In the years since Falcons began virtually delivering email on campus, students have had mixed feelings for the Microsoft-based email system touted as simpler, cheaper and more efficient than the older product.
The “cloud-based solution” features a Microsoft email system dubbed Falcon Mail, first introduced to students in 2011.
At the time, outsourcing the University’s email was the preferred choice over completely remodelling the original service, said Matt Haschak, director of Information Technology security and networking at the University.
To provide adequate email storage and space, further offices on campus and the hardware for a new email system would have cost an “astronomical sum,” Haschak said.
The projected price? North of $1 million, he estimated.
Instead, Microsoft offered the University a free email service, which Haschak said allows the billion-dollar company to reach out to University students as future customers. Implementation costs to Falcon Mail, which now has an estimated 60,000 accounts, is just $40,000, he said.
While saving money was part of the equation, an improvement over the older email also helped in the decision to switch to Microsoft, Haschak added.
Falcon Mail features 10 gigabytes of email space, more than 20 times the capacity of the University’s email, he said.
But the service is not without its drawbacks. The email’s strength, being hosted by a large, established technology company, is often it’s central weakness.
There are infrequent outages with the service, preventing students from accessing their inbox. Many times, the issues aren’t on the University’s end but rather occur from Microsoft and extend to all of the company’s clients, Haschak said.
Chad Bechstein, a senior server administrator, works as a coordinator for Falcon Mail and is regularly in contact with Microsoft to troubleshoot and repair email outages and user errors. While Bechstein added that Microsoft is usually quick to solve any server glitches, some students contend the errors are too frequent or prolonged.
“It’s like electricity companies,” Bechstein said. “When the power’s on you expect it to be on … but when it goes out, what’s the first place you call?”
For Brian Kleuter, a senior creative writing major, the free Falcon Mail service ended up costing him a late assignment when it was first introduced.
“I was emailing an essay to a professor and it was due by 5 p.m.,” Kleuter recalled. “I sent it at 4:30 and they didn’t receive it for several hours.”
The transition to Falcon Mail was difficult, Kleuter said, but eventually he and others adapted to it.
While many students initially displayed animosity with the new system, this was predictable because people often struggle with technological changes, Haschak said.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of implementation changes … history keeps repeating itself on these things.,” he said.
Haschak and Bechstein both touted Falcon Mail’s SkyDrive capabilities, a similar service to MyFiles on Blackboard. Microsoft also added three of its Office programs, Word, PowerPoint and Excel to be used within a web browser on Falcon Mail.
These services mean little to students like Kleuter, who said he didn’t know Falcon Mail featured those extra services because the University didn’t advertise them well enough.
The email has its upsides, like increased space and having control of it after graduation, but its server issues and interface remain issues, Kleuter said.
Specifically, the account name including “@falcon.bgsu.edu” is an issue for resumes and employers, he said.
“It does look a little unprofessional,” he said.
Though Falcon Mail has its positives and negatives, Haschak said the value of switching to a “cloud-based” solution remains too good to have passed up.
“The overall value we’re getting with the amount of service … is not something the University could reasonably provide otherwise,” he said. “You’ve got to have that forward thinking.”
