money, Rust said.
“Overall, in general, the project was designed to address the wide variety of email and calendar software on campus,” Rust said. “Setting meetings for staff and faculty can sometimes take an inordinate amount of time. Efficiency is the primary concern here.”
Alice Gustafson, executive committee member of the email and calendaring implementation team, said the team members have been working for months to find a new system that could also fill the “funding gap” because they cannot expect all of their revenue to come from the state Legislature in the future.
“We need to use new ways to fill these gaps,” Gustafson said. “We need to challenge ourselves to be more efficient in finding fund saving resources.”
As explained on the “Email and Calendar Transition” webpage, the team chose Microsoft Office 365 as the single email and calendar software.
The website said the team chose it not only because of the university’s functional and technical requirements, but also data security requirements, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and U.S export control regulations.
“These two pieces became critical in our decision to choose Office 365,” Gustafson said.
The implementation has significant impact on students, Rust said. He said currently, students have separate accounts for Wiscmail, calendars, chats, webspace and more. Though the focus is only on the email and calendar aspects initially, eventually tools like word processing, spreadsheets and other parts of this “office suite” will be implemented all under Office 365, he added.
Rust said a team was formed to evaluate how email and calendars are being used on campus, which ones are commonly used and what features or shortcomings the software has. Based on this information, the team was able to recommend Office 365, Rust said.
Members of the new software team also reached out to campus by meeting with department “emailers” and giving them surveys about a new migration plan, according to Gustafson.
“We had to be thoughtful about all of the different ways and what structure to use,” Gustafson said.
According to the project website, implementation of this new software into UW “should center on minimizing disruption to university business, and ensuring a full user training and support program.”
The email and calendar team is working now to make a plan that can integrate this new software into the UW system with the least amount of disruption possible.
Rust said the software will be implemented into certain departments, but said he is unsure of when it will go into effect for students.
