Since the end of November last year December public folders are no longer be an available functionality for staff. If you are still using public folders in Outlook to schedule meetings, for example, we recommend that you switch to alternative solutions.

What are public folders?

Public folders are designed for shared access and provide an easy and effective way to collect, organise, and share information with other people in your work group or organisation. 

Public folders are available in the following Outlook clients:

• Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App) for Exchange 2016 or later

• Supported versions of Outlook for Exchange server.

• Outlook for Mac 2016 and Outlook for Mac for Office 365.

What does this mean for me?

Although public folders were generally used at the university we now have alternatives which fulfil the same function possibly even better. If you are still using the public folders, depending on what you use it for, we would suggest that you enquire with the IT Service Desk regarding an alternative solution.

What are the alternative solutions?

Room or venue bookings can be facilitated by requesting the creation of a Resource Mailbox. For group collaboration, a team within MS Teams would be suitable for that use case as it allows members of the team to collaborate on documents and keep track of communication within the team.

[ARTICLE BY BRADLEY VAN DER VENTER]

Even though Information Technology has been fully operational during lock down, most of our support is done remotely.  Some of our staff are in office on a rotational basis making hardware repairs and receiving deliveries possible.  However, we are still adhering to Covid-regulations and contact with staff are limited to the absolute necessary.

Stellenbosch campus:

• Currently no deliveries are made to clients by IT.
• Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays:   Suppliers deliver equipment to our offices.
• Collection of equipment (new or repair) on Mondays to Fridays between 8:30 and 16:00.
  IMPORTANT:  If you have placed an order and it has been delivered, you will receive an automatic message from our system when the order has been processed, however this does not mean you should come to the offices and pick up your equipment. We will send you an email with a specific date to pick up your order.  (Example of email) 
• Device repairs:  If you have equipment which needs to be attended to, log a request as usual and a technician will contact you where after you will receive an email with a date and instructions on when to bring the equipment to our offices and again when to pick it up.

Tygerberg campus:

• Wednesdays:  Deliveries from Stellenbosch campus to Tygerberg
• Pickup of new orders:  You will be contacted by a technician with a specific time for collection. 
• Device repairs:  The same as Stellenbosch campus

For any enquiries, please log a request on the ICT Partner Portal. Please remember to provide a cell phone number where we can contact you.