Issues of Interest

Live@cfa: Email Account For All CFA Volunteers

The Live@CFA Project will provide a CFA sponsored email account for every CFA Volunteer. It will look something like Your.Name@members.cfa.vic.gov.au

Live@CFA provides a simple, practical way to provide advanced online communications and collaboration for all volunteers. Donated by Microsoft, & Value Added by CFA, it is built on the Microsoft Live framework. It provides: hosted email, calendars, online workspaces, mobile alerts, document sharing, instant messaging, blogs, videoconferencing, mobile access and address books, all accessible on Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile devices.

How did it come to be?

VFBV & CFA has been collaboratively exploring providing email access to volunteers for quite some time. (Over 2 years) However after lengthy investigations, cost and hardware requirements to cope with 60,000 accounts - cost was always a major barrier. After Black Saturday, Microsoft approached CFA asking if there was anything they could do to assist CFA and its volunteers. The dust was brushed off the original Webmail project and Live@CFA was born.

Microsoft have donated use of their Live Services for every CFA volunteer. It is identical to the Live@EDU offering that Microsoft provide to Tertiary Education organizations. CFA have been granted the only commercial exception in the world to use the Live@EDU platform, to create its own Live@CFA services, hosted and donated by Microsoft. VFBV along with CFA are highly appreciative of Microsoft's donation and believe the Live@CFA services will be crucial in improving communication amongst volunteers both up, down and across the organization.

In order to Value Add to the services and align them with existing communication platforms, VFBV and CFA have been working closely together. A joint VFBV/CFA Reference Group was created to assist the CFA project team identify issues as they arose and help scope, plan and develop the system. 12 Volunteers from around the state have been reviewing and providing advice and suggestions to the project team along the way. It has been this close collaboration and communication that has allowed the project to move at the high pace needed to try and have the system in place prior to this years Fire Season, and will we believe, provide good user acceptance of the finished result. VFBV would like to congratulate the CFA Project Team from Technology Services on the open and collaborative approach they have taken with this project, and hope the results speak for themselves. It is a great example of the wonderful things that can be achieved when we work hand in hand towards a common goal, and consult and collaborate together.

Good examples of this Value Adding to the Microsoft product are CFA have purchased hardware and software licensing that will allow us to leverage the CFA RMS system which keeps track of members and their associated roles and link them with Dynamic Distribution Lists within the Live platform. This will allow volunteers to receive emails based on their role (Eg: Captain, Group Officer, Secretary etc) without members having to know their actual name or email address. We have also created a Single Sign-On link between members Brigades Online account - so once they are logged in to Brigades OnLine - they have 1 click access to their Email account and Inbox. Resources are also being provided to Online Services in order to assist with End-User support, as well as the design and production of some easy to read user guides and manuals that will shortly be available online.

So What Actually Is It?

• 10 Gigabyte Email Account
• Ability to send 20MB attachments
• Microsoft Outlook Live Access (Identical to Outlook Web Access - "Outlook in a browser")
• Shared calendars, drag and drop messages, and conversation view
• Support for all popular browsers on Windows or Mac (Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari are supported)
• 25Gig "SkyDrive" allowing you to store 25gig of Documents, Photo's and Files
• Uploading content is as easy as dragging and dropping the files from your computer onto the Web
• Shared folders: Working on a project with others? With shared folders, the whole team can upload, download, and collaborate on documents and other files
• Automatically synchronize with your phone using Outlook Live
• Windows Live for Mobile allows push email to Windows Mobile phones and iPhone

Plus much much more.

Why do I need another email account?

As volunteers, we send and get sent a lot of information. It might be meeting notices, agenda's, new SOP's etc. In the past to store and file all these messages and documents, we have had to use our own email accounts and quota's which we have to pay for. Using the new Live@CFA system, you can store and archive all that information without affecting your own personal accounts quota's.

In the past, it has been very difficult to compile a definitive Address Book for all volunteers. Regions all use their own, Groups and Region Council also use their own internal lists as well as the individual ones we all keep. The Live@CFA system will allow lists to be created for many of the different roles - all dynamically. So for example, if you wanted to email all Training Officers in Region 4 for example - you can using just one address.

You will also now have access to Shared Calendars. Imagine being able to see your Region Training calendar and see what course dates conflict with your own personal calendar by overlaying the two.

You will now also have an easy to remember email address that identifies you as a valued CFA volunteer.

What if I don't want to use it

No worries - it's completely opt-in. An account is automatically created for you when your Brigades Online account is created. It will simply sit dormant ready for you to use whenever you want.

Can I forward mail to my own existing account if I want?

Yes! You can set-up your Live@CFA email account to automatically forward all email sent to it to any email address you choose.

Can I receive email from my other email accounts to my Live@CFA account?

Yes! You can add your own accounts to your Live@CFA account so all mail appears in one Inbox.

I already use Outlook can I use it?

Yes! You can simply add your Live@CFA account to your existing Outlook profile and access it just as you always have.

When will it be ready?

The target date is Tuesday 13th October 2009.

Anything I need to do to get it?

Yes, you will need to have a Brigades Online account. If you don't yet have one, speak to your Brigade Captain or Secretary or your Brigades Online Administrator. Very soon, members will be able to activate their own CFA Online account – look for the ‘First Time Users’ activation link on the CFA Online Login page.

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