Microsoft Exchange Offers Greater ROI Compared to Legacy Systems, Announces Availability of New Migration and Coexistence Tools

BOSTON, Sept. 9, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that a new study, conducted by Giga Information Group, demonstrates that Microsoft® Exchange Server provides a significant return on investment over legacy messaging systems such as Lotus cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail. In addition, Microsoft announced the availability of new migration and coexistence tools for Lotus Notes and cc:Mail. These announcements took place at the third annual Microsoft Exchange Conference, which opened today in Boston with more than 4,000 attendees.

Exchange Leads in Providing Customers With Lower Costs and Higher ROI

Giga Information Group released a report today on the total economic impact (TEI) of migrating to Exchange Server from legacy mail environments such as Lotus cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail. Based on a detailed study of 26 large organizations, Giga reported a positive annual benefit of $2,393 per employee after switching to Exchange Server, taking into account direct budgeted costs, indirect costs associated with downtime, end-user peer support and productivity gains.


Customers are clearly benefiting from their investments in the superior messaging infrastructure with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook
™,”
said Rich Tong, vice president of applications product management at Microsoft.
“This study confirms how important reliability is for the messaging infrastructure, and the business benefits of a reliable, cost-effective messaging system.”
The detailed study underwritten by Compaq Computer Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Software Spectrum Inc. is available immediately at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/ and at the Giga Information Group Web site at http://www.gigaweb.com/ .

Microsoft Announces Microsoft Exchange Application Services for Lotus Notes and the Importer for cc:Mail Archives

The Giga study demonstrates the significant economic benefit of migrating to Exchange Server from legacy messaging systems. Broadening the leadership of Exchange Server in the area of migration and coexistence, Microsoft today announced the Web availability of a free suite of tools (connect-time charges may apply) for cc:Mail connectivity and migration and for migration from and coexistence with Lotus Notes. With the addition of these new offerings, organizations now have all the tools necessary to migrate users from cc:mail to Exchange and to move users and applications from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange.

The Application Services Tools for Lotus Notes enable customers to analyze and migrate Lotus Notes applications to Exchange Server; they also include the Microsoft Importer for Lotus Notes Mail. These tools include the following:

  • Application Analyzer for Lotus Notes analyzes an organization’s Notes infrastructure, categorizing the types of applications and indicating applications that are no longer in use. (Released through solution providers only.)

  • Application Connector for Lotus Notes enables Lotus Notes and Exchange applications to work together and is accessible by users on either system.

  • Application Conversion Assistant for Lotus Notes converts all or parts of Notes applications, including electronic forms, views and databases.

  • Microsoft Importer for Lotus Notes Mail moves existing Lotus Notes mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange.

The Microsoft Importer for cc:Mail Archives rounds out the set of cc:Mail migration tools already available with Exchange Server. This tool moves existing cc:Mail archive files to Microsoft Exchange, allowing users to preserve business-critical information stored within their personal e-mail folders. By automating the migration process from cc:Mail to Exchange, the cc:Mail Importer makes migration quicker and less resource-intensive for both IT and users. The Importer for cc:Mail Archives and the tools already available in Exchange Server 5.5 provide the leading solution for organizations migrating from cc:Mail.

These free tools significantly reduce the cost of migration for organizations switching from either cc:Mail or Lotus Notes to Exchange Server. The Application Services Tools, Microsoft Importer for Lotus Notes Mail, and Importer for cc:Mail Archives are available today as free downloads (connect-time charges may apply) from the Microsoft Exchange Download and Trial Center at http://www.backoffice.microsoft.com/downtrial/ .

“Many companies are looking to move from legacy systems as part of their year 2000 planning,”
said Matt Cain, vice president of workgroup computing strategies at the META Group.
“Exchange Server is well-positioned as a client/server messaging platform, with a set of tools for migration and connectivity with other messaging systems. I’ve spoken with many customers who are migrating to Exchange as a way to build a single messaging infrastructure.”

Microsoft Establishes Leadership in Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration

Since last year’s Exchange Conference, the Exchange Server installed base has grown by 200 percent, with more than 16.6 million users currently making Exchange Server and the Outlook 98 messaging and collaboration client their choice for a reliable, scalable messaging system. Customer adoption of Exchange also demonstrates the product’s leadership for enterprise messaging and collaboration: There are currently 14 deployments of Exchange over 50,000 seats, including seven deployments over 100,000 seats. Microsoft Exchange leadership is

also apparent from the results of two recent surveys demonstrating that organizations of all sizes are choosing Exchange Server over Lotus Notes.

As recently announced, preliminary results from a study by the industry newsletter Electronic Mail and Messaging Systems (EMMS) show that for the second quarter running, Microsoft Exchange outshipped Lotus Notes, selling 3.6 million seats to Lotus Notes’ 3.1 million in the second quarter of 1998. In the first quarter of 1998, Microsoft outshipped Notes 3.05 million to 2.7 million seats. In addition, a recent survey from the Radicati Group indicates that Exchange is the leading messaging server among Fortune 50 companies, with 52 percent standardizing on Microsoft Exchange as their messaging platform. In comparison, the study reported Lotus Notes as the standard at only 24 percent of Fortune 50 companies. As these surveys indicate, in less than three years, Exchange Server has become the leading platform for messaging and collaboration.

Further details about Exchange tools and pricing can be found at the new Exchange migration Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/migrate /.

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“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

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