President's Standardized E-mail and Collaboration System memo

TO: Knoxville Area Faculty and Staff FROM: John Petersen, UT President; Jack Britt, UT Executive Vice President; and Loren Crabtree, Chancellor SUBJECT: Standardized E-mail and Collaboration System

As you may have heard, a UT system-wide initiative is underway to upgrade and standardize the university-wide e-mail and calendaring communications tools for all faculty, staff and students. Some of the reasons we support this initiative are as follows:

1. The central Office of Information Technology (OIT) e-mail systems are inadequate to meet current and future needs of the campus community.

2. A significant number of separate departmental e-mail systems are maintained across the campus. These vary in features, functions, reliability, and security, as well as integration with the central IT e-mail and authentication services.

3. Electronic communications between and among faculty, staff, students and administrators have become vitally important to effective day-to-day operations. We must insure all members of the university community have reliable access to important university correspondence and information.

4. Standardization of the e-mail and collaboration systems will improve technical support and reduce overall costs to the university.

5. Enhanced communications and collaboration between and among university employees across the state is vital to meet the growing needs of our constituents.

Based on the results from a fall 2004 e-mail features and functions survey of UT faculty, staff and students and the desire for optimal integration with day-to-day university business, the Microsoft Exchange solution has been selected for the University of Tennessee.

We invite your continued input and participation on this important initiative. Brice Bible, Interim Chief Information Officer, and OIT currently are implementing the new e-mail system and will work with each college and department to develop an appropriate and timely training and transition plan.

A features and functions committee of faculty and students has been established to guide user configuration and service delivery. The first group of e-mail users will begin migrating to the new system later this fall. More information on this initiative can be found at http://oit.tennessee.edu/exchange

We expect that all faculty, staff, administrators and students will be converted to the new e-mail system no later than Fall 2006. This will provide adequate time for an effective and timely transition by all.

Thank you for your support of this initiative.