Los Angeles Community College District Chooses Microsoft Live@edu to Improve Communication for Students and Faculty

REDMOND, Wash., May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced that Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) is rolling out Microsoft Live@edu to provide anytime, anywhere* communication services to its students, faculty and alumni. Live@edu will allow LACCD to provide everyone on campus with easy-to-use cloud communication and collaboration tools while saving administrative and IT staff time. After evaluating both Live@edu and Google Apps for Education, LACCD made the decision to adopt Microsoft Live@edu due to preference for the technology's security features and identity management capabilities, seamless integration with its on premise Exchange solution, and ease of use.

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LACCD is the largest community college district in the United States, serving more than 250,000 students annually at nine colleges spread throughout 36 cities in the greater Los Angeles area. Accounts are being created for more than 2.5 million student records.

"Live@edu aligns with LACCD's strategic vision to modernize and improve our colleges to ensure Los Angeles residents are trained with the skills needed to fill jobs of the 21st century," said Jorge Mata, chief information officer for LACCD. "We needed a solution that would be easy to administer across all our colleges. One of the reasons we chose Microsoft Live@edu over Google Apps for Education is because it provides us with simple and automated management along with the visibility and control we need to apply our policies across our student information systems."

To develop a truly customized solution for LACCD, Live@edu teamed up with SADA Systems to deliver a solution that mitigates the need for manual student email registration while reducing time and expense allocated toward the registration process. Once students register, they will automatically receive an email and collaboration account in real time.

"Our unique partnership with Microsoft enables LACCD's IT personnel to focus on the system's more mission-critical IT goals," said Niv Dolgin, director of IT, SADA Systems. "Streamlining the registration process is not only a win for LACCD IT personnel; it is a win for students and LACCD administrative staff."

Live@edu will allow LACCD to provide students with a single email address even if they are enrolled at multiple colleges. The same goes for faculty who teach at multiple colleges, thereby simplifying communication for both the district and those it serves. Live@edu will also help LACCD eliminate paper processes, such as printing fee receipts that can be emailed instead.

"We are excited to see the largest community college district in the U.S. deploy Live@edu to not only experience the benefits of a cloud-based collaboration service, but to also roll out a technology that will develop its students' skills," said Sig Behrens, general manager of U.S. Education for Microsoft. "LACCD is committed to student employability and recognizes the value to its students of skills gained by using Microsoft technology and that the knowledge will serve them well as they prepare to enter the workforce."

About Microsoft Live@edu
Live@edu is a no-cost hosted platform for student communication and collaboration, providing industry-leading services to the global education market. Email and calendars with a 10GB inbox, 25GB of additional file storage, document sharing, instant messaging, video chat and mobile e-mail are just part of the feature set. Live@edu provides students with the professional tools to prepare them for college or work from day one. Live@edu is accessible through popular Web browsers for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems — and easy to set up, administer and manage. More than 10,000 schools in more than 130 countries have enrolled in Live@edu, serving 22 million people worldwide. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/liveatedu.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.