Microsoft Expands Web-Based Services for Its College E-Mail System

Here’s the latest in the battle over student in boxes: Microsoft announced today that it is expanding what it offers as part of its free e-mail service for colleges. The features it is adding resemble some of those included in Google’s Apps for Education service.

Microsoft’s new features, to be released during the second half of 2011, will include expanded document sharing, messaging, and conferencing capabilities, says Cameron Evans, U.S. chief technology officer for Microsoft Education.

Microsoft is also changing the name of its college program from Live@edu to Office 365, a nod to the company’s popular productivity suite.

Colleges that have already outsourced their student e-mail to Microsoft as part of Live@edu will be able to switch to the new service to enable the new features. As with Live@edu, colleges will not be charged to use the service for student accounts. Institutions that want to extend Office 365 services beyond e-mail to professors and staff members will have to pay $120 per person per year to do so.

Google provides its Google Apps software free of charge for professors and staff members, as well as for students.

Microsoft appears to be trailing Google in the race to promote campuswide adoption of their systems. More than than half of the colleges that turn to an outside provider for either service use Google, while more than 40 percent of those colleges use Microsoft products, according to the most recent Campus Computing Survey, released in December.

Mr. Evans says Office 365 will allow students to collaborate more effectively through cloud-based software and will permit students to access material from a greater variety of devices, including mobile phones and tablets.

Mr. Evans says that Microsoft’s software track record, and the fact that many colleges are already using Microsoft applications, such as Word and Excel, which can connect seamlessly with Office 365, are clear advantages over Google’s offerings.

Jeff Keltner, a senior marketing manager at Google, says the connection between Office 365 and Microsoft’s desktop-based Office applications is a drawback, and makes the program less accessible than Google Apps. “We really focus on the Web being the primary point of delivery.”

He says Microsoft’s announcement reinforces Google’s approach. “The move to Office 365 really validates our belief in the cloud model.”

The Campus Computing Survey found a decline in the number of universities converting to or now using cloud-based software like Office 365 or Google Apps.

Kenneth C. Green, who compiles the survey, says that challenges in getting students and faculty on board may have slowed some universities. “There is a large user-education challenge out there,” he says.