Unified Communications (UC) at the University of Illinois

UC @ Illinois is a major campus-wide technological initiative to replace telephone, email, and calendaring services for faculty and staff. The single biggest change for campus with UC @ Illinois is that voice services are no longer handled (for the most part) by separate phone lines but over the Internet (Voice over IP, or "VoIP"). Your computer serves as your phone.

For faculty and staff, there are two phases to the implementation of UC @ Illinois:

1. Moving from existing email systems to a new email and calendaring system (Microsoft Exchange 2010). This is critical to moving campus to the new phone service.
   We offer a wide array of workshops on using the new email and calendaring system.
2. Moving to Microsoft Lync software, which in a single interface on your computer, unites voice communications (telephony), instant messaging, and audio/video conferencing.
   We offer a number of workshops on using Microsoft Lync for both Windows and Macintosh users.

Graduate Students:

All graduate students (not on appointment) will also be a part of UC @ Illinois. Besides receiving a Microsoft Exchange 2010 account (email and calendaring), graduate students can use Microsoft Lync to communicate with a Lync to Lync account. We offer a number of workshops on using Microsoft Lync with this type of account..