Bumpy transition to new Zagmail

Zagmail has officially "gone Google." Last Wednesday, the switch to a new and updated e-mail server gave the old Zagmail the boot. The new Gmail browser will now open whenever a student logs onto their Zagmail account.

"When I heard that Zagmail was now on Gmail, I was excited because I never really liked the setup of Zagmail, and it seemed to be down a lot," junior Ali Short said about her first reaction to the switch.

Why Google? According to the FAQ page from Gonzaga's Information Technology Services, or ITS, Google and a number of other web-based companies offered similar services. However, Google provided additional tools and capabilities with the e-mail accounts. Additionally, student interest was much stronger toward Google than any other e-mail service.

For many students, the switch and change went smoothly. For others, there was confusion. There were only problems with some accounts that were not migrated right away, either because the account was not updated or active, according to Kara Rektor from the IT Help Desk.

"The first reaction was that there were a lot of questions as to why the switch was made," said Rektor.

"I would say that the main issue I had was just trying to get information," Short said. "While the Zagmail login page had said for a while that it was about to ‘go Google,' I had no idea what that meant and I didn't feel like I had much info about what was actually going to happen," Short said.

According to Rektor, the switch overall went smoothly, but came as a big chance and a big surprise to a lot of students. It had been in the morning mail all summer, yet there were still a lot of questions.

Short said that the FAQ page helped, but did not do an efficient enough job upfront about the change of e-mail addresses, while staff and faculty e-mail would remain the same.

"I also had problems setting up the e-mail system so that it would send to my Blackberry, because the information given on that was really vague and difficult to understand," Short said. "I do like the new e-mail system now, I definitely prefer the setup of Gmail and think it is a lot more user-friendly than the old Zagmail," Short said.

There are many new advantages to the new Zagmail, bringing along many of the power, tools, and capacity that Google can offer. With a growing community, Zagmail not only needed more space but extra tools, such as Google docs, calendar, groups, site and tasks.

Zagmail currently allows up to 7.2 GB of storage space, which is more than 25 times the capacity on the old mail system. This will likely increase as additional storage capacity will be added.

The old Zagmail system can still be accessed  until Dec. 30, but until then students may request IT to migrate their old mailbox and folders to the new Google mailbox until the end of October, according to Rektor.

Although most issues have been addressed, some complaints still remain. "When I have to verbally tell people my e-mail address, it was difficult enough getting them to spell ‘Gonzaga' right, and now that it is Zagmail.gonzaga.edu, it is just going to be that much more difficult!" Short said.

"Overall, once people are familiar with the new Zagmail, it will be great," Rektor said.

"Now that I have figured out how the new e-mail works, got it set up on my phone, and called IT to have them migrate my mailbox from the old Zagmail, I think I have adjusted pretty well to the new e-mail system."