14 DAY TRIAL // While announcing that a number of scholastic organizations and institutions worldwide have signed to take advantage of Microsoft Live@edu, the Redmond company applauded the uptake enjoyed by the suite at a global level. The software giant failed to deliver the actual number of users that have turned to Live@edu, but just taking into consideration the latest adopters, users have the potential to number in the millions. The suite, which is offered for free by Microsoft, is designed not only to deliver email functionality, but also as a service with collaborative and communication capabilities.
“Live@edu’s impressive growth trajectory demonstrates that it’s an attractive offering with institutions of higher learning,” explained Anna Kinney, senior product manager for Microsoft Live@edu. “Today’s new enhancements and extension to include faculty and staff members will make Live@edu even more compelling for today’s budget-conscious campuses.”
With the latest wave of enrollments alone, Live@edu could grow its installed base with over 10 million users. This because the Ministry of Education of Peru and Government of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, have pledged to use the service, opening up the way for 4 million students and 150,000 teachers in Peru and 6 million students in Brazil to use Live@edu. Additional institutions that have jumped aboard Live@edu are the Ohio State University (61,000 students), University of New South Wales (44,500 students and 6,000 faculty members); University of Ulster (25,000 students); and the University of Queensland (with over 180,000 accounts already created or planned).
“It’s been an excellent initiative by Microsoft to provide this free service for our students and alumni,” added Nick Tate, director of Information Technology Services at University of Queensland. “Because Live@edu integrates well with our existing systems and harnesses technology people already know, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we’ve been extremely pleased with the results so far.”