Contact: Larry Leibrock 512-471-1650 [email protected]
UT Business School to Test Next Generation of Microsoft Office Software Austin, Texas, December 21, 1998-The Texas Business School today announced that it will begin its testing and staged roll out of Office 2000 beta as part of the Microsoft Office 2000 Rapid Deployment Program (RDP). The Office 2000 RDP will enable Texas Business School faculty, staff, and students to evaluate the beta version of the product and put it through the paces of typical office and educational working environments, reporting issues directly to Microsoft. The Business School is planning a full end-to-end deployment of Office 2000 to its desktops and mobile notebooks used by faculty, staff, and students once testing has been complete and the Office 2000 product is released.
ìThe Office 2000 suite offers increased functionality and a set of very advanced productivity and collaboration tools of potential interest to knowledge workers in networked collaborative environments,î explains Larry Leibrock, Chief Technology Officer for the Business School. ìItÃs fitting that the Texas Business School, with one of the top-ranked information management programs in the country, play a role in the development and testing of this next generation of software for use in the business arena.î
A Business School technical team conducted preliminary testing on Office 2000 to ensure its stability, and has concluded that a limited number of end-users may commence testing. A student SWAT (Students With Advanced Technology) team and the schoolÃs technical team will work to find solutions to any issues that Business School users encounter as they adopt the software.
The Texas Business School has pledged to be a world leader in technology for business and education. ìWe want to infuse our curricula with technology for communication, collaboration, research, and learning,î says Dean Robert G. May. ìWe believe that our role as an early adopter of advanced IT tools is of considerable professional and educational value.î
Vice President and Dean of Graduate Studies, Teresa Sullivan, expressed her support of continued innovation in the Business School. ìThis is yet another example of the value of world class graduate education to the larger community-and especially the high demand for knowledge workers in an increasingly technical, complex and global economy. UT-Austin is committed to producing the best students and the most skilled and competent leaders for the next century.î
The Microsoft Office 2000 Premium version includes Word 2000, Microsoft Excel 2000, the Outlookô 2000 messaging and collaboration client, the PowerPoint 2000 presentation graphics program, PhotoDraw 2000 and Access 2000, as well as the web creation tool FrontPage 2000.
The UT information management program, which has been offered since 1985, is a combination of business and computer courses developed to grow managers who have a thorough understanding of the strategic, operational, and organizational implications of information, as well as the technical infrastructure that makes information processing and communications possible. According to a survey published by Computerworld, the leading weekly newspaper for information technology leaders, UT-AustinÃs ìTechno-MBAî program ranks 2nd in the nation. The newspaper bases its ranking on each programÃs ability to produce information systems leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs, as well as its reputation for IS scholarship, curriculum, faculty and students.
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