University of Kentucky

University Adopts Unified Communications to Improve Education, Streamline Operations

The University of Kentucky is a full-service academic and research institution that serves 27,000 students on the Lexington campus and thousands more in remote locations across the state. To help professors and students communicate more seamlessly and to cost-effectively make the university’s resources available to more people across the state, the school’s IT staff is implementing Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007. The integration of presence, instant messaging, and Web-based video conferencing into the school’s core educational, medical, and administrative applications will streamline communications across the learning community, reduce travel costs, and help the IT staff gain control of a mixed communications infrastructure  while reducing support costs.

Situation

We decided that by letting Microsoft do all the development and support work, we wouldn’t have to hire as many people. With Microsoft, we can better predict costs.  Doyle Friskney Chief Technology Officer University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky (UK) is Kentucky’s primary public institution of higher education, offering more than 200 majors and degree programs in 16 academic and professional colleges. The university serves 27,000 students on its Lexington campus and thousands more through its distance learning and healthcare programs. The school’s staff of 14,000 people includes Lexington-based faculty and administrators but also hundreds of agricultural assistance agents, economic development officers, and healthcare professionals in all 120 Kentucky counties.

The university’s IT department is proactive in providing a technology foundation to serve this far-flung constituency of 41,000 people. However, with technology changing so fast and students constantly bringing new technologies into the university mix, the IT staff has been challenged to stay out front while also staying in control.

UK has standardized on a set of core university applications, which includes Blackboard course management software, the Eclipsis electronic medical record system (used by the medical school and hospital), and the SAP enterprise resource planning module for student records management. However, the school lacked a common directory service, which would simplify user authorizations across all these applications, and a common communications platform.

Until recently, the faculty and administrative staff used Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 for e-mail messaging, but students used a different mail system. Administrators used IBM Lotus Sametime for enterprise instant messaging, presence, and Web conferencing, but students and faculty used a mixture of ICQ (an AOL instant messaging program), Microsoft MSN® Messenger, and Google Talk. There was also a small deployment of Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005.

“We had a lot of problems with student e-mail last year, and we were at a crossroads for coming up with a common-directory service,” says Doyle Friskney, Chief Technology Officer for the University of Kentucky. “Staff and students wanted to be able to access core applications more easily, and my staff wanted to be able to maintain user credentials more easily.”

Over a period of 12 months, Friskney’s staff took a number of steps to improve its technology infrastructure:

• Standardized on the Active Directory® service incorporated into the Windows Server® 2003 operating system
• Upgraded Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007, expanded it to the student population, and implemented its unified messaging functionality
• Implemented Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 campuswide
• Installed Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 for Web-based information sharing and collaboration
• Abandoned an open-source development environment in favor of a Microsoft development infrastructure

“We moved to Microsoft across our technology infrastructure chiefly to control costs,” Friskney says. “We decided that by letting Microsoft do all the development and support work, we wouldn’t have to hire as many people. With Microsoft, we can better predict costs.”

With key elements of its infrastructure standardized on Microsoft software, Friskney’s staff then turned its attention to the school’s communications infrastructure. Standardization here would reduce costs, simplify management, and open up new communications possibilities that would enrich teaching and learning. “My staff was supporting about 10 video-conferencing systems and multiple instant-messaging systems,” Friskney says. “It was clear that we needed to establish a standard that would be easier to support, secure, cost-effective, and easy to use,” Friskney says. The IT staff also wanted to extend communications to a variety of portable devices that were proliferating on campus.

We chose Office Communications Server 2007 over IBM and a number of open-source products because of our ability to easily integrate it into our existing applications and our diverse user communities.  Rick Phillips Lead Video Engineer University of Kentucky

At a more strategic level, the University of Kentucky has a goal of becoming a top-20 university in the United States, and “communications are at the very core of everything we do,” says John Tibe, Director of Enterprise Computing and Communications Systems at the University of Kentucky. “We need reliable and affordable communications to help us reach our goals in every department and realized that we wanted to move to a world where everyone was connected in real time by more than e-mail messaging.”

Solution

Because of its commitment to Microsoft software, UK decided to implement Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, the successor to Live Communications Server 2005, which provides presence, multiparty instant messaging, Web-based video conferencing, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). These flexible communications capabilities are accessible from Microsoft Office programs and from third-party line-of-business applications.

“We chose Office Communications Server 2007 over IBM and a number of open-source products because of our ability to easily integrate it into our existing applications and our diverse user communities,” says Rick Phillips, Lead Video Engineer on the IT staff at the University of Kentucky. “It’s familiar to everyone who uses Microsoft Office, and it integrates automatically into Office programs.” Phillips adds that the security features in the Microsoft software family are critical in supporting the United States HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requirements of its medical center.

UK is using the Web-conferencing, presence, and instant-messaging capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007, with Office Communicator 2007 as the client software. The university is still evaluating the Office Communications Server 2007 VoIP capabilities and the Microsoft RoundTable™ conferencing and collaboration device, a Windows®-based video-conferencing phone that captures and broadcasts a 360-degree view of everyone in a meeting room. RoundTable follows the conversation and broadcasts a close-up of the speaker.

“Using Microsoft RoundTable with Web conferencing, departments will be able to host meetings without the sense of distance that normally accompanies video conferencing,” Friskney says. “It usually takes time to build understanding and comfort with traditional video-conferencing systems; the Microsoft solution is very welcoming.”

UK worked with KiZAN Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Louisville, Kentucky, to implement Office Communications Server 2007. “We not only integrated Office Communications Server 2007 with Active Directory and Exchange Server, but we upgraded 41,000 mailboxes to Exchange Server 2007,” Tibe says. “It was a complex implementation.”

UK already had a robust interactive IP-based video network that has now been integrated with Office Communications Server 2007. This campus video infrastructure is comprised of more than 115 Polycom video-conference systems, Cisco video phones, and a series of Codian video bridges and digital VCRs. Client computers on either network can come together by way of the Codian video bridges. This allows Office Communicator 2007 users to access video programming without costly hardware or software, and it employs an interface with which users are already familiar. This familiarity reduces training and deployment expenses and allows the university’s video network to grow at an accelerated rate.

Instead of having to invest in expensive video-conferencing equipment or trek to a special facility, physicians will be able to access continuing education using a PC in their office.  John Tibe Director of Enterprise Computing and Communications Systems University of Kentucky

To date, the university has deployed Office Communications Server 2007 to a pilot group of 130 users, with plans to expand to 1,000 users during the early 2007–2008 school year and ultimately to all 41,000 university users.

Benefits

The University of Kentucky deployment of Office Communications Server 2007 will extend better communications support to its large user community and improve the interaction that underlies effective teaching and learning. With low-cost PC-based video conferencing, the university’s medical staff will be able to extend its expertise and care to more outlying physicians and patients. The school’s large administrative staff will have an easier way to find colleagues and share data for quick discussions and meetings, which will improve productivity and reduce travel costs.

Enhanced Learning

Initially, UK is using Office Communications Server 2007 to add presence and video capability to the Blackboard course management system. Professors use Blackboard to create and post syllabuses, assignments, course materials, and online tests. With the deployment of Office Communications Server 2007, faculty will be able to hold interactive chat sessions with students, and students will be able to see when instructors and other students are online for questions and discussions, using the familiar Blackboard interface.

“Students do a lot of studying between 11:00 P.M. and 2:00 A.M., when the university doesn’t have a lot of traditional support for them,” Friskney says. “They can get at library resources and Blackboard online, and now they’ll be able to reach classmates online using tools that they already know and use.”

Down the road, the university envisions virtual tutoring, using Web-based conferencing and instant messaging, and even virtual classrooms. “We’re exploring the possibility of putting many or all of the university’s classes online,” Friskney adds. “We will be able to display live or recorded lectures and provide remote students with an opportunity to interact with professors and other students from wherever they are. The ability to extend the classroom beyond the boundaries of a building in Lexington will strengthen our academic community. With chat, VoIP, and video services, we’ll be able to create a new learning platform that will allow classroom collaboration at any time with participants anywhere in the community.”

Expanded Medical Services

UK has a Telemedicine Department that provides regular continuing-education broadcasts to physicians across the state. By incorporating Office Communications Server 2007 into its video-conferencing infrastructure, the university will be able to expand the reach of these offerings. “Through Web-based conferencing, any physician in Kentucky can be part of this learning opportunity,” Phillips says. “Instead of having to invest in expensive video-conferencing equipment or trek to a special facility, physicians will be able to access continuing education using a PC in their office.” Additionally, the integration of Live Meeting and instant messaging will greatly expand the opportunity to offer medical education and services to rural communities.

There are no integration steps and no security worries. With Office Communications Server 2007, we’re able to deliver huge new capabilities with a very small learning investment.  Doyle Friskney Chief Technology Officer University of Kentucky

Adds Friskney, “Where would you rather have a cardiologist—in the office treating a patient or driving to a tiny town three hours away? It’s almost impossible to put a savings on ‘windshield time,’ but it boils down to higher productivity for your most valuable resources.”

Also, the UK medical school will be able to offer virtual office hours for its 420 medical students. “These busy students won’t have to make a special trip to the campus to meet with their advisors or do administrative work,” Tibe says. “They can stay in the hospital and focus on their medical training while using video conferencing to take care of routine communications and reports.”

Easier, Less-Expensive Communications

Administratively, the University of Kentucky is similar to a bustling business, with thousands of employees in hundreds of departments working from dozens of locations. The university will use Office Communications Server 2007 to facilitate easier communications for its staff of 14,000 people. Real-time communications and information-rich virtual meetings will streamline operations and improve productivity.

“Our pilot rollout included our help desk, e-mail support, wide-area-network group, telemedicine, and distance-learning groups. The presence, instant messaging, and video features helped reduce time-wasting voice mail and e-mail for all groups,” Phillips says. “Accurate presence information eliminates the time spent waiting for a phone to be answered, the need to leave a voice mail, or the time spent drafting e-mail messages for simple business questions. These routine steps result in countless hours of lost productivity each day across the organization.”

Friskney says, “Our aim in implementing Office Communications Server 2007 is to facilitate improved communications, not to save money. However, when you save time, you also save money. Distance has a cost. With employees scattered across 120 counties, there can be considerable expense associated with a simple meeting. Using Office Communications Server 2007 and RoundTable, we’ll be able to reduce the number of meetings that require travel, and that will translate into savings.

“From a technical standpoint, Office Communications Server 2007 provides in one integrated system what required several products to do previously,” Tibe adds. “By consolidating multiple communications products to one, we get easier use through smooth integration with other Microsoft programs and, ultimately, lower support costs.”

More-Secure Infrastructure

The university already has strong security measures in place and takes full advantage of Microsoft security technologies. Office Communications Server 2007 slides easily into this environment and allows the university to implement the same high security levels across new communications channels, such as instant messaging, video, and VoIP.

“Office Communications Server 2007 uses TLS [Transport Layer Security] as the primary connectivity protocol, and thus all communications are secure,” Phillips says. “This strong security layer helps us maintain HIPAA compliance in our medical environment.”

Also, thanks to the tight integration of Office Communications Server 2007 with the Office Outlook® 2007 messaging and collaboration client, users can easily capture IM logs and phone messages and place them in a secure Outlook folder using a familiar interface.

“That’s the real beauty of implementing a Microsoft infrastructure,” Friskney says. “Every time you add a new capability, you just extend the tools that everyone already knows and uses. There are no integration steps and no security worries. With Office Communications Server 2007, we’re able to deliver huge new capabilities with a very small learning investment.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/

For more information about KiZAN Technologies products and services, call (502) 327-0333 or visit the Web site at:
http://www.kizan.com/

For more information about University of Kentucky products and services, call (859) 257-9000 or visit the Web site at:
http://www.uky.edu/

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Document published October 2007