Wayne Connect: WSU's new e-mail solution

Overview

A project to replace and upgrade Wayne State University's E-mail System is currently underway. The name of the new communication service is Wayne Connect, and it offers students, faculty, and staff a comprehensive approach to sharing messages, files, and calendars. Wayne Connect is powered by the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS), and provides all accounts with 10GB of storage space.

Computing & Information Technology (C&IT) will roll out Wayne Connect to campus in stages during the first half of 2009. For more information, including key features of the new system and support information go to the Wayne Connect Web page.

Why did WSU seek a new e-mail solution?

C&IT is responsible for the university's campus-wide e-mail system, as well as directory services. The current hardware the systems run on is based on older technology and was due to be replaced.

In early 2008, C&IT management formed a project team and assigned it with a number of charges:

to identify packaged solutions for e-mail and calendaring for students, faculty, and staff.
to support the strategic vision of the university in the use of innovative technology and by meeting the plan's goal "to improve information technology and support its use."
to support the WSU IT Strategic Action Plan by creating an efficient, utility-like infrastructure and exploring, evaluating, and implementing useful and innovative new technologies.
to find the best solution for Wayne State University.

During 2008, the C&IT Enterprise E-mail Solutions Project Team reviewed and tested several products. They also involved the campus community by working closely with technical support staff and both academic and administrative committees across campus to fulfill the team's charges.

The evaluation factored in feedback from the university community from the annual IT Services Survey. Some of the comments C&IT received were:

Insufficient storage space (only 30MB-200MB per account)
Lack of integrated calendaring
Poor synchronization with mobile devices, like smart phones and PDAs
Awkward Web interface

After a thorough evaluation of several products, the university chose the Zimbra Collaboration Suite as the campus-wide solution. C&IT will continue to work with WSU's schools, colleges, and divisions to identify representatives who can help plan the implementation, make key transition-related decisions for each area, and help prepare faculty, staff, and students for this change.