Boise State to start using Google for e-mail service

On March 24 Boise State students will be receiving new e-mail addresses. Boise State’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) has announced a new e-mail service powered by Google.

The only thing that will change with the e-mail address is the domain portion. For example the current e-mail address format is yourname@mail.boisestate.edu. The new domain for students will be yourname@u.boisestate.edu.

If students have any e-mails sent to their old address after March 24 they will automatically be forwarded to their new address. This will continue until Oct. 27, 2008. Students will also be able to continue to receive e-mails in their old BroncoMail inbox until May 19, 2008.

The cornerstone of the new system is Google’s already popular e-mail service, Gmail.

“That by using something that people are familiar with will cut down on the how do I use this question,” OIT Manager of Customer Support Mark Fitzgerald said. Google’s FAQ system on the service has also helped the university to point questions about the service back to Google themselves.

Another advantage of the new service is Google’s spam protection for Gmail.

“It should cut down on a lot of extra traffic,” Fitzgerald said.

About a year ago Boise State invested money into a program named Barracuda for spam protection. The money invested into this program will not be a lost cause because it will continue to work with the faculty and staff e-mail service.

Fitzgerald said that Barracuda could be used for close to three years, which would still allow Boise State to get its money’s worth from Barracuda.

Boise State’s current e-mail service was coming up for renewal, which led it to look at different options for the future. Google offers a free service for education intuitions around the world as part of their Google Apps for Education service.

Google Apps is a free service, so this has allowed the university to reduce the cost that was already put toward the old BroncoMail service.

Boise State will be saving approximately $32,000 a year by switching to Google. The only money that Boise State has had to put forward as part of the transition is the cost related to preparing the Boise State Website for the new service.

Aside from the primary e-mail feature of the new program, students will have access to many other features. Students will be able to access a calendar feature allowing them to share their calendars with other students. Students will also be able to organize their personal calendar, invite others to meetings and events and keep track of RSVPs. Students will have access to a shared address book, multi-person chat forum on the start page and Gmail slide-show viewer.

Students will also be able to use the Google Talk feature. This is a feature that allows students to make pc-to-pc calls anywhere in the world at no cost.

Google Docs is another key feature that allows students to create and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Students will also be able to allow multiple users to view or edit these documents together, which eliminates the need of multiple documents from different users.

If students have any other questions regarding the new e-mail service, they can follow the link in the main Broncoweb menu.

Students can also visit the FAQs page on gmail.com for information associated directly to the e-mail portion of the new service.

DEREK SELF
BizTech Writer

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