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College of Communication switching from Meeting Maker to Austin Exchange Messaging Service (AEMS) for shared calendaring
This memo outlines plans by College of Communication Technology Services to discontinue support for Meeting Maker at the end of this year. We recommend that current users move to the University's Austin Exchange Messaging Service (AEMS) system which offers a much higher level of service. AEMS is the leading collaborative system for business combining email, calendaring, contact information and shared folders. AEMS is managed by the University’s ITS Windows Enterprise Support.
When?
As of December 1, 2006, Meeting Maker will no longer be available for scheduling meetings. After that date, calendars on Meeting Maker will be available with read access for reference purposes only. From that point on, the College will use AEMS for meeting planning.
Why move to AEMS?
Calendar:
- Meeting Maker has been unreliable through the years and is difficult to maintain, particularly when upgrades are necessary. AEMS is a proven enterprise scheduling tool. Meeting Maker uses a proprietary database for storing calendar data. This database has proven unstable at times and can be difficult to back up. After every upgrade of Meeting Maker software this database has to be "fixed" and some meetings are duplicated or deleted as a result.
- AEMS is upgraded by ITS regularly and it rarely has resulted in any noticeable problems.
- AEMS is scalable to the greater University. Many administrative offices on campus use AEMS thus allowing for easier scheduling of meetings with groups or individuals outside the College.
- Meeting Maker upgrades require Tech staff to visit each machine and upgrade it. This inconveniences users and swallows technician time that could be used to solve other issues. AEMS updates, however, can be completed automatically over the network.
- Meeting Maker is expensive. Our cost to run Meeting Maker in house is easily 10 times the cost of individual accounts through UT's AEMS, which is $13 annually.
Email:
- AEMS offers disaster recovery for email saved on the server.
- AEMS offers auto-reply for out of office and vacation notices without the use of filters or computers left running with open email applications.
- UMBS (mail.utexas.edu) addresses can be easily and automatically forwarded to AEMS.
- The future of Eudora is uncertain and its development has not kept pace with advances in technology.
Other:
- AEMS is accessible via the Web through a much cleaner interface than either UMBS or Meeting Maker. http://www.utexas.edu/its/messaging/outlookowa.html
- AEMS offers much easier synchronization with Blackberry and Windows Smartphones/PDAs, Palm OS handhelds such as Treos.
What does this mean for you?
- AEMS users must use either Microsoft Outlook for Windows or Microsoft Entourage for Mac as your email program in order to make use of the calendaring and other collaborative features.
- AEMS users must establish an account with ITS Windows Enterprise Services at a cost of approximately $13 annually per user. Departmental staff should work with Jackie Srnensky regarding how to set up these accounts.
- A new email address will be created for you ending in @austin.utexas.edu. The Dean's Office is standardizing on the following convention: firstname.lastname@austin.utexas.edu. For example, scott.calhoun@austin.utexas.edu
- UMBS mail.utexas.edu addresses can be set to auto-forward to your new address so that your old address continues to work.
- Help Desk staff will ensure that you have either Outlook or Entourage and will assist in migrating email and address books.
- Tech Services staff will train workgroups or individuals on the service, specifically tailored to either Outlook or Entourage.
- Meeting Maker data will not be automatically transferred to AEMS. Invitee lists to meetings and some recurring events will not transfer, therefore Meeting Maker calendars will be made available as read only for reference to help you set your new calendar.
- December 1st is the target date to catch most people before they leave for the holiday break.
- If you do not need calendaring functions, you can choose not to move to AEMS for your email needs and continue to use your mail.utexas.edu or other University supplied account and the email application of your choice. We would encourage you to make the move, however, for many of the reasons listed above.
Tech Services has started this process by moving ourselves and other Dean's Office units to AEMS accounts. By doing so we have been able to test the software and our utilization, receive training, duplicate resources that exist in Meeting Maker including classrooms, conference rooms and departmental work groups, and establish protocols for acquiring accounts. We also have approached some departmental users in a related effort to move users away from Eudora. Since email and calendaring are combined in AEMS, the move helps us improve service on two very critical business applications. Training has been scheduled for three groups: Dean’s Office on Oct. 26th, Career Services on Oct. 27th, and Student Affairs on Nov. 3rd. Help Desk staff will be contacting department work groups to coordinate further installations and training.
We fully understand that this change may not be the most convenient for some. We will do our best to accommodate your needs and make this transition as smooth as possible. If you have any questions or comments about this plan, or if you would like to schedule a preview, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Scott Calhoun
scott.calhoun@austin.utexas.edu
512-475-8667
For more information about UT’s AEMS service, see http://www.utexas.edu/its/messaging
October, 2006
