It's Microsoft.
The School of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School chose Microsoft over the other finalist, Google, to replace the crash-prone Webmail system, with a new service to be called "Penn Live," SAS officials will announce today.
The choice comes after a long negotiation process that lasted well past the final Jan. 31 deadline that SAS officials had set for the decision.
Microsoft's service, which will include e-mail, messaging, web-hosting, a calendar and a document-sharing platform, will be available to students sometime this summer.
SAS Vice Dean of Administration and Finance Ramin Sedehi said that while both companies negotiated in good faith, officials chose Microsoft in the end because the package Google offered to universities did not include anything not already available to the public.
"With Microsoft, the institutional product was clearly superior," Sedehi said.
In addition, Sedehi said, Microsoft's desire to build a partnership for development of future technology services was a key factor.
"For now, we are focused on getting the [Penn Live] services up and running for Penn, but we look forward to a deep and collaborative relationship with the IT staff where we can learn from [Penn's] experience with the Windows Live services," Walter Harp, product manager for Windows Live @ edu, said in an e-mail. "We can share ideas for new opportunities for innovative services in the future."
While the main draws of Microsoft's e-mail will be an east-to-use interface, stability and 2 gigabytes of storage, the product will also include many other Microsoft applications.
Penn students will be able to access MSN Messenger for instant messaging; Windows Live Spaces for web publishing, blogging, and photo sharing; and FolderShare, a peer-to-peer file sharing network.
Students with existing Penn e-mail accounts will receive an e-mail about registration for Penn Live, and new students will receive directions for Penn Live after they create a PennKey.
In May, representatives from Microsoft will be coming to campus to meet with students and get feedback on how to implement Penn Live.
The Computing Advisory Board - made up of students from both schools who met regularly through the fall semester to evaluate the project - had recommended Google to IT officials, but College sophomore and board member Natalie Pitcher was still excited about the choice.
"Obviously, Microsoft is way better than Webmail," she said.
While at the moment, preparations are only being made for Wharton and SAS students to use the new service, the contract makes the program easily expandable to Penn's other schools, if they choose to adopt it.
Sedehi also stressed that students will have other options, including mail-forwarding and downloading to a desktop client.
The current Webmail system will also be maintained if students opt not to switch.
