Email, Messaging and Collaboration Services

The electronic messaging and collaboration suite is a hosted private cloud service provided by Microsoft. It consists of the Email Service, OneDrive for Business, Office Online, Office ProPlus, SharePoint Online, Teams and Forms.

Email – Exchange Online
Email is the official communication channel for the University. Two email systems, namely PolyU and Connect, are provided to staff and students respectively.

• PolyU Email is an email service for PolyU current staff. In addition to large mailbox quota of 50GB, it also provides features including calendaring, message sharing, and mobile push mail support, etc.

If you are planning to travel out of Hong Kong and will continue using the PolyU O365 apps on MS Cloud (e.g., Outlook email, OneDrive for Business and etc.) for communication or collaborative with colleagues, you are required to enable two-factor authentication with Microsoft Authenticator app (PolyU MFA service) BEFORE you start your journey.

- Staff who are currently using "Global Protect" VPN service to access campus resources should have already downloaded the Microsoft Authenticator app to your registered mobile phone. No further action is required.
- For those who have not used "Global Protect" VPN service before, please refer to the PolyU MFA Service – User Guide to complete the installation of Microsoft Authenticator app and enroll your mobile phone before departure.

• Connect Email provides email service for students, alumni and retired staff and it also serves as a convenient channel for other communication and collaboration.

Microsoft 365 group is a feature available in O365 products e.g., Outlook for users to setup collaboration with other team members.  There are two types of M365 groups, namely public group and private group.

• Public group – everyone in PolyU/Connect will have full access (add, edit, and delete) to all posts and files.  Due to lack of access control and policy to manage post and file activities, public group is not recommended for long term use and important file sharing.
• Private group – only approved members will have access (add, edit, and delete) to all content in the group.  Private group can be used for project and team collaboration.

For details, please refer to the user guide under “Training & Resources” for reference.

Web storage - OneDrive for Business
OneDrive for Business provides online storage which could be accessed via browser, desktop client, and mobile apps.

Online tool - Office Online
Office Online is a web-based version of Microsoft Office productivity suite. It provides web-based versions of MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote which enable users to access their documents using a web browser and an Internet connection but without the needs of installing the software.

Desktop Tool - Office ProPlus
Office ProPlus allows licensed users (Full-time permanent staff and current students) to install the latest version of Microsoft Office on up to 5 desktops (PC/ Mac), tablets and mobile devices.

The license will be revoked once a licensed user is no longer a full-time permanent staff or student.

Collaboration Tool - SharePoint Online
SharePoint Online enables users to create and manage custom-built team-focused and project-focused sites for collaboration. Users can create sites to share documents and information easily with PolyU and external users.

Collaboration Tool – MS Teams
Teams is a collaboration tool provides chat, file sharing, and meeting to assigned team members. It is a collection of people, conversation, files, and tools in one place to make collaboration more effective and efficient. Teams could be accessed via browser, desktop client and mobile apps.

Web Meeting - Teams Meeting
Meeting could be easily created in Outlook with Teams Meeting. Teams Meeting offers multi-parties video conference with file/screen sharing, raise hand, chat, and session recording.

e-form – MS Forms
Forms is a cloud-based form app provides a simple way to create surveys, polls, and quizzes. Collected data could be downloaded in Excel format for further processing.

Video engaging - Stream (on SharePoint)
Stream (on SharePoint) is an intelligent video experience that empowers you to record, upload, discover, share, and manage video just as you would any other file.