Tag Archives: 201205

Gmail and Google Apps for Education for students are here!

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Just in case you missed all of our announcements and emails and the ads on the T (okay, we didn’t actually put ads on the T), we want you to know that all students have now been migrated to Gmail and Google Apps for Education!

What does this mean? No more Webmail. No more tiny quota. No more searching for ways to share documents and projects with other students.

Other than changing how your email looks and adding functionality, nothing else will change. You’ll still have the same Simmons email address and you’ll still use it to interact with other students and your professors.

What do you need to do now?

• If you haven’t done so, go to gmail.simmons.edu to log in to your email.

• We’re also recommending that all students change their password. You’ll need to do this if you want to check your email on a mobile device or with other email software like Apple Mail or Thunderbird. You can update your password at preferences.simmons.edu.

• Speaking of mobile devices, you can find instructions for setting up your iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry and more by clicking here.

• If you have other question, visit gonegoogle.simmons.edu or contact the Service Desk at 617-521-2222 or servicedesk.simmons.edu.

Remember, we’re here to help you start using this new and exciting service. Contact us with any questions or problems you’re having and we’ll do our best to find a quick and simple solution for you.

Simmons Connection is just around the corner

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In recent months, the Simmons Technology team has been hard at work on a new centralized platform that integrates many of the technology services offered at Simmons. This new product, called Simmons Connection, will be available to everyone at Simmons on June 4th.

We’ve kept the best of what the existing portal (My.Simmons) had to offer and added new services like email and event management. We’re most excited about two brand new features: Planga and Mox. Planga is a new event and group management tool that will make keeping track of your upcoming events easier than ever. Mox is a mobile app that will give you one-touch access to many Simmons Connection features. You can use it to view announcements, search the directory, and quickly navigate to upcoming events on Planga.

We also want you to know that, while email will look different for students, they will still have Simmons email addresses and the changes to email will not affect how students interact with professors or staff members.

While many technology services are already available in this first iteration of Simmons Connection, we do want you to know that it is a living, evolving platform that we will continue to refine and improve by making incremental changes over time. Like many of our projects, the creation and rollout of Simmons Connection has been rooted in a philosophy of continuous changes to functionality and usability based on your feedback. Accordingly, there is a prominent feedback link within Simmons Connection and we hope that you will use it to provide your thoughts and, in turn, help guide the decisions and changes we make.

We will be working this summer to include new features and improve the overall functionality of Simmons Connection. To keep you up to date on new developments, we have created a project website where you can find out more information about Simmons Connection and get access to some of the most common questions about how to use it. You can find it at project-connection.simmons.edu.

Change Management: Improving service, managing risk

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While many exciting changes are occurring right now in Simmons Technology, we also want to give some insight into a less glamorous but very important aspect of what we do. It’s called change management and it’s at the heart of everything that happens behind the scenes.

At its core, change management is a set of practices that determines how we go about making changes to our services and assessing the risks inherent in those changes. Changes can cause big problems if they’re not managed effectively. In 2008, a study by the consulting firm Gartner found that 80% of technology downtime is caused by problems with changes to services.

Conversely, change is inevitable. We know that you want new products and access to the most up-to-date versions of products you already use. This is why we have a process for managing change and creating an environment where downtime is minimized or, when possible, avoided all together.

The first step in managing change is working with our customers (that’s you!) to determine what your needs are and how changes will impact business decisions and your day-to-day work and scholarship. For example, we have been working with faculty, staff, and students while planning and testing Simmons Connection. We need to know that the changes we plan will benefit you and improve service without negatively impacting existing services.

Next, we test changes by implementing them in a development environment. This allows us to discuss and provide feedback on a potential change before deploying it to everyone.

After that, we seek approval for the change, both internally and from customers, and schedule the change to occur during a time when there will be minimal impact (for example, early in the morning or over a weekend).

In the end, all of this planning pays great dividends. On average, we make 50-75 changes per month and we have fewer service interruptions than other comparable institutions.

So, the next time you see a change, whether it’s logging into Simmons Connection for the first time or noticing a new printer in the library, you’ll know that it was the result of a process that seeks to provide the best possible service to you with the fewest interruptions.