As of today, only slightly more than 50% of campus computers have been upgraded to Microsoft Office 2013. All departments must upgrade to Office 2013 by April 2015. The upgrade is necessary for departments to access forthcoming software from OTS, including Office 365. This new software will bring huge increases in convenience, flexibility, mobility, sharing and the amount of information you can store—documents as well as email.
If your department has not upgraded to Office 2013, have the department head or designee contact OTS Field Support Lead Trevor Kuntz at 410-704–7448 or tkuntz@towson.edu. Learn the difference between Office 2013 and Office 365 here.
Benefits of upgrading to Office 2013:
- Most employees will use Office 2013 and Office downloads as part of Office 365. Sharing and editing documents between students, faculty and staff will go more smoothly and allow the use of all new features that come with Office 365. Get more information about Office 365 features here.
- While moving the campus to Office 365, we will also move to Lync 2013 and OneDrive for Business. There is less of a chance for issues if you keep the rest of Office at the same version.
- Avoid security issues: older versions of software have limited vendor support, which means that over time the software is no longer updated or patched to protect against security threats. A newer version provides support for the latest security technologies.
Upgrade plans and timelines, compatibility and testing information, FAQs, and other resources are available for the Office 2013 upgrade here and Office 365 here.
