Wayne State University Welcomes MeritMail for Over 70,000 UsersOctober 21, 2009By Brian Warkoczeski DETROIT - Following a successful email migration completed during summer 2009, the Wayne State University campus community has embraced the University's new email collaboration suite, MeritMail. "Our students, faculty, and staff have been extremely pleased with the unlimited storage and new features that MeritMail provides," said Joseph Sawasky, associate vice president for computing and chief information officer for Wayne State University. "By NetSourcing our email system with Merit Network, we are using a trusted provider that will maintain the integrity and privacy of our data, while delivering a full-featured email solution to our users." MeritMail is a hosted email solution that includes email, calendaring, address book, document sharing, and integrated instant messaging. With over 70,000 email accounts, Wayne State University is currently the largest MeritMail subscriber in the country. WSU has branded its campus email service as Wayne Connect, creating a custom logo and color scheme for the MeritMail web client. "We've had a tremendous response from our users," said Daren Hubbard, information technology director for Wayne State University (WSU). "It's been very reliable, and we've received positive feedback from our students, faculty, and staff." The most popular feature for WSU users has been the unlimited storage space for storing email messages and attachments, followed by the dynamic calendar found in the MeritMail web client. "The faculty enjoy being able to schedule meetings for committee work or cross-department teaching," Hubbard said. "Before, faculty would have to send out 15 emails to see if people were available on a certain date for a meeting. Now it's easier to see everyone's availability. You can just open up the web client and see if people are available." "We were really able to bring the campus greater value and efficiency with calendaring and collaboration across departments," added Hubbard. WSU used a rolling email migration schedule, changing over segments of users to MeritMail over time between February 2009 and June 2009. "The process of doing an email migration project is a partnership activity. It's not just a service we provide." according to Brad Robertson, information technology director at Merit Network. "It grows our relationship with a Member. The teams have to be engaged and work closely together." An email migration for a large university can be a time-consuming process, sometimes lasting over a year. For MeritMail migrations, Merit Network staff have averaged only a few months, with the Wayne State University process lasting only five months. "We worked closely with the Merit support staff to seamlessly move over our users," according to Hubbard. "We found Merit to be a very helpful partner for making this happen." In September, Wayne State University staff created the MeritMail User Group, introducing the new forum at the Merit Joint Technical Staff meeting in East Lansing. The purpose of the group is to create a discussion community and assist others who have implemented MeritMail. "I am excited about WSU creating the MeritMail User Group," Robertson stated. "With the full migration of the WSU user community, they are currently Merit's largest MeritMail user, and our team is looking forward to the interaction and feedback from the user group." About Wayne State UniversityWayne State University is a comprehensive university with 13 colleges and schools, located on beautiful urban campus in downtown Detroit, Michigan. WSU offers more than 350 academic programs, including 126 bachelor's degree programs, 139 master's degree programs, 60 doctoral degree programs and 30 certificate, specialist and professional programs. WSU's diverse student body includes students from 44 states and more than 75 countries.For more information: wayne.edu About Merit NetworkMerit Network Inc., a nonprofit corporation owned and governed by Michigan's public universities, owns and operates America's longest-running regional research and education network. In 1966, Michigan's public universities created Merit as a shared resource to help meet their common need for networking assistance. Since its formation, Merit Network has remained on the forefront of research and education networking expertise and services. Merit provides high-performance networking solutions to Michigan's public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations.For more information: www.merit.edu Back to Success Stories. |