It's Microsoft - but it almost wasn't.
SAS officials revealed yesterday that Google was initially their first choice to replace the crash-prone Webmail server, but the school turned to Microsoft after negotiations stalled in mid-March.
After the Computing Advisory Board, made up of students who met in the fall to test the two companies' services, recommended Google to officials, Penn began talks in November to bring Gmail to campus.
"Our primary objective was to contract with Google, and we worked very hard at it . because the students wanted Google," SAS Vice Dean of Administration and Finance Ramin Sedehi said.
But negotiations with Google ground to a halt over the issue of Google applications' accessibility with Penn accounts.
For some applications, Sedehi said, users would be required to sign up for a separate Google account, giving students no reason to use Penn's Google e-mail over the e-mail the company offers to the public.
Sedehi added that Google easily has the technical capability to fix the problem, and the choice not to do so was indicative of Google not being serious about having a partnership with Penn.
For its part, Google officials said that they did not want to include commercial features like Blogger in their university package because they feel that universities should not have control over those types of personal applications.
"We felt that it was appropriate to keep a separation between the information that administrators would have access to in Google Apps and some of the more consumer applications that students would want to use and control in their personal lives," Rajen Sheth, product manager for Google Apps for Education, wrote in an e-mail.
Microsoft, on the other hand, was extremely easy to work with, according to Sedehi.
"We began and successfully concluded our discussions with Microsoft in less than one month and not only achieved the full suite of services we were looking for, but also obtained the level of partnership that allows for future collaborations," Sedehi wrote in an e-mail.
Indeed, the contrast in the two companies' relationships with Penn may be a result of intrinsic differences in their corporate atmosphere.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft has built its success on establishing relationships with other corporations and institutions, while Google, a relative upstart in the industry, puts a much larger emphasis on working directly with individual consumers.
"We are really focused on the end users," Sheth said. "For us, that's really what we're all about as a company."
And this focus on individuals may also explain why Google has such an ardent following among Penn students.
"It just doesn't make sense to me," said College sophomore Ryan Benjamin about why Microsoft was chosen. "If you look around and see people checking their mail, they're all on Gmail."
Benjamin, who has used Gmail now for two and a half years, says that, while he hasn't seen the new Microsoft product, it would be hard for him to make the switch.
"I don't see the [rationality]. I mean, who cares" if the institutional product isn't better than the individual ones, he said.
Ultimately, Penn's choice of Microsoft to replace Webmail may not make a difference.
Google fans will likely continue to forward their e-mail to Google accounts, and other students will enjoy a major upgrade from the current Webmail system.
"We are committed to providing our students with options," Sedehi said.
