As the online revolution continues to shape the world, many schools and companies are adapting their software to efficiently share general information within their organization. Currently, Goshen College relies on programs such as RoundCube e-mail and Oracle Calendar to meet these goals, but these programs are outdated and only provide the most basic information sharing needs.
To remedy this problem, the information technology services department will replace RoundCube and Oracle with Zimbra Collaborative Suite for the next academic year.
Zimbra will consolidate a wide variety of collaboration tools into a single program. E-mail, digital calendars, document sharing and a basic chat program will all be part of Zimbra.
One appealing feature of Zimbra is its ability to work with Moodle and output calendar changes to mobile devices such as iPhones. "I really like that it pulls stuff from Moodle and your schedule automatically," said Isaac Witmer, a senior who is testing the program with several other students.
The move to Zimbra was also influenced by its financial benefits.
The program will cost $6,000 a year, the same amount that I.T.S. currently spends on Oracle alone. Other colleges also report reduced system administration time. "I think it's pretty intuitive," said Michael Sherer, I.T.S. director, "but more importantly, almost every feature you'd expect in a mail or calendar client is there."
Goshen College will complete the transition to Zimbra this summer.
