Microsoft Exchange Server Leading Choice for Fortune 1000 Companies Migrating From Legacy E-Mail Systems, According to Analyst Study

DALLAS, March 30, 1999 — At the Electronic Messaging Association conference, Microsoft Corp. today announced that Microsoft® Exchange Server, currently the world’s leading messaging and collaboration server, is the leading choice of Fortune 1000 companies migrating from legacy e-mail systems, according to a recently released study by analyst firm
The Radicati Group Inc. Exchange Server 5.5 includes migration and connectivity tools for a broad range of systems. Adding to these tools, Microsoft today announced enhancements to the Microsoft Exchange Connector for Novell GroupWise that will allow complete e-mail, group scheduling and directory integration between Exchange Server and Novell GroupWise.

The company also announced the completion of a worldwide tour that trained more than 200 channel partners, including many Lotus Notes Business Partners, to convert Lotus Notes applications to Exchange Server and the Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client, using the recently released Application Services for Lotus Notes toolkit.

Analyst Reports Confirm Exchange Migration Leadership

The independently funded Radicati Group study, conducted in late 1998, consisted of a survey of Fortune 1000 corporations that had completed migration to a client/server e-mail system within the previous 12 months. The study shows that 62 percent of the organizations surveyed chose Exchange over competitors including Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise, Netscape Messaging Server and Sun Internet Mail Server. The study also found that migrating to Exchange costs less than migrating to competing products. The cost of migration was shown to be approximately $42.62 per user for Exchange, less expensive than that for both Lotus Notes and Sun Internet Mail Server.
“Total cost of ownership is an important element for customers choosing a messaging system,”
said Sara Radicati, president and CEO of The Radicati Group Inc.
“The data we found regarding Exchange’s low TCO helps to explain the success it has had in gaining migrations over the past year.”

New Connectivity Solution Eases Migration From Novell GroupWise to Exchange

Microsoft Exchange Server includes the most comprehensive set of migration and connectivity solutions available today, with support for Lotus cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Mail and Novell GroupWise, as well as Netscape Messaging Services, IBM OfficeVision/VM (PROFS), and SNADS systems such as IBM OfficeVision/MVS, Verimation MEMO and Fischer TAO. Adding to its array of migration tools and services, Microsoft will enhance the Microsoft Exchange Connector for Novell GroupWise, which already enables customers to perform directory synchronization between Exchange and GroupWise.
“Customers have demanded rich interoperability between Exchange and GroupWise,”
said Dave Malcolm, group product manager for Exchange Server at Microsoft.
“These enhancements complete our GroupWise solution, allowing full e-mail, directory synchronization and group scheduling capabilities, including free/busy interchange.”
The enhanced version of the connector is scheduled to be available in the second quarter of 1999.

Worldwide Tour Trains Lotus Notes Developers to Migrate Applications to Exchange

Microsoft recently completed a worldwide education tour that taught over 200 application designers how to convert Lotus Notes and Domino applications to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook using the Application Services for Lotus Notes toolkit. Available free of charge on the Microsoft Web site (connect-time charges may apply), the toolkit enables channel partners and corporate developers to analyze, connect and convert Notes applications to Exchange. More than 200 businesses, including many Lotus Notes business partners, were trained during the tour, which visited 12 cities, including Tokyo, London, Chicago and Sydney, Australia. Exchange Server, Outlook and Microsoft Office provide a powerful platform for workflow, tracking, customer interaction and information-sharing applications.

SEMCOR, a leading Lotus Notes business partner, is developing a wide range of Exchange applications in response to market demand.
“Many companies that are moving to Exchange Server still have Lotus Notes applications that need to be migrated,”
said John Finegan, vice president of information systems and services, SEMCOR.
“This course, and the Application Services for Notes toolkit, are timely as customers are increasingly moving to Exchange from Notes. With the combination of the course and the tools, it’s now easy to analyze, connect to and convert Notes applications to Exchange Server and Outlook.”

Partner Community Focuses on Migration; Compaq Launches New Program

Support from industry partners, solution providers and ISVs for companies migrating from various e-mail platforms is an important element of Microsoft’s Exchange migration and coexistence offerings. Recently, Compaq Computer Corp. launched the first in a series of migration seminars to provide IT managers and business executives with best practices for planning and executing an Exchange migration. In the future, this information will be distributed

to Compaq partners to help them serve their customers. Others providing migration services include Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Computer Corp., Software Spectrum Inc. and Xerox Connect Inc.

More information on migration to Exchange Server can be found in the Exchange Server 5.5 Evaluation and Migration kit, which includes a trial version of Exchange; a comprehensive set of migration tools, white papers and case studies; and a variety of offers from industry partners. The kit is available free of charge (connect-time charges may apply) at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/deploymigrate.htm .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“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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