|
|
UIS Plans for Migration to New Microsoft
Products
There has been a lot of media publicity lately regarding the
release of several new products from Microsoft. Microsoft’s new
operating system - Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, and the
previously released Internet Explorer 7.0 are getting
significant attention these days and UIS would like to share our
projected migration plans with you. We invite you to provide us
with feedback regarding this proposed plan. We are aware this
migration will impact everyone, but it will especially impact
the teaching and learning environment for many of you, so we
invite your thoughts on the matter.
Vista: Microsoft released a new operating system - Vista, this
winter. UIS is not planning to begin a migration until 2008.
Once we do begin the migration, it will be a phased migration
that will be gradually implemented working in tandem with the
UTAC Computer Replacement Schedule and the faculty/staff
replacement schedule. There are several reasons we intend to
wait, the most important ones include:
- Hardware Requirements of Vista: This operating system has
very stringent hardware requirements. Many of the lab and office
computer systems currently on campus do not meet these
requirements and therefore would either fail to operate or would
have extremely poor performance. As we replace systems through
our regular replacement schedule, we will ensure they are
Vista-ready.
- Microsoft Campus Agreement is currently in negotiations: The
Ohio IUC is currently in negotiations with Microsoft for the
renewal of the Microsoft Campus Agreement for all state-funded
schools including Shawnee State. The results of these
negotiations will impact the cost for license upgrades the
University may or may not have to pay to license existing
student, faculty and staff systems.
- Newness of the product. The operating system is vital to
daily operations. As with any new product release, UIS prefers
to wait several months before placing the software into
production so we can wait to see what problems may arise from
the new version. Since this is a new operating system, bugs,
security holes, or incompatibility issues could adversely effect
daily operations for everyone. When dealing with something like
an operating system we prefer to be even more cautious to ensure
everyone is able to keep their systems up and running.
- Software application incompatibilities: There are many
software applications that Shawnee State University uses around
campus, in both the offices and the labs. It is necessary to
investigate and test each software package we use with Vista
before we proceed with any migration. As we are testing, we may
be in contact with you if your department uses special software
or if you use discipline-specific software in your classes so
that you can participate in the testing of your applications to
ensure they are working properly.
Internet Explorer 7.0: Microsoft’s latest release of Internet
Explorer has been out for quite some time. The standard
applications used on campus and the discipline-specific
applications all need to be tested for compatibility with
Explorer 7.0 in order to avoid conflicts which could cause
applications to fail to operate if Internet Explorer 7.0 were
deployed. Internet Explorer 7.0 is integrated into the Vista
Operating System so at the time we migrate to Vista, Internet
Explorer will be deployed as well.
Microsoft Office 2007: UIS will schedule a planned
implementation for this new version of Microsoft Office, but we
recommend waiting until summer of 2008 to make this our
standard. This product will have a large impact on those of you
who teach in the labs and we realize you need time to plan your
classes and need to order textbooks in advance. The primary
reasons we recommend waiting are listed here:
- Software application compatibility testing: As was stated
before regarding the Vista OS, there are many software
applications that Shawnee State University uses on campus, in
both the offices and the labs that must be tested before we
proceed with any migration. The CX (CARS) administrative system
integrates with the Office Suite and these interfaces must be
tested. As we are testing, we may be in contact with you if your
department uses special software that integrates with the Office
Suite or if you integrate discipline-specific software with
Office in your classes so that you can participate in the
testing of your applications to ensure they are working properly
in conjunction with the new Office 2007. Some of these software
packages may even release new versions tailored to work with
Office 2007 and we will need to work with you to upgrade to
those as well.
- Uniformity across campus: Keeping one version of the Office
suite as a standard across campus is helpful to both employees
and students. Sending attachments and working on shared files is
much more user friendly when everyone is using the same version.
For students it can be extremely confusing if they are learning
one version in a class and then go to another area only to find
a different version of the same software. For these reasons we
feel it is important for our campus if we maintain one standard
version across campus. Consequently, we hope everyone is
agreeable to the timeline we propose.
Time to prepare new courses: Past versions of the Office
package have provided additional features or made minor changes
to the functions over time. This new version is a major re-write
of the software and there are many significant changes in this
version. We would like to allow you adequate time to become
acquainted with the software and evaluate new textbooks before
it is installed in the labs. If you wish to have the software
installed in your office to allow you to prepare for your
classes, it will be available for installation beginning Winter
Break (December 2007).
As we develop our migration plan, we realize there are also
drawbacks to not moving forward with the newest version.
Primarily, we anticipate conversion issues for users already
running Office 2007 at home. Those running Office 2007 at home
will encounter these conversion issues if they bring files to
campus that were created or edited using Office 2007 and we are
still running Office 2003. Microsoft offers a conversion tool
which will allow users to open and edit an Office 2007 file
using Office 2003. UIS will install this tool on all student use
systems as a standard feature before the start of the 2007
Summer Semester. Employees needing this tool in their offices
should submit a request to the UIS Help Desk and we will provide
it for you.
If you have any feedback, questions, or concerns regarding any
of these products, please contact me or send an email to
helpdesk@shawnee.edu. As we stated earlier, we invite you to
provide us with feedback regarding these proposed plans
especially if it will impact your teaching environment.
Thank you,
Jaime Madden
UIS
jmadden@shawnee.edu
|
