Rutgers University Libraries faculty and staff had a busy summer preparing for the email and calendar migration to Rutgers Connect. The migration took place over three days between August 23 and August 25, 2016, but by the time we reached this milestone, over two months of work by Unit Computing Specialists (UCSs) and Integrated Information Systems (IIS) staff had already been invested into planning the process, preparing for the transition, and learning the new environment.
Here are some of the highlights:
- 261 users responded successfully to the pre-migration questionnaire
- 151 RUL members attended one of seven Information Sessions before the migration
| Please fill out a brief survey by Friday, October 14, and let us know how we did and what you are looking for, in terms of Rutgers Connect training and support, in the future. |
- 277 user accounts, 61 distribution lists, and 59 shared (resource) accounts were migrated
- 146 RUL member participated in 9 hands-on training sessions conducted by Comparex and IIS (and paid for by the Rutgers Office of Information Technology)
- 227 support requests have been completed since August 1
- RUL retirees are also getting help migrating to ScarletMail, but that is a slower process and we respect their schedules
- IIS was successful in arguing for reduced University requirements related to central management of personal mobile devices when accessing Rutgers Connect mail
The migration went relatively smoothly, without any significant data loss, but there were inevitable glitches given the complex nature of the system and the four-way handling of the process: Microsoft as the owner of the platform, Rutgers as the customer (represented by OIT), Comparex as the University’s partner performing the actual migration, and, in RUL’s case, IIS as the local IT support unit, together with our UCS colleagues.
We want to thank everyone for your patience and understanding as we have worked, and still keep working, to make the new tools perform efficiently for all. The Rutgers Connect environment is new to all of us, and there is still a lot to learn. IIS will transform the Rutgers Connect Migration Support website into an ongoing support site in the next couple of weeks. We will also try to prepare advanced training classes in the coming months.
Since the Rutgers Connect/Office 365 platform lives in the Microsoft cloud, several features are difficult or impossible to adjust to our exact requirements. Rutgers is still working with the vendor to make changes, including the ability to set the default Sender address.
All IIS members and UCSs added supporting the migration to their regular responsibilities, and they deserve our thanks. Tracey Meyer has been, and remains, our lead support person, and Kalaivani Anathan coordinated the migration process. We hope we have been able to help you all, and look forward to respond to any future question or support request.
Please fill out a brief survey by Friday, October 14, and let us know how we did and what you are looking for, in terms of Rutgers Connect training and support, in the future.
