Sick of Webmail? IT might have the solution.
The IT department sent out requests for proposals this week and hopes to have an executive-level decision on a new email system in August, said Deputy Chief Information Officer Moira Gerety. She said the University’s email system is outdated and not user-friendly.
Gerety said the University uses about 25 different email systems, and that she and her team hope to bring this number down to one.
She said students should have a new email system within a year.
“UNM staff and employees, in particular, were really sort of working around multiple email systems,” she said. “It’s just a pain. They want to be able to bring everybody up, schedule messages and schedule meetings on one email system.”
Gerety is co-chairing a committee with Mike Campbell, the director of PC Systems and Support for UNMH. Gerety said this is a collaborative effort, in which departments from across UNM are giving feedback.
“Main campus will for sure be going to one,” she said. “Whether health sciences joins in on that or goes a separate direction is something that they have said they will decide when they see the responses to the proposal.”
Gerety said the “worst-case-scenario” is that UNM will have two systems, one for Health Sciences and the other for main campus. She also said that some systems dealing with teaching and research would be left alone.
“The purpose is to reduce our ongoing cost structure, increase functionality and have a platform that can better integrate with our other enterprise systems,” she said. “What (students) are used to is more like a Gmail system — where you’ve got chat, mail, video-chat and all kinds of social features built into one product.”
Student Josh Chavez said he is disappointed with Webmail.
“The current system is not user-friendly,” he said. “Everything seems like it’s a code. Everything looks the same, and it’s got that Windows 95 look to it. The first time I used it, it took me 10 minutes to find the send button.”
IT’s budget was recently cut about $2 million, but IT won’t cut jobs, CIO Gil Gonzales told the Daily Lobo on April 19. IT will instead prioritize its budget, he said.
Gerety said that given such steep cuts, a new email system is a wise investment and could save the department operational costs.
“A lot of (the budget cuts) are capital dollars that we use to replenish equipment, so we probably have to slow down replacement of servers,” Gerety said. “So, if normally we would get five years out of a server, we’re going to try and stretch it to six or seven.”
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Gerety said she is confident that the benefit will outweigh the cost in the long run.
“We have 76,000 accounts that we deal with,” she said. “You’ve got to take a phased approach to it.”
