UCLA weighs option to outsource e-mail
By Katrina Oh
July 5, 2009 11:00 p.m.
In light of recent budget cuts, the university is considering a proposal to outsource student e-mails to a third-party provider as a way to reduce costs.
The project, still in its preliminary stage, will be evaluated in the next four months.
Based on the report from the Cost Savings and Efficiencies Task Force, headed by Administrative Vice Chancellor Sam Morabito, using an outside source to provide e-mail services may alleviate administrative costs and increase operational efficiency.
However, Michael Schilling, executive director of Communications Technology Services at UCLA, who created the proposal, said choosing to use an alternative e-mail provider should initially be made independent of costs.
“The decision process of whether we adopt this or not needs to be examined on its own merit, and then you need to overlay the budget piece on top of it,” he said.
Many institutions of higher education have implemented this already, said Jim Davis associate vice chancellor for information technology.
“Within the University of California, UC Davis has done this just this past year,” he said.
UC Davis utilizes Google’s Gmail service to provide e-mail service to students, but no change was made to their e-mail addresses, login IDs or passwords, according to Peter M. Siegel, vice provost for information and educational technology at UC Davis, on the university’s Web site.
By working alongside Google, UC Davis retains much of its same infrastructure while providing an e-mail service with more features. These features are available through Google applications without additional costs, leading to cost avoidance rather than cost savings, said Gaston de Ferrari, project manager for Information and Educational Technology at UC Davis.
“We conducted surveys and the responses we got were overwhelmingly positive,” he added.
According to the BOL Web site, UCLA currently provides its students, faculty, and staff with e-mail addresses as well as a Bruin OnLine accounts.
“We’re going to take the time period from now until September to carefully study which is the most appropriate model for UCLA,” Schilling said.
Afterward, a second committee will be assigned to analyze the benefits and detriments among the different models, he added.
Jim Davis said that although it appears that relegating e-mail service to an outside provider would be a lower-cost option since a third party would be providing the service, the actual cost depends on the type of model that is to be adopted.
“Perhaps we’ll save some funds on facilities, but part of the larger costs has to do with the staff support and help desk, and if those remain on campus, then the savings is not very much,” he said.
Yet there are other issues to be considered regarding this proposal.
Other potential problems include what outside vendors may do with the data they would have access to as a third-party provider or the effect of advertising from the outside party, Davis said.
Although no changes will be made in the immediate future, some students are wary of the proposal.
“My initial reaction is that it doesn’t bother me, but I am cautious and would like to know more,” said Rachel Zweig, a fourth-year geophysics student.
