The Royal Melbourne Insititute of Technology will switch to Office 365 as part of a wider modernization effort. The University announced said its 11,500 staff switched to over to the software at the end of last year, with 90,000 of its students following in early March.
Over the next year, it plans to encourage even more to switch, one of the major adjustments being from Gmail to Outlook. RMIT has already migrated Those with email addresses ending in ‘.au’, with plans to move ‘.vn’ ones “later in 2019”.
As part of the move, students will also get access to Outlook Calendar and Skype for Business. However, they will retain access to their Google Drive and other applications for convenience.
“Office 365 is one of the world’s most popular software suites, helping organizations all over the world collaborate locally and globally,” said the university.
“After the move, you’ll be able to install the full Office 365 suite for free on your own computer. So whether you’re working online or offline, in Australia or anywhere else, you can get your university email in a way that suits you.”
The Largest Australian Rollout
According to Microsoft, RMIT is also looking to integrate Teams and its Canvas Learning Management System to boost collaboration. The university has committed to a wider Microsoft 365 rollout, improving its security.
“This is an important strategic move for RMIT as it allows them to work more collaboratively, streamline operations and at the same time reduce their support costs and annual licensing costs,” said Steven Miller, Director of Education, Microsoft Australia. “There are also significant security benefits for RMIT through its adoption of Microsoft 365 which helps to rein in the risk of data loss.”
The company says this is its widest Microsoft 365 A5 rollout in the country to date.