We are pleased to announce a forthcoming upgrade to the university’s email system. By the end of the calendar year, non-healthcare-provided faculty and staff email accounts will be migrated to the Microsoft Office 365 system.

UI students moved to Office 365 two years ago, and have had positive feedback on the change. We’re excited to expand the service to employees, unifying everyone into the same modern user experience.

The benefits of this upgrade include:

• 50 times larger email quota (from 1 GB to 50 GB – no more deleting old messages!)
• 1TB of cloud file storage through OneDrive (current home drives are 25 GB). You can access files from anywhere, sync across all devices, and share files and folders with co-workers.
• Each employee can install the full Office Suite for FREE on up to 5 personal computers/devices
• Optional use of online Office apps (Excel, Word, Power Point, & OneNote) for easy collaboration
• Seamless integration with instant messaging, video conferencing, and online meetings
• Office 365 is compatible with smartphones and mobile devices, and accessible through the web
• If you continue using desktop versions of Microsoft applications, like Outlook, your experience won’t change

In recent presentations to UI administrators and at the Tech Forum in June, Associate Vice President & CIO Steve Fleagle has made some important points about change—why we are doing all of this, and what exactly we must change. Here's what he said.

Several Frequently Asked Questions were added to address themes that arose during the listening posts and town hall meetings. Existing questions were updated to include new details. 

IT leaders from the UI, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa met for a daylong retreat June 10 to strategize about how the three state institutions can collaborate to further institutional efficiency goals. Workgroups comprised of service representatives from each school identified opportunities for collaboration and reported findings out to their peers and the CIOs.

Successes of the day included: information sharing on encryption strategies for mobile devices, end-user support practices, and discussions of licensing and procurement opportunities. UI CIO Steve Fleagle said he was impressed by the potential opportunities that arose in the discussions.