Central TAFE in Western Australia is trialing Microsoft’s Live@Edu with a view to moving up to 15,000 students to the hosted application for e-mail and file storage.
In September 2008, ten WA TAFE colleges issued an expression of interest to providers of hosted e-mail services.
In May 2009, Microsoft’s Live@edu solution was chosen from the public tender process by the WA TAFE Working Committee.
Central TAFE’s managing director, Neil Fernandes, said Live@edu was the solution Central TAFE was looking for to meet the growing needs of students.
“We will be introducing a robust student email offering, that enables connectivity and collaboration right across our campuses,” Fernandes said.
Some 500 students at the college are trialing Live@edu. Previously there were no student e-mail service.
Microsoft is anticipating all ten WA TAFE's will subscribe to Live@edu, potentially giving it 120,000 user accounts.
Recently, Microsoft chalked up a 40,000 e-mail account deal with the University of Queensland.
The Live@edu service will host student email accounts and provide 10GB mailbox capacity and 20MB attachments in addition to calendaring and contact management.