Gmail driving Google Apps adoption at college
By Todd Haselton | Published: August 19, 2007 - 05:17PM CT
Google's plan for world domination includes convincing colleges and universities to adopt its Google Apps Education Edition suite, and it's showing signs of success thanks to the seemingly ubiquitous appreciation of Gmail. As for the productivity apps, Microsoft is still sitting comfortably in the driver's seat, and interest from schools in Google's offering appears only lukewarm.
Five American universities have signed on with Google, and several international schools have hopped on as well. A recurring theme to their decision-making: students like Google's mail service and are asking for it by name.
Such is what we've heard from a handful of schools we contacted to talk about their adoption of Google web-based office suite. Five of the US schools participating in the initiative are the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Clemson University, the University of Texas San Antonio, Kennesaw State University, and Arkansas State University.
Gmail is what they know and want
Ars spoke with Steven Lareau, the IT chair for Clemson's student advisory council. According to Lareau, Clemson previously "had an awful web-based e-mail system" (SquirrelMail). Lareau says that they compared Microsoft's Outlook/Exchange combo with Gmail, and Gmail came out on top.
"We found that 25% of the students were already forwarding their e-mails to Gmail, which was more reliable, offered more storage, and had better accessibility than what existed," he said. While Clemson faculty and staff will stick to using Microsoft Exchange as their groupware solution, Lareau said that students found that Google offered more of what was important to them: an easy-to-use system, loaded with storage, and with supporting web-based apps such as Google Calendar. Lareau also indicated that getting up and running with Google was nearly effortless, saying that a conference call basically set the wheels in motion.
Of course, the adoption of Google Apps doesn't mean that Microsoft Office is necessarily doomed on campus. Clemson is still footing the bill for a licensing deal that allows them to provide students with Microsoft Office at a discounted rate. Lareau said, "We still have a Microsoft Office license. In fact, I got Office 2007 yesterday for $12 from school." Lareau wasn't sure whether Clemson would continue to use Microsoft Office "two to five years down the road," though.
Ars also spoke with Clemson vice president and chief information officer Jim Bottum, who said the "commitment is on Google. It's a win-win way all around for both the University and for Google. It's all about the students and we're excited to offer them something they've been asking for." While the school is implementing the entire Google Apps suite, the real focus is on improving the existing e-mail experience for students.
Best of all, the service costs Clemson nothing, and Lareau believes that Google will eat the costs because "as soon as the students leave school, they'll continue to use Gmail." That is, Google believes that it will retain a high percentage of these users, who will then be more eyeballs for advertising in later years. As long as Gmail is supported by Clemson, which Lareau believes will last at least 3 to 5 years, the students will not see advertisements in their inboxes. After they graduate, the ads will be back.
Some schools still evaluating
At the University of North Carolina Greensboro, however, the situation is a bit different. Although Google named the school as a Google Apps adopter, UNCG is not interesting in anything but Gmail, according to Gloria Thornton, the assistant vice chancellor for client services. "The only offering we're assessing is the Gmail service until December or January," she said, noting that the school hoped to make a decision in that timeframe based on student response.
"There's no word on whether we'll use the word processing applications as well," she said. The real benefit of Google's offering, as Thornton sees it, is in the "larger in boxes, more redundancy, and ease of access off-campus."
UNCG joins several schools that are interested in kicking the tires on integrated Gmail but aren't rushing to find out of Google Apps can supplant Microsoft Office. Mark Hoeting, the director of ITS at Arkansas State University, confirmed to Ars that the University will still maintains its Microsoft Office license, despite also hopping on board with Google Apps. Hoeting also added that Arkansas State still "uses Microsoft Exchange" and that the agreement with Google is only a "one-year commitment on both parts." Noting that "the service is free to institutions and free to students," Hoeting made it clear that Gmail may nevertheless not win out at the school.
Google's Gmail offering is really the driver behind Google Apps adoption in education. One IT administrator at a Boston-area school who did not wish to be named said that Google's productivity suite was considered ill-equipped for campus because it required networking to work with all features, and Google Gears did not solve all of their problems. More important, she said, students are simply not expressing interest in Google Apps. Generally, however, the view is that you can't do better than Gmail for e-mail, she said.
Google also announced that its education initiative is also implemented internationally by Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Trinity College in Dublin, Nihon University in Tokyo, Macquarie University in Sydney, and Universidad Panamericana in Guadalajara. More information can be found on the Google Apps Education Edition web site.
source : arstechnica.com
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