2008 Woodie Awards
Google Apps for Education to replace OCS
By: Amy Ledig, News Editor
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: News
After over a year of searching for a new email system, the Email Workgroup has recommended that Google Applications for Education replace Oracle Collaboration Suite, the college's current email program.
"They spent countless hours on research and [worked through] a whole list of criteria," Associate Vice President of ITS Jerry Sanders said of the search team.
The Email Workgroup, composed of ITS and other staff members, was formed in January 2007 to find a replacement for OCS.
"We had decided as a workgroup to make a recommendation in mid-December. Then that recommendation went to Jerry Sanders and David Wheaton. In mid-January we decided as a group to take that to senior staff," said Michael Nelson, Academic Information Associate for humanities at ITS and a Workgroup member.
Senior staff includes Chief Financial Officer David Wheaton, Vice President for Student Affairs Laurie Hamre, Provost Diane Michelfelder, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Lorne Robinson and President Brian Rosenberg.
Nelson said that one of the main factors that pushed the workgroup to recommend Google Apps for Education was that it would take email maintenance off-campus, freeing up network staff to deal with campus issues. The other was that Google updates its applications by constantly sending updates and patches to programs while they continue to operate, instead of the traditional model of taking programs offline to update, creating major disruptions to network activity.
Google Apps for Education would include Google's popular Gmail email service, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, which allows users to share documents easily.
"We're excited to be thinking of going with Google. It has elements that are exciting that go beyond email," Sanders said, referring to additional aspects such as Google Documents and the Calendar application.
Wheaton also emphasized the importance of the other Google applications. He spoke about calendaring, which he said was a particularly important factor for staff.
"They spent countless hours on research and [worked through] a whole list of criteria," Associate Vice President of ITS Jerry Sanders said of the search team.
The Email Workgroup, composed of ITS and other staff members, was formed in January 2007 to find a replacement for OCS.
"We had decided as a workgroup to make a recommendation in mid-December. Then that recommendation went to Jerry Sanders and David Wheaton. In mid-January we decided as a group to take that to senior staff," said Michael Nelson, Academic Information Associate for humanities at ITS and a Workgroup member.
Senior staff includes Chief Financial Officer David Wheaton, Vice President for Student Affairs Laurie Hamre, Provost Diane Michelfelder, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Lorne Robinson and President Brian Rosenberg.
Nelson said that one of the main factors that pushed the workgroup to recommend Google Apps for Education was that it would take email maintenance off-campus, freeing up network staff to deal with campus issues. The other was that Google updates its applications by constantly sending updates and patches to programs while they continue to operate, instead of the traditional model of taking programs offline to update, creating major disruptions to network activity.
Google Apps for Education would include Google's popular Gmail email service, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, which allows users to share documents easily.
"We're excited to be thinking of going with Google. It has elements that are exciting that go beyond email," Sanders said, referring to additional aspects such as Google Documents and the Calendar application.
Wheaton also emphasized the importance of the other Google applications. He spoke about calendaring, which he said was a particularly important factor for staff.
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