evaluating email/calendar solutions
DESCRIPTION
Evaluating Email/Calendar Solutions. Building the “Next Generation” of Collaboration Infrastructure. Email……. Calendar ……..Tools ……. Susan DeLellis, Project Manager Tim Gleason, Technical Architect Harvard University Information Systems CSG Meeting, September 21, 2004 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Harvard University Information Systems
Evaluating Email/Calendar SolutionsEvaluating Email/Calendar Solutions
Building the “Next Generation” of Collaboration Infrastructure
Susan DeLellis, Project ManagerTim Gleason, Technical ArchitectHarvard University Information SystemsCSG Meeting, September 21, [email protected][email protected]
Email……. Calendar …….. Tools ……
Harvard University Information Systems
Harvard’s Email/Calendar Environment Today Drivers Leading up to a New Look at Email/Calendaring Input from our Customers RFP Process & Evaluation Evaluation Criteria What We’ve Learned thus Far & Next Steps
Email/Calendar Evaluation at Harvard Email/Calendar Evaluation at Harvard
What We Plan to Share with You Today:What We Plan to Share with You Today:
Harvard University Information Systems
Decentralized & Locally Managed…Decentralized & Locally Managed…
@ 50,000 managed Email accounts at Harvard today… 60% Students 40% Faculty/Staff
< 5,000 managed Calendar Accounts
Multitude of service providers: Central Administration (CAIT) – ISP Model, Fee for Service Individual Schools (8) Others
Multitude of solutions, offerings & platforms: SendMail, Exchange, Lotus Notes, Communigate Pro, others
No central authentication for Email/Calendaring
Harvard Email/Calendar Environment TodayHarvard Email/Calendar Environment Today
Harvard University Information Systems
CAIT provides:
Centralized University Directory Service (LDAP) – but there is no authentication in LDAP today
Central Email Aliasing Service ([email protected])
Integrated Voice-mail to Email Service (EVM)
University-Wide Email Broadcast Application – Presmailer – developed in-house to provide a central communications tool for emergency broadcast and critical University correspondences
Harvard Email/Calendar Environment TodayHarvard Email/Calendar Environment Today
Harvard University Information Systems
IT Efficiency Process at Harvard:
Initiative started 2 yrs. ago to look at ways to achieve IT Initiative started 2 yrs. ago to look at ways to achieve IT efficiencies via centralizing services & aggregating volumeefficiencies via centralizing services & aggregating volume
Email/Calendar identified as an area to be explored & Email/Calendar identified as an area to be explored & measuredmeasured
CAIT had real concerns about the reliability & scalability of our existing calendar system & provider
Recognized the need for a higher level of integration between Email & Calendaring as evidenced by user surveys and focus groups
Drivers Leading up to a New Look at Email/CalendaringDrivers Leading up to a New Look at Email/Calendaring
Concluded to move forward w/a CAIT initiated project to develop & evaluate RFP responses for a commercial Email/Calendar solution w/enterprise level support
Harvard University Information Systems
Input From Our CustomersInput From Our Customers
CAIT User Survey: 13% of 6,300 Email customers responded
97% rated Email as most important communications service Provide better integration between Calendar, Email, IM (single client) Provide more robust web client & remote access Improve reliability of Calendar system Develop a central group Calendar system
CAIT User Forums Reliability of messaging is critical Effectiveness of anti-spam & anti-virus solutions directly impacts day-day
productivity Remote access growing in importance Sensitivity to change & cost
Input from Our CustomersInput from Our Customers
Harvard University Information Systems
RFP Process & EvaluationEvaluation Still in Progress
Project Timeline
J UN JUL AUG SEP
2004
P1 May – June
•User Surveys• User Forums• Develop RFP• RFP Distributed to Vendors• RFPs Received back from 11 Vendors
P2 Jul – Sept.
• Weekly Project Team Meetings• Evaluate RFPs • Develop TCOs• Develop Evaluation Criteria• Conduct Product Testing
• Vendor Presentations• Customer Conference Calls• Evaluation Scorecards• End User Testing
MAY OCT NOV DEC
P3 Oct – Dec
• Fine Tune TCOs• Final Recommendation• Vendor Negotiations
Harvard University Information Systems
RFP Evaluation Criteria
Developed vendor evaluation scorecards – weighted score system – Rating each vendor on specifics w/in 5 primary categories:
Ability to Partner Price & TCO Manageability,Scalability & Security Service & Support Product Performance & Strategy
Project team and end user testing of vendor solutions
Harvard University Information Systems
Emergence of Collaboration Suites
Full featured services including File sharing, Portals, Web Conferencing, Unified Messaging, IM
Competes with existing solutions & tools we have in place - what’s the right infrastructure?
Trend towards Database Architectures
Many vendors moving towards full functioning backend relational DBs as message stores
Value of DB backend and changing role for support?
What We’ve Learned Thus FarWhat We’ve Learned Thus Far
Harvard University Information Systems
Clients
More robust web clients Native thick clients still offer best performance/feature functionality MAPI Connector option for Outlook – Varies
Handhelds
Support still limited for Blackberry RIM devices. Need Exchange, Groupwise or Notes/Domino to fully integrate
Directory
Each vendor “prefers” their own directory for authentication
Raises questions about our directory & authentication strategy – opportunity to consolidate directories?
What We’ve Learned Thus FarWhat We’ve Learned Thus Far
Harvard University Information Systems
Portals
Many of the Collaboration Suite solutions include portal-like functionality
How could these solutions potentially fit w/existing Harvard portal frameworks
Client Licensing & Discount Structures
Strategies differ per vendor Campus agreements w/specific identified subscribers vs. “full
use” unlimited licenses
Given our ISP Model – it introduces a new level of complexity to manage & administer campus license agreements
What We’ve Learned Thus FarWhat We’ve Learned Thus Far
Harvard University Information Systems
Initial TCOs show total solution prices are in the $ 8-12 per user/mo. range
Fully loaded models including hardware,software, maintenance, facilities, monitoring, backups, storage, labor (FTE & Prod.Mgt), disaster recovery, implementation, training, helpdesk srvcs
Need a firm plan around migration/conversion
Approaches: phased vs. flash cut, start clean vs. convert data Realistically, what data converts well Setting user expectations & communication
What We’ve Learned Thus FarWhat We’ve Learned Thus Far
Harvard University Information Systems
Value input from CSG Meeting
Complete & evaluate end user testing, customer conference calls
Further refine TCOs
Project team to make recommendation this fall
Design/Implementation planning & testing to follow
Next StepsNext Steps
ChangeComplexity
Time