GatorNet Project Updates

GatorNet Project Update – Launching Soon!

Launching September 18

The official launch of Green River’s new SharePoint powered intranet, known as GatorNet, is just over a week away! Launching on September 18, the new GatorNet will help propel Green River forward in how we access information, employee resources, and share campus-wide communications. On Friday, September 20, we will be hosting a casual information session to provide an opportunity to learn about GatorNet, ask questions, and provide feedback. Additional information sessions will be scheduled throughout the fall quarter with dates and times to be announced.

Please Note: The new GatorNet site is still currently in beta, with content actively being added and updates being made. You will see changes throughout the next week leading up to the launch.

GatorNet Launch

The new GatorNet will launch on Wednesday, September 18. You will be able to access the new GatorNet the same way you access the current GatorNet: by visiting gatornet.greenriver.edu or clicking on the GatorNet links in the footer on greenriver.edu. On September 18 visiting gatornet.greenriver.edu will redirect you to Office 365, and the new GatorNet website on SharePoint. If you have not recently logged in to your Office 365 account, you will be asked to log in using your Green River email.

Signing into Office 365 and GatorNet

When you visit the new GatorNet for the first time you will be presented with a sign in box. Please sign in using your Green River College email address. If accessing GatorNet from off campus, you may be required to provide your username and password for additional verification. If you have any trouble signing in, please contact the IT Helpdesk for support at ext. 2222.

Archive of the Current GatorNet

You will be able to access an archive of the current GatorNet from a link on our new GatorNet homepage. Be aware, content will no longer be updated on the archived GatorNet after September 18. The archive will be kept online and accessible to all employees during fall quarter to help with the transition to our new platform. At the end of the fall quarter the archive will be taken offline and will no longer be accessible except by IT staff.

We have worked closely with content managers to update and bring content into our new platform and want to ensure nothing is overlooked. Keep in mind migrated content may have changed names or location, and content owners may have decided not to migrate certain pieces of content.

Thank You

The web team would like to extend our thanks to everyone who has provided feedback through our surveys, stakeholders and individuals we have met with, and our content managers for working hard to help prepare content for the new platform. If you have yet to complete the third GatorNet survey, you can do so by visiting the GatorNet project page. The current survey will be closed upon the launch of the new GatorNet, and a new survey created to collect additional feedback.

August 7, 2019 - Update to Current Content Managers

On August 7 the web team contacted content managers of the current GatorNet with information on how they could help prepare content for migration to the new platform. Information from that email can be found below.

Hello, 

You are receiving this email as you were listed by IT as having access to edit content on our current GatorNet. 

Our migration to the new SharePoint powered GatorNet has entered the second major build out and content migration phase. Our goal is to have our new GatorNet complete for opening week next month. 

Leading up to the content migration we had asked that CMs update their content on GatorNet, or prepare content for us in documents on the N drive by August 1. For the next step of content migration to occur IT has disabled the ability for anyone outside of College Relations to edit content on the current GatorNet. This is necessary to help ensure we are aware of any updates to content that may have already been copied over to the new SharePoint GatorNet (a manual process as we are not able to import or sync content). 

If you require any updates to content on the current GatorNet please submit it to us through a College Relations project request and we will update the content for you. 

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. The the other members of the Web Team who can assist with any questions have been CC’ed on this email. 

Thank you again for your help in the transition to our new platform!

July 24, 2019 - Final reminder to content managers: Preparing GatorNet Content

On July 24 the web team sent a reminder to content managers that updated content for the GatorNet project is due on August 1, 2019. Information from that email can be found below.

Reminder of GatorNet Content Migration

This is a friendly follow-up reminder of the GatorNet content deadline next week on Thursday, August 1, 2019. Please reference the information below to learn how you can help us prepare content for our new SharePoint GatorNet system. You can also help us by forwarding this email to anyone in your department who is currently responsible for managing content. 

For those who may have attended our training, do not have a current presence on GatorNet, but are considering one, please use the information below as a general guide on how you can begin preparing your content. You do not immediately have to decide if a GatorNet presence is right for your area. We will be able to create additional sites and pages at any time in the future once the new GatorNet is launched. 

Content Manager Training 

Thank you to everyone who signed up for our GatorNet content manager training sessions! We hope these sessions helped provide further insight in to how content will be managed on our new SharePoint powered GatorNet. Additional documentation is being developed and will be available at any time for anyone who was not able to attend, would like a refresher on managing content, or for new content managers. 

Once Content Managers have been granted access to the new GatorNet we will be hosting an additional hands-on training session. 

As a reminder this training was on managing content on our new internal GatorNet platform. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a content manager for our public website, www.greenriver.edu, please contact College Relations.  

Preparing Your Content for Migration

As before, please use the information below as a guide for how to update your content for the new SharePoint GatorNet. If you have files that are kept on the current GatorNet, or N drive and linked to from GatorNet, please also see the attached document for information on how to prepare files (PDFs, Word documents, etc.) for transfer to our new SharePoint GatorNet. 

• Please make any updates or necessary changes in a Word document
• Each webpage should be its own Word document.
• Please provide the URL for the page’s current location on GatorNet.
• Feel free to structure and rearrange as you’d like, SharePoint offers a much more robust user experience than the current GatorNet, so just because it’s displayed a certain way now doesn’t mean you have to keep it that way.
• If your page(s) are no longer needed, please send us the URL(s) and mark “Archive”. If information already exists and is maintained on the public website this is a good opportunity to archive that information on GatorNet. This will help ensure that information is kept and maintained in a single location moving forward (you will be able to link out to the public website from GatorNet pages).
• Please indicate what add-on features you'd like included on your page (news, documents, calendar, staff profiles, photos) and indicate where on the page you'd like these featured (if you have no preference we'll use our best judgment and you can rearrange, add, change, or remove features at a later date).
• Are there related pages/content that you do no manage that would be appropriate to link to from your webpage?
• Please review and organize documents currently associated with your GatorNet page that you’d like included on the new site. Where possible, please eliminate outdated and unnecessary docs.
  • Consider converting documents that are only text and are not required to be printed into webpages (example: agendas and minutes).
  • Add key metadata information (title, subject, author, keywords) to document so it is searchable within SharePoint
    
    • Guide for Word - To see the full set of instructions select “Word” from the “Which Office program are you using?” drop down box. The Optional Steps for showing Advanced Properties provides information on accessing additional metadata fields under the “Summary” tab of Advanced Properties.
    • Guide for Adobe PDF.

Thank you!

July 8, 2019 - Preparing GatorNet Content

On July 8 the web team sent instructions regarding content migration to content managers. Information from that email can be found below.

GatorNet Content Migration

This is a friendly follow-up reminder of the GatorNet content deadline next week on Thursday, August 1, 2019. Please reference the information below to learn how you can help us prepare content for our new SharePoint GatorNet system. You can also help us by forwarding this email to anyone in your department who is currently responsible for managing content. 

For those who may have attended our training, do not have a current presence on GatorNet, but are considering one, please use the information below as a general guide on how you can begin preparing your content. You do not immediately have to decide if a GatorNet presence is right for your area. We will be able to create additional sites and pages at any time in the future once the new GatorNet is launched. 

Content Manager Training 

During the month of July, we will be hosting three optional training and information sessions intended for current content managers and anyone interested in learning more about what is involved in becoming a content manager in the new GatorNet, which is powered by SharePoint.   

During these sessions, we will review the structure of the new GatorNet. We will also demonstrate how content is managed, how documents and document libraries will be maintained, and provide an opportunity for participants to ask questions. 

We will also host additional training sessions for non-content managers at the start of the Fall Quarter to introduce users to the new features and layout to help ease the transition.

Please click here to register for one of the sessions listed below. We will confirm your registration by adding you to the meeting invitation in Outlook.

• Tuesday, July 9
  1 – 2 p.m., TC 208 
• Wednesday, July 10
  11 a.m. – 12 p.m., TC 208
• Tuesday, July 16
  9 – 10 a.m., TC 206

Preparing Your Content for Migration

As before, please use the information below as a guide for how to update your content for the new SharePoint GatorNet. If you have files that are kept on the current GatorNet, or N drive and linked to from GatorNet, please also see the attached document for information on how to prepare files (PDFs, Word documents, etc.) for transfer to our new SharePoint GatorNet. 

• Please make any updates or necessary changes in a Word document
• Each webpage should be its own Word document.
• Please provide the URL for the page’s current location on GatorNet.
• Feel free to structure and rearrange as you’d like, SharePoint offers a much more robust user experience than the current GatorNet, so just because it’s displayed a certain way now doesn’t mean you have to keep it that way.
• If your page(s) are no longer needed, please send us the URL(s) and mark “Archive”. If information already exists and is maintained on the public website this is a good opportunity to archive that information on GatorNet. This will help ensure that information is kept and maintained in a single location moving forward (you will be able to link out to the public website from GatorNet pages).
• Please indicate what add-on features you'd like included on your page (news, documents, calendar, staff profiles, photos) and indicate where on the page you'd like these featured (if you have no preference we'll use our best judgment and you can rearrange, add, change, or remove features at a later date).
• Are there related pages/content that you do no manage that would be appropriate to link to from your webpage?
• Please review and organize documents currently associated with your GatorNet page that you’d like included on the new site. Where possible, please eliminate outdated and unnecessary docs.
  • Consider converting documents that are only text and are not required to be printed into webpages (example: agendas and minutes).
  • Add key metadata information (title, subject, author, keywords) to document so it is searchable within SharePoint
    
    • Guide for Word - To see the full set of instructions select “Word” from the “Which Office program are you using?” drop down box. The Optional Steps for showing Advanced Properties provides information on accessing additional metadata fields under the “Summary” tab of Advanced Properties.
    • Guide for Adobe PDF.

Thank you once again for your help in making our new GatorNet the go-to resource for all Green River College employees!

May 15, 2019 - GatorNet Beta Launch!

It's here! Welcome to the new GatorNet!

The GRC Web Team is excited to welcome you to the beta of our new GatorNet! The launch of our beta is designed to provide all Green River employees with an opportunity to experience our new SharePoint platform and provide feedback while the project team continues work towards the full launch during the 2019 fall quarter.

During the beta period, the new GatorNet platform will not include all departments, information, documents, or forms accessible through the current GatorNet. This is to allow the Web Team to share current progress and hear feedback from our users. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders and content owners to build and migrate content from our current GatorNet into the new platform in time for the start of the quarter fall quarter.

To ensure we provide the best user experience to all Green River employees, we’d like to hear from you. The Web Team has developed a short survey to collect initial thoughts and feedback, which will help us while we continue to build out the rest of the site. To share your thoughts, please complete our GatorNet Beta Survey.

To learn more about the new GatorNet, including features and process, please visit our latest Communigator article, Welcome to the GatorNet.

Big thanks to the Business Office, Facilities and Human Resources for working with us throughout the beta process. I’d also like to give a shout out the College Relations and Information Technology team members who’ve worked on the GatorNet Redesign project since June 2018.

May 6, 2019 - GatorNet Production Update

The project team is in full production to prepare for the GatorNet beta launch on May 15!

The GatorNet project team (consisting of members from the College Relations and Information Technology departments) is hard at work preparing the new GatorNet for the campus-wide beta launch on May 15!

Last week the team began creating the new GatorNet space which included the creation of the initial site structure and applying our Green River College branding to the created pages.

The team also continued to meet with representatives from the Business Office and Human Resources, who are helping to prepare content for the beta. We would like to thank them, and all of our stakeholders, for all of the hard work and effort they are putting in to help prepare for an exciting launch later this month!

With the initial beta pages created and branding now applied, the team will be continuing the build process which includes creating the navigational elements and page content for the beta.

May 2, 2019 - Beta Announcement

We are excited to share with you that a beta of our brand new GatorNet intranet will be launched later this month on May 15!

Our main goal with the beta launch is to provide a preview of the look and feel of our new platform including page layouts, navigation, and features. Most importantly, this will be an opportunity for you to provide important feedback to the web team through a survey, which will be launched alongside the beta.

What to Expect

It is important to note that unlike the greenriver.edu beta, the beta version of the new GatorNet platform will not initially include all departments and information found on the current GatorNet. At the start, we will be launching with content from some of the most used areas and pages of the current GatorNet, based on data collected through survey results and analytics. We have been working closely with stakeholders and content owners from across all areas of campus and will be building and migrating content over the course of the summer, and fully launching during the fall 2019 quarter.

This approach will allow us to incorporate feedback or suggestions while we test the new platform. During this time, we hope you will help us ensure we are building the go-to resource for all Green River employees. To help facilitate this, we will also be launching a feedback survey to collect any thoughts or suggestions.

Looking Towards the Future

The new GatorNet will be powered by Microsoft SharePoint on the Office 365 platform, which will provide a modern experience and far greater flexibility than our current system. The platform offers a robust feature set, and we are excited to show how those features can empower better communication and collaboration across campus. Thanks to being powered by the cloud, along with regular product updates, we are excited to be moving to a platform that will allow for easier content management and gives us the ability to adapt and grow as needs arise.

Coming Changes to Office 365

As we prepare to launch the beta of our new GatorNet, we will be making a small visual change to our suite of Office 365 products to bring the suite of products more in-line with our organizational branding. This change will be applied to all O365 applications, affecting only the color of the O365 navigation bar when in an O365 application. This is only a minor visual change, and will not affect how the navigation bar functions.

Before:

After:

Sneak Peek

The web team will be presenting a preview of the GatorNet beta during the All Campus Quarterly Meeting on Tuesday, May 14, in the Cascade Room in the Student Affairs building. We look forward to seeing you there for the reveal of our brand new GatorNet!

April 30, 2019 - Update to Content Managers

On April 30 the web team contacted content managers of the current GatorNet with information on how they could help prepare content for migration to the new platform. Information from that email can be found below.

Initially the beta site(s) will not include all pages or content we expect to have on the final site. However, the beta will provide a navigable version of the central homepage, as well as a number of the most frequently visited areas of GatorNet. Our goal with this beta launch is to share the look, feel, preliminary features, and navigation of the site prior to the end of the Spring Quarter, and continue to work on building out pages and adding content during the summer. We will also be launching a survey alongside the beta to collect initial feedback and suggestions for improvement that the Web Team can work on over the summer.

One of our first steps when we began this project was to survey the campus community to learn how they currently use GatorNet, what changes they’d like to see, and how they’d like the new site to be organized.

While the majority of respondents (69%) believe GatorNet is a useful tool, only 35% said they could easily find the information they were looking for, and less than 25% believed the information was either up-to-date or accurate.

As a result, we’re asking all page managers and content owners to review the content on their page(s) to confirm it is current and correct by June 14, 2019 so the Web Team can have the new site ready for the beginning of the Fall 2019 Quarter.

We will be scheduling a time to invite Content Managers to meet with the Web Team so we can answer any questions you might have and go over the steps you can take to help transition to the new GatorNet.

In the meantime you can get started by using the specifications below as a guide for how to update your content so it’s ready to be added to SharePoint:

• Please make any updates or necessary changes in a Word document
  • Each webpage should be its own Word document.
  • Please provide the URL for the page’s current location on GatorNet.
  • Feel free to structure and rearrange as you’d like, SharePoint offers a much more robust user experience than the current GatorNet, so just because it’s displayed a certain way now doesn’t mean you have to keep it that way.
  • If your page(s) are no longer needed, please send us the URL(s) and mark “Archive”. If information already exists and is maintained on the public website this is a good opportunity to archive that information on GatorNet. This will help ensure that information is kept and maintained in a single location moving forward (you will be able to link out to the public website from GatorNet pages).
• Please indicate what add-on features you'd like included on your page (news, documents, calendar, staff profiles, photos) and indicate where on the page you'd like these featured (if you have no preference we'll use our best judgment and you can rearrange, add, change, or remove features at a later date).
• Are there related pages/content that you do no manage that would be appropriate to link to from your webpage?
• Please review and organize documents currently associated with your GatorNet page that you’d like included on the new site. Where possible, please eliminate outdated and unnecessary docs.
  • Consider converting documents that are only text and are not required to be printed into webpages (example: agendas and minutes).
  • Add key metadata information (title, subject, author, keywords) to document so it is searchable within SharePoint
    
    • Guide for Word - To see the full set of instructions select “Word” from the “Which Office program are you using?” drop down box. The Optional Steps for showing Advanced Properties provides information on accessing additional metadata fields under the “Summary” tab of Advanced Properties.
    • Guide for Adobe PDF.

With SharePoint powering our new intranet, page designs and content will be much more fluid, allowing for easier changes and updates. While we will be using what content managers provide to help build out our sites and pages, please keep in mind nothing is set in stone.

Thank you for your assistance. Please let us know if you have any questions, or if you are no longer the correct point of contact.

February 25, 2019 - General Project Update

Over the past few months, the GatorNet team has been hard at work on the redesign project, and we are happy to report on our progress!

Content Management System

The team has concluded evaluating different content management systems (CMS) for powering the new GatorNet. The decision was made to utilize SharePoint, along with supporting Office 365 applications, for the new GatorNet and collaboration tools.

When evaluating different CMS options the team looked at available platform features, security, support, any potential costs, and other important details. A list of most desired features was determined after receiving responses to the second GatorNet user survey, along with what would be required for hosting and maintaining the platform.

After weighing different options, speaking with other colleges, and meeting with Microsoft representatives it was determined SharePoint and Office 365 met the needs for a successful intranet system, and as an added benefit, the platform is available at no extra cost to the college.

Stakeholder Meetings

The team has also been meeting with different departments and representatives on campus with the goal of providing more details about the GatorNet project. During these meetings, we have been learning how a redesigned GatorNet can better help each area provide information to all campus employees, what pain points are being experienced for the current GatorNet system, and any desired features or ways we can improve upon how information is communicated.

To date the team has met with representatives from:

• Business Office
• Campus Safety
• Conference Services
• Exempt Council
• Facilities
• Green River College Foundation
• Human Resources
• Information Technology
• Institutional Effectiveness
• Instructional Support
• INTEC Committee
• President’s Office
• Student Affairs
• Telecom
• Vice President of Instruction

The information gathered during these meetings has helped continue the process of determining how information is organized and communicated on the new GatorNet, and how areas can help prepare for transitioning to the new GatorNet.

If you would like to meet with the GatorNet team, provide feedback, ask questions, or reach out for any reason please use the form at the bottom of the GatorNet Project landing page. Your information will be sent to our Project Managers who will forward it to the rest of the team.

Moving Forward

The team is currently working within a testing environment on feature implementation, determining best practices, and developing the site hierarchy for the redesigned GatorNet.