Jeanne Mackey
Notes from 10/11 World Café on selection of U-M online collaboration tools
Pro-Microsoft/Anti-Google
My heart says Google but my
brain says Microsoft.
For email and calendar, it’s a
wash. But for collaboration,
Google isn’t deep enough.
Doesn’t have anything like
Sharepoint.
Departments are used to Office
tools.
Pro-Google/Anti-Google
For voice-over internet, Google
may be better
Google looks better for
integration with cTools—there is
an existing program that
integrates Google with cTools
General comments/concerns
Can we do both?
Students are accustomed to
Google.
Google makes collaboration very
easy, but is it at the level of
sophistication that we need?
Microsoft will work best with
Office products. People are
comfortable with Microsoft.
Concerned about scaleability
with Microsoft.
Are both products free? Will
there be add-on charges for
additional services or down the
line?
Security is a big concern—how
much control will we have over
user security settings?
The medical center decided to
go with Exchange. Have we
missed an opportunity for more
collaboration?
Have the two vendors given us
detailed info about what they
will do when things go wrong?
Disaster planning?
Support: Who can ask for help?
Users or only ITS? Tier 1, Tier 2
system?
Google rolls out new products so
quickly—do they test them
thoroughly enough?
Concerns about where Google
stores their data—all over the
world. What happens when
governments become unstable
or decide to inspect our data?
Will we lose Microsoft Office
suite if we go with Google?
What are other universities and
research institutions using?
Which one offers cross-platform
support (e.g. Linux)?