WHAT IS THE MOTION?
The original motion “Society Productivity Suite Upgrade” was passed, with no amendments, at the Union’s AGM 2020.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Societies struggle with signing into devices and using G-Suite. All committee members use one account per society; this one account system is due to the limitations of the Union’s G-Suite system, where there is a restriction on the number of users. An alternative, Microsoft Office suite, is more popular and more widely used.
WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?
Due to the single account implementation of G-Suite, Google’s security mechanisms fight against societies. It detects multiple devices and people simultaneously using one account, this can lead to: messaging verification request codes around; auto-signed out of devices; auto-sign out, when two people use the web app; emails being marked as read for everyone, after one member read the email.
Other notable issues are: limited storage; insufficient tracking of changes in documents; account freezing.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
Office 365 and Teams are office apps and services people use every day. Teams is the central hub where all the apps work together, allowing presentations, meeting minutes, communication, plans and more to exist together in an easy to use app.
G-Suite can’t compare to the ease of use and familiarity that Office 365 provides. RGU students use Office 365 at university and at home already, and these are the same tools used by industry professionals. A society with better tools can spend less time managing tasks and more time running events and giving better experiences to students. This will also help new committees as they should easily be able to work with the documents and plans after a hand over.
RGU will need to install Microsoft Teams on PCs across university so you don’t have to use the web or phone app (including RGU MyApps). The Microsoft default storage limit for Teams is 2TB or Unlimited; if RGU has changed it, a reasonable amount should be agreed between the Union and RGU.