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1.
You will have your e-mail, calendar, task list,
and address book in one tidy package that’s
easy to access and read.
2. It’ll simplify your
life. One password will get you into your e-mail
and your schedule.
3. Accessing your University
e-mail via the web will be more user-friendly.
In fact, the interface will be very similar
to what you see on your computer at the office.
4. Everyone else is doing it.
No, seriously. Many on the west side of campus
are longtime users of Outlook—and they
seem to like it. Having one system will make
it a snap to schedule meetings with each other.
5. Discovering new bells and
whistles is always fun. Take, for example,
the small, transparent window that pops up
when you get a new e-mail message. It identifies
the sender and includes the first few lines
of the message—and then it fades away
so you can continue what you were working on
(or respond immediately if it is an important
e-mail from your boss).
6. Rumor has it that our voice-mail
messages may someday be integrated with Outlook.
Stay tuned…
7. Because Outlook is so popular
across the country, many PDAs come equipped
with a program that automatically synchs with
Outlook.
8. Your colleagues at Information
Technology Services spent a lot of time searching
for the best product, and they worked tirelessly
to familiarize themselves with Outlook in a
short amount of time so that they can be prepared
to answer your questions. In fact, they did
such a good job producing instructional material
that other universities are asking to use it.
(For more information, see the ITS
web site.)
9. The learning curve isn’t
that bad. Just ask Jeri King in Facilities
Services Group, which switched from Eudora
and CorporateTime to Outlook in February. She
spent years using Outlook at the University
of Missouri before coming to Iowa last October
and learning a whole new system. “Change
is not so bad,” she insists, “it’s
just the uncertainty that comes with it that’s
troublesome.”
10. Next year, all of you Eudora
users will be saying, “Eudora who?”
compiled by Sara Epstein Moninger
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Those of you who use
CorporateTime likely have heard the news by now.
You’ll need to give it up—soon.
Information Technology Services learned last year
that the calendar software had been purchased by
Oracle and that plans for future technical support
were sketchy at best. That led ITS to search for
a new system, and what they found is an integrated
software package that manages not only users’ schedules
but also their e-mail, contact information, tasks,
and more.
After a year of surveying the campus community and
investigating all possibilities, ITS settled on Microsoft
Outlook, which already is used by employees in the
Colleges of Dentistry and Public Health, the Roy
J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, and
the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Over the next several months, ITS will help departments
across campus migrate to the new e-mail and calendar
server—called Exchange—with the goal
of having everyone on board by June 14 (your resident
IT person has probably warned you of the impending
conversion). Once on the server, you will be able
to use Outlook immediately for e-mail, but you will
be asked to continue scheduling meetings that occur
before Aug. 2 in CorporateTime. Meetings occurring
after Aug. 2 should be scheduled using Outlook. After
Aug. 2, the CorporateTime server will no longer be
available. This way, you’ll only need to access
one calendar at any given time.
ITS estimates that 2,500 people on campus actively
use CorporateTime to schedule meetings.
Jeri King, assistant to the associate vice president,
Facilities Services Group, is eager for the transformation.
She previously worked for the University of Missouri,
which has used Outlook for several years. In February,
King and her colleagues at FSG became one of the
first groups on campus to make the switch.
“At Missouri, I was so used to having my e-mail
and calendar in the same system that when I came
to Iowa, I had the hardest time remembering to load
both Eudora and CorporateTime,” she explains. “There
are pluses and minuses with every system, and although
Outlook is not perfect, it is very convenient.”
Converting the entire campus to Outlook will make
scheduling meetings with people across campus much
easier, King says. In her work, she finds that the
myriad calendar and e-mail platforms used on campus
can sometimes hinder timely scheduling.
“It will be so handy to have everyone on Outlook,” she
says. “We’ll be able to get work done
faster as an organization.”
Although loyal users of Eudora won’t be required
to change e-mail systems, many departments on campus
plan to take advantage of the Outlook package and
leave such programs behind. In fact, Lance Bolton,
information technology manager at ITS, says he thinks
many of those who don’t make the e-mail switch
right away will be convinced to do so within a year.
(See the ITS
site for a
list of ITS-supported e-mail clients.)
“Outlook is hugely simplified.” he says. “And
for e-mail, the fundamentals are still intact—reading,
writing, and sending messages.”
One of the benefits, Bolton adds, is that users
will be able to maintain one address book. This will
be particularly handy when sending e-mail from a
web portal. Also, for PC users, Outlook Web Access—the
equivalent of Webmail—will have nearly the
same appearance as their desktop. (Mac users checking
e-mail on the web will encounter a slightly different
appearance, but only because their desktop interface,
called Entourage, will more closely resemble OS X.)
For more information on Outlook and Exchange, see
the
ITS
site.
by Sara Epstein Moninger
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