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The process to replace Webmail has been more of a marathon than 100-meter dash - but Penn officials say it's a race worth running.

Wharton and School of Arts and Sciences officials announced in spring 2006 that the two schools would outsource their e-mail services. But, almost a year later, a decision still has yet to be made.

SAS Vice Dean of Administration and Finance Ramin Sedehi said the drawn-out negotiations, with potential partners now narrowed down to Microsoft and Google, are simply a result of Penn's desire to ensure that it is protected in the long run.

According to Sedehi, the negotiations have lagged because Penn is taking the unusual step of drawing up a formal, specialized contract that will prevent Microsoft or Google from pulling their respective services and leaving Penn students in the lurch.

Sedehi added that whomever Penn comes to an agreement with, he expects the contract to represent a long-term partnership - an attitude that has shown in the negotiations, according to Walter Harp, senior product manager for Windows Live @ edu, the service Microsoft is offering.

"Penn is also holding our program agreement to an exacting standard given that Penn will be indirectly influencing the template that other schools will then have available to them," Harp said.

Google representatives would not comment on the current negotiations.

While Penn is not the first university to outsource its e-mail service - both Microsoft and Google claim hundreds of schools as customers - it may be the first to be so deliberate in its negotiations.

Ball State University has been offering Microsoft's e-mail service to students as an option under an official contract since February 2006, and Ball State's vice president for information technology, O'Neal Smitherman, said negotiations went smoothly.

However, they still maintain their own separate e-mail servers for students, Smitherman said; Penn plans to have outsourced e-mail as the only option for students.

"Each institution has it's own needs, and it's just determining that [the product] fulfills them," Smitherman said.

Arizona State University brought in Google to host e-mail for its 65,000 students in October 2006. Negotiations took three weeks, assistant vice president Kari Barlow said.

However, Arizona State also has yet to phase out its own servers for students and maintains a separate system for faculty and staff.

Additionally, Arizona State has not yet signed a formal contract with Google.

"We're still working on a final contract with them. Right now, we're operating on the current terms of service that you get when you sign up for a domain," Barlow said.

But Sedehi pointed out that Penn doesn't want to take this risk.

"Without a formal contract, you are living everyday without an understanding of what happens next. It's basically up to the vendor to decide what to provide, how to provide it and who to provide it to." Sedehi said. "It's a risk, and a high risk."

However, other universities don't seem to share that fear.

Officials at both San Jose City College, the first institution to implement Google's service, and at Arizona State University said that, while they considered the same worry, they did not deem it compelling.

"Google has a very good reputation, and they do an excellent job of maintaining that," Michael Renzi, director of finance and administration at San Jose City College, said.

Whether Penn's concerns are warranted, Sedehi remains optimistic.

"I really think we'll make all this work," he said, "It's just taking time."

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