The Technology team is moving rapidly to prepare for the Google Apps migration for faculty and staff. As we get ready to kick things off in January, we wanted to let you know when you’ll be migrated and what you can do to prepare.

We have recently posted the full migration schedule on ourproject website. The timeline is broken down into departments and schools. As your migration date approaches, Technology will work with a department or school liaison to coordinate individual migrations based on your availability.

Prior to your migration date, you will receive additional information about what to expect. If you want to get a jumpstart on migration, you can take a few steps to prepare. These include cleaning up old email folders. If you have email from several years stored on your computer, this is a great opportunity to get rid of old emails and files you no longer need. If you have questions about how to do this, please contact us. If you want to know more about the Simmons College email retention policy, please visit theSimmons College Policy Index or contact the College Archivist, Jason Wood.

If you’d like to learn more about Google Apps and how to use it, we recommend checking out the Quick Start Guides on the project site or attending an introductory training. We’re scheduling these sessions now and they’ll be available starting in January. Each session will provide an overview of Google Apps for Education and we’ll be available to answer questions you might have.

A question we’ve been hearing a lot recently is, “What’s happening to Meeting Maker?” To make this transition as smooth as possible, we’re going to keep Meeting Maker running for the time being. Once everyone has been moved to Google Apps (late April), we will set a timeline for shutting it off. One reason for keeping Meeting Maker active is that not all faculty and staff are moving to Google Apps simultaneously. If your department is moving early, you might still need Meeting Maker for appointments set by colleagues in other departments. Additionally, there is no foolproof way to move all meetings from Meeting Maker to Google Apps without potentially losing data. You will need to manually create any recurring appointments in Google Calendar. We estimate that this will take no more than an hour, even for those of you with complex recurring meetings. The Service Desk and migration team are also here to help you with the transition.

We hope you will take time to look at the project site and to familiarize yourself with Google Apps for Education. We’ll make announcements about training and additional resources after the winter break.

As we continue to plan the migration of faculty and staff email and calendaring to Google Apps for Education, we want to keep you up to date on the project. We respect your need for information, so we will be transparent throughout this process as we bring these powerful new tools online for the community.

Right now, Technology is working with the Leadership Team to determine dates for migrating faculty and staff. The migration will be done in phases so we can provide individual assistance and instruction to everyone. Our goal is to begin the migration in January and continue through the Spring semester. We hope to have the full migration schedule available for you in December.

In order to prepare for the migration and to better anticipate issues that might arise, we are currently moving all Technology employees to Google Apps for Education. This pilot period will help us work through technical challenges so we can minimize disruption during the larger migration. During this period, our staff is also completing additional Google Apps training and certification so they can provide expert-level support.

With regard to training and support, we are evaluating options for online and on-site training sessions and preparing a project website that will provide you with the migration schedule, answers to commonly asked questions (for example, what if you have a personal Gmail account?), links to support resources, and more. You can access the site here, and we hope you’ll continue to check back for updates as we move forward.

We will continue to communicate updates frequently via this newsletter, the project site, and individual messages as necessary, and we are always available to answer questions you have.