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Media Relations
Kansas State University
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6415
media@k-state.edu

Information provided by K-State Media Relations, K-State's news service, may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

Source: James Lyall, 785-532-7404, jlyall@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Cheryl May, 785-532-6415, may@k-state.edu

Thursday, August 21, 2008

K-STATE TO INTRODUCE NEW E-MAIL AND CALENDAR SYSTEM

MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University is replacing its university e-mail and calendar systems, Webmail and Oracle K-Calendar, with the Zimbra collaboration suite. The change will be introduced in stages, beginning in January 2009.

"We are excited about K-State's partnership with Zimbra, as it is truly the result of a university-wide effort to address the demand for better e-mail and calendaring services," said K-State Provost M. Duane Nellis. "Zimbra was selected based on significant input from K-State faculty, staff and students."

Zimbra provides integrated e-mail, calendar and roaming file space.

"This system will provide improved functionality, expanded services, and more flexible access for our students, faculty, staff, and allow additional constituent groups, such as alumni, to take advantage of these services," Nellis said.

Lynn Carlin, interim vice provost, said expanded services include larger 6GB e-mail accounts, a single system for e-mail and calendaring, improved remote access to files, support of document sharing, more effective filtering of unsolicited, or spam, e-mail and better synchronization with mobile devices.

James Lyall, associate vice provost for information technology services, said the current enterprise e-mail and calendaring systems are being replaced because they are not meeting the needs of K-State students, faculty, staff, and the broader campus community.

"Zimbra was chosen after an extensive needs analysis was completed in spring 2008 by a committee with broad campus representation, including students, faculty, staff, administration and alumni," Lyall said. "Also, a campus-wide survey collected input from more than 2,400 individuals. This data showed a clear desire from all K-State constituents for an integrated e-mail and calendaring solution. Zimbra was chosen because it will most effectively meet the needs and requests of the campus shown by the needs analysis."

Information Technology Services will be coordinating a collaborative campus-wide effort to implement these new services in phases during the next six to 18 months. A campus steering committee and a campus technical support committee will be formed in the next few weeks to support the transition, Lyall said.