14 DAY TRIAL // ePals’ services will evolve with the addition of enterprise-grade collaboration tools from Microsoft, after the Redmond company and the world’s largest K–12 learning network inked a strategic technical collaboration agreement focused on Cloud-based education technologies. The new partnership is designed to enhance the ePals communication and collaboration platform with free offerings such as Microsoft Live@edu. In fact, integrating the Live@edu e-mail and calendaring platform into ePal’s services will be the starting point of the duo’s education alliance.
“We are committed to the cloud and evolving Live@edu to meet the emerging needs and high expectations of students and teachers that technology should enable new experiences that advance their successes,” Anthony Salcito, vice president of Worldwide Education at Microsoft, revealed.
The two companies plan to deliver additional features and capabilities to ePals’ SchoolMail and other products in addition to Live@edu. Office Web Apps, the Cloud-based companion of the Office 2010 System, will also make it to the 600,000 educators linked by ePal. Subsequently, the duo also intends to introduce Microsoft Office SharePoint Online features to ePal users. According to statistics provided by the software giant, ePal reaches over 25 million teachers, students and parents in 200 markets worldwide.
“Our investment in the relationship with ePals will enable us to accelerate the impact our platform can have to teaching and learning scenarios. Their expertise in K–12 education combined with Live@edu safety, security, reliability and productivity features are a perfect match for institutions looking to reduce operating costs while expanding collaborative opportunities that are transforming education today,” Salcito added.
Microsoft Live@edu has already been adopted by over 10,000 schools, and is present in institutions from more than 130 countries. Microsoft currently estimates that there are tens of millions of students worldwide using the email and calendaring platform. Office Web Apps is available for free via Windows Live Skydrive, and has also been integrated by Microsoft FUSE into Docs for Facebook. It appears that further expansion of Office Web Apps will involve a marriage with ePal’s services.
“We chose to partner with Microsoft because it is clearly committed to education and Live@edu is a tried and tested reliable solution that complements our market-leading capabilities,” Ed Fish, president of ePals, explained. “While the cornerstone of school-based communication and collaboration systems must be the protection of user identity and data and implementation of sophisticated policy management, it is Web-based collaboration and assessment that can truly transform learning globally. The powerful features and extensible platform delivered by Live@edu enhances ePals’ own platform and leading solutions for the K–12 market.”