University Collaboration Suite

UCS provides users with a choice of e-mail and calendaring clients including: the University Collaboration Suite (UCS) web based and desktop clients, Mozilla's Thunderbird, Mail.app, iCal, and a connector for Outlook Connector for Microsoft Outlook. This opportunity to choose, provides users Operating System independence when working with the collaborative suite. The technology the collaborative suite used to provide this service is VMWare's Zimbra Collaboration Server (ZCS).

Beginning in 2008, Penn State conducted a series of initiatives to scope and evaluate options for electronic collaboration. Participants represented 17 non-ITS units and ten ITS units. One of the outcomes from those investigations was the decision to deploy UCS as a centrally provisioned electronic collaboration system for faculty and staff. We are pleased to share that this recommendation was approved and support has been given for UCS to be deployed as a common good, no-fee service.

Interested in Joining UCS?

Penn State departments and campuses are encouraged to work with their designated ITS Consultant to learn more about this service and determine if it is suitable for your unit. Departments and campuses that currently provide their own Microsoft Exchange service will be pleased to see the integrated level of support offered for migration from Microsoft Exchange as well as support for continued use of the Microsoft Outlook client software.

Additionally, if you are interested in obtaining a training account within the UCS environment, prior to your unit migrating, please contact with your ITS Consultant.

What Can Be Migrated?

E-mail

New UCS customers may opt to have their ITS [e]mail.psu.edu IMAP and/or Penn State WebMail account(s) migrated when their UCS account is created. If a user indicates on the migration form that they are a POP mail user, NO e-mail data will be migrated by ITS for the user. POP mail implies that the user will take on the responsibility of migrating their own e-mail data into UCS.

Calendar

If your department uses a calendaring system other than Exchange, and you would like for it to be migrated to UCS, please work with your ITS Consultant.

Contacts

UCS will integrate with our Penn State Enterprise Directory Service for individual lookups as well as groups defined in our directory. Any contacts that are located within your Penn State WebMail account can also be migrated to UCS.

When Will Migration Take Place?

Scheduling

Scheduling will be done on a unit-by-unit basis. Please contact your ITS Consultant for an updated schedule.

Additional Information

Training

ITS Training Services will provide both a general overview as well as hands-on training for UCS. A General overview session is available via ITS Adobe Connect located on the ITS Training Services homepage under recordings. In addition, there will be training materials and train-the-trainer opportunities.

Support

The ITS Service Desk will provide full support for UCS. Additional How-To information will be published in the ITS Knowledge Base.