Collaboration and Unified E-Mail

1. Collaboration and Unified E-Mail Dennis Schmidt, Director, OIS

2. Our Mail System Has Issues! • Our mail architecture is complex • Multiple mail systems • Mixed products – no integration between them • Multiple directories – causes mail routing problems • We don’t have a good solution for portable mail devices (Blackberry, Treo, etc.) • No automated collaboration tools • Very few third party applications work well with our environment

3. Current SOM E-Mail Architecture

4. Duplication of Effort • Three e-mail servers with different technologies • IMAP • Medicine Exchange • SOM Exchange (Supporting calendar only) • Two directory services • IMAP LDAP • Microsoft Active Directory

5. Other Issues • Multiple IDs/Passwords • SOMid • Windows Domain Account (OISSOMNT) • ONYEN • Attachment incompatibility between Outlook and IMAP clients • Lack of mail server redundancy • Difficulty fitting products into architecture • e.g., Tumbleweed, BES

6. A Proposed Solution • Primary Directory – MS Active Directory • Primary Mail Server – Microsoft Exchange 2007 • Collaboration Software – SharePoint 2007 • Hand Held Mail • Blackberry Enterprise Server • ActiveSync for non Blackberries • Redundancy and High Availability Configuration • Identity Management Software – Self service password • Expanded mail space for users • Integration with ONYEN

7. Resulting SOM E-Mail Architecture

8. Why This Solution? • A/D-Exchange is THE dominant force on the market. • 11 of 17 medical schools on recent survey use Exchange as their primary email. • We are already doing Exchange email for over 1000 users (Dept of Medicine). • Third party vendors all write solutions for A/D. • Best all around solution for portable mail devices. • Full integration between e-mail, calendar, and SharePoint. • SharePoint provides integrated collaboration tools.

9. Platform ServicesWorkspaces, Mgmt, Security, Storage, Topology, Site Model SharePoint Products and TechnologiesMicrosoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Docs/tasks/calendars, blogs, wikis, e-mail integration, project management “lite”, Outlook integration, offline docs/lists Server-based Excel spreadsheets and data visualization, Report Center, BI Web Parts, KPIs/Dashboards Business Intelligence Collaboration Enterprise Portal template, Site Directory, My Sites, social networking, privacy control Rich and Web forms based front-ends, LOB actions, enterprise SSO BusinessForms Portal Content Management Search Integrated document management, records management, and Web content management with policies and workflow Enterprise scalability, contextual relevance, rich people and business data search

10. What Does It Fix? • Full Integration of e-mail, calendaring and collaboration applications • Fully compatible with Hospital e-mail & calendar • Reduction in number user IDs and passwords • Self-service password resets • Scalable handheld e-mail solution • Addition of SharePoint collaboration tools • Advanced file sharing (simultaneous editing, version control) • Wikis & Blogs

11. More Fixes • Improved Security • Encrypted message flow from user to server • Easier to push out security configurations and policies • Ability to “wipe” lost/stolen portable devices • Redundancy for hardware failures and patching • Reduced Load on Help Desk • Fewer passwords = fewer resets • Simpler account creation process • Reduction in parallel technologies providing same service • Single email technology instead of two technologies

12. Pros for Backend Support • Availability of more third party applications • Vendors write applications that work with the dominant product on the market. • Works with IMAP e-mail clients as well as Outlook • Reduction in number of different/parallel technologies supporting mail services • Less complex mail handling architecture • Fewer incoming mail servers • Reduction in separate outgoing smtp servers (Exchange smtp?)

13. Cons for the Users • Change is Stressful! • Migration of mail could be challenging • Possible user ID change to match ONYEN • May need to learn new application (Outlook) • Compatibility with non-Windows users • Much smaller issue than it used to be, but still an issue • Latest version of Exchange has very robust web interface • SharePoint is web focused • Some may have to overcome anti-Microsoft Bias

14. How Does This Affect Macs? • Can still use Entourage (Outlook client) • Can use an IMAP client with Exchange • Outlook and SharePoint web interfaces very robust • Following will NOT be available without IE/Office: • Integration with Office 2007 (direct edit and save) • Mass Upload Tool • IE’s Rich Text Editor

15. Cons for Backend Support • Change is Stressful! • Migration costs • New Hardware/Software • Most e-mail clients must be touched, even those that continue to use IMAP clients • Different skill sets needed for backend support • Some may have to overcome anti-Microsoft Bias • Mono-configuration issues • Compromises of single technology could be devastating.

16. Steps (6 -12 Months Total) User “buy in” Beef up Active Directory structure to Windows 2008 – Alphanumerics hired to help with this. Started May 5th. Design new architecture and determine costs Obtain funding Develop user training and migration plan Purchase Exchange hardware and software Install and configure Exchange servers Implement training and migration plan Purchase SharePoint Hardware and software Install and configure hardware and software Begin SharePoint migration and training

17. Questions/Comments? • Does this benefit you? • Does the impede you? • Good idea? • Bad idea? • Doesn’t matter?