Wayne State U Implements Hosted Collaboration Suite

Wayne State University (WSU) in Wayne, MI, has announced the campus-wide implementation of MeritMail, a hosted collaboration tool that includes e-mail, calendaring, address book, document sharing, and integrated instant messaging.

"We were really able to bring the campus greater value and efficiency with calendaring and collaboration across departments," said Daren Hubbard, information technology director for WSU. "We've had a tremendous response from our users. It's been very reliable, and we've received positive feedback from our students, faculty, and staff."

Among the MeritMail features that appealed to WSU were archiving and disaster recovery and protection against spam, malware, and viruses. The school also said it appreciated the ease and convenience of institutional branding, choosing to call its campus system Wayne Connect and immediately adding its own school logo and color palette.

Joseph Sawasky, associate vice president for computing and CIO for the public university, added that an important part of the decision to use a hosted e-mail solution related to security. "By NetSourcing our e-mail system with Merit Network, we are using a trusted provider that will maintain the integrity and privacy of our data, while delivering a full-featured e-mail solution to our users."

Hubbard also pointed out how quickly the MeritMail staff was able to migrate WSU to the new system. "We worked closely with the Merit support staff to seamlessly move over our users. We found Merit to be a very helpful partner for making this happen."

About the Author

Scott Aronowitz is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas. He has covered the technology, advertising, and entertainment sectors for seven years. He can be reached here.

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