Frequently Asked Questions
About the Initiative
- What is the Microsoft Collaborative Applications Initiative?
- Who is going to pay for these centrally managed services?
- How much will these tools cost my department?
- Why are you offering Microsoft tools?
- Will Macintosh computers be supported?
- I need to renew my Client Access License (CAL) for my Microsoft applications. Will I need an Enterprise CAL to benefit from the MSCA Initiative, or will the Standard CAL be sufficient?
- How can my department get the SharePoint and Exchange services?
About Exchange
- See the FAQ on the UW Exchange site.
About SharePoint
- See the SharePoint community Site.
About the Initiative
What is the Microsoft Collaborative Applications Initiative? In response to customer demand for Microsoft collaboration and personal productivity tools, UW Technology is partnering with departments, colleges, and external vendors to provide an expanded and integrated Microsoft collaborative tools environment. The Microsoft Collaborative Applications Initiative refers to the overall effort to plan, design, and deploy the following collaborative applications to UW faculty and staff.
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Exchange Server supporting Outlook Calendar and Email. Calendar and email functions integrated with popular Microsoft Office applications such as Word and Excel. A familiar graphical user interface helps you learn and use email and calendar features easily. You can use the same set of contacts for both calendaring and email. You can access applications and documents when you are away from your desk by using a Web browser or mobile device. You also get the latest Microsoft security technology and features that support regulatory requirements for document delivery, retention and storage.
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SharePoint. A collaboration and content management tool. With SharePoint you can share documents such as Word files and open them directly from a Web browser. You can create Web content without knowing HTML. SharePoint sites offer content management features such as workflow, version control, and robust search.
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Vista and Office 2007. The latest Windows operating system and productivity tools such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, offered to you through Nebula (UW Technology’s managed desktop service).
Who is going to pay for these centrally managed services? UW Technology is providing funds and resources for the initial design and deployment along with several colleges and departments. The ongoing service will be funded on a fee-based, cost-recovery basis.
How much will these tools cost my department? These collaborative applications will be offered on a fee-based, cost-recovery basis. The fees for Exchange are:
- $8 per user mailbox per month. Mailbox size is 1 Gbyte standard, with 2 Gbytes available on request (mailbox sizes are still under review).
- $3 per resource account per month. Resource accounts are for conference rooms, projectors, and other resources. Resource accounts allow the resources to be scheduled using the Exchange calendar.
These amounts may be refined over the next several months as costs and economies of scale are identified. However, it is expected that the $8 per mailbox per month fee will be in place until at least June of 2009. The fees for other products, such as SharePoint, will be determined as product features and support strategy are developed in partnership with the UW community over the next several months.
These fees apply to non-Nebula subscribers. Nebula fees are published on the Nebula site.
Why are you offering Microsoft tools? Microsoft tools are offered because:
- Faculty, staff, and the central administration want to use Microsoft personal productivity and collaborative applications (Exchange, Outlook, SharePoint, and Office) to improve their ability to share information and collaborate.
- Microsoft Exchange effectively integrates calendaring and email on mobile devices so you always can be in touch.
- Microsoft integrates popular personal productivity software, such as Word, with powerful collaboration tools, such as SharePoint, so that information easily can be created, managed, and shared.
I need to renew my Client Access License (CAL) for my Microsoft applications. Will I need an Enterprise CAL to benefit from the MSCA Initiative, or will the Standard CAL be sufficient? Microsoft Forefront Security component will be part of this deployment. An Enterprise CAL licenses Microsoft Forefront Security, while a Standard CAL does not. However, you can retain a Standard CAL if you order a separate license for Forefront Security. Choosing an Enterprise CAL provides maximum flexibility to take advantage of planned features (such as Excel Services for SharePoint) as they become available through the MSCA Initiative. For more information about the different CALs and the license renewal process, see the UWARE site: https://www.washington.edu/uware/ or uware@u.washington.edu.
Will Macintosh computers be supported? Macintosh users can access their email accounts and calendars from any Web browser by using Outlook Web Access. Microsoft also provides Entourage, an Exchange client for Macintosh computers. SharePoint works with several popular browsers that run on Macs, including Firefox. For details, see Using SharePoint and Exchange From Macintosh and Unix Clients.
How can my department get the SharePoint and Exchange services? Contact the Microsoft Collaborative Applications Team at ms-contact@u.washington.edu.
