Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

SFU Mail

Home / About the Project

About the Project

SFU Connect, powered by the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) was first implemented in 2009. Last Spring, a project investigating several options for a new email and calendar solution was completed. The project yielded Microsoft Exchange on premise as the product that best suited the needs of the University. The Email and Calendar System Replacement project then began to implement Microsoft Exchange as the new locally hosted email and calendar solution. To read more about the selection process, please see the Investigation Project page.

The transition from SFU Connect to SFU Mail took place on April 28, 2018 for staff, faculty, and sponsored accounts, and on August 18, 2018 for student and retiree accounts. To learn more details about the transition, please see the About the Transition page.

Goals

  • Enable the University to efficiently and effectively transition from SFU Connect to Microsoft Exchange on premise.
  • In doing so, better meet the current and future needs of the University, guided by input from the SFU community.

People

Those who will be impacted will include all members of the SFU Community who currently have active SFU Connect accounts. This includes all current students, staff, faculty members, users of sponsored accounts and retirees.

Process

  •  In the Spring of 2017, Microsoft Exchange on premise was chosen as the solution to replace SFU Connect, based on the investigation project results.
  • Currently, the project team is working on the third of four phases of the replacement project: SFU community transition. To learn more about the project phases, as well as other important information, please see the FAQ section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did the University choose to move to a new email and calendar system?

The current system (SFU Connect), powered by Zimbra Collaboration Suite, was first implemented in 2009. Since then, Zimbra as the product's vendor, has been sold and acquired three times by new parent companies and no longer maintains a visible roadmap for future product releases. The latest version of the product was delayed numerous times which still resulted in poorer product quality than previous releases. The potential risks associated with these symptoms of vendor and product instability strongly support the case for exploring other solutions.

The decision to narrow the focus to a Microsoft email solution included the following factors:

  • Microsoft Outlook is already being used by many members of the University community as their preferred mail client,
  • third party applications and services outside of email and calendar systems are focusing their efforts on integrating only with mainstream email solutions such as Microsoft Exchange, and
  • both Microsoft’s Outlook client and Exchange server are generally regarded as the industry standard solutions.

This solution offers the ability to use a desktop client (e.g., Outlook), in addition to a web client accessible via browser, to access email and calendar data. Click here for more FAQs regarding the Investigation Project.

Would I still be able to use other mail clients aside from Outlook?

Microsoft Exchange will support many of the existing third party mail clients (e.g., Apple Mail, Thunderbird) through protocols including IMAP and POP. If you currently use these clients, you will be able to continue using them after the transition to the new email solution.

What is the timeline for the replacement project?

This project will consist of the following four phases:

Phase 1: Strategy and Establishment of Environments (May - December 2017) 

  • Development of overall strategies for project components including implementation, testing, migration of accounts, training, documentation, support, and the retirement of SFU Connect
  • Preliminary setup of the email system in preparation for end-to-end testing

Phase 2: Testing and Pilot Transition (December 2017 - February 2018)

  • Functional, technical, and user acceptance testing
  • Pilot transition with all of IT Services staff members and select local IT members

Phase 3: SFU Community Transition (April and August 2018)

  • SFU faculty and staff member accounts to be tentatively processed in late April 2018.
  • SFU student and retiree accounts to be tentatively processed in mid August 2018.

Phase 4: Transition to Operations and Retirement of SFU Connect (March 2019)

  • Transition to ongoing maintenance and support
  • Retirement SFU Connect

Will I still be able to access SFU Connect during and after the transition?

SFU Connect will remain accessible to all users throughout and after the transition up until March 2019.

Does the testing process involve members of the SFU Community?

The testing strategy for the SFU community is currently in development. SFU community members will be notified of any updates.

Who can I contact if I would like more information?

Please send your questions and comments regarding this project to email-calendar-feedback@sfu.ca

To report any SFU Connect-related issues or inquiries, please refer to the points of contact here.