ATLANTA, Oct. 4, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that a new study, conducted by The Radicati Group Inc., shows that Microsoft® Exchange Server 5.5 is the leading messaging server among Fortune 1,000 companies. These results build upon a similar Radicati study from 1998, in which Exchange Server 5.5 was shown to lead in the Fortune 50. The announcement was made at the fourth annual Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC), the largest ever, which sold out with more than 5,000 attendees and over 100 exhibitors. At the conference, Microsoft is hosting a variety of breakout sessions to help customers learn more about deploying and managing Exchange.
“Shell chose Exchange as its messaging backbone because of the strengths it offers in reliability, scalability and manageability,”
said Richard Pautsch, strategic relationships manager of Shell.
“Since migrating to Exchange, we’ve seen message delivery time decrease and overall reliability of the system increase dramatically, and we’re very pleased with our decision to go with the Exchange platform.”
Recent data published by analyst firm International Data Corp. (IDC) shows Exchange Server to be the fastest-selling enterprise messaging and collaboration server on the market. The product’s global momentum is illustrated by the first-ever addition of international MEC events later this fall in Germany, Singapore and Japan. Responding to customers that are increasingly moving to a single infrastructure for both messaging and business applications, Microsoft today also announced improved tools for migrating Lotus Notes applications to Exchange Server, as well as the availability of Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Exchange 5.5.
Exchange 5.5 Leads in Fortune 1,000 Companies
According to the survey from The Radicati Group Inc., 44 percent of the Fortune 1,000 companies that responded indicated they have standardized on Exchange as their messaging platform of choice, the largest percentage for any product tested. In comparison, both Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise were selected by fewer than 30 percent of companies that responded.
“The study clearly shows that Microsoft Exchange is currently leading the market in terms of penetration within Fortune 1,000 corporations,”
said Sara Radicati, president and CEO of The Radicati Group.
“There is still a great deal of untapped sales potential among the Fortune 1,000, as many companies are still using legacy e-mail systems or have not yet made a decision about standardizing on an e-mail platform.”
Microsoft Announces Exchange Application Converter for Lotus Notes
Extending Exchange Server’s leadership in the areas of migration and coexistence, Microsoft today announced the availability of the Exchange Application Converter for Lotus Notes, a tool that makes it easier for partners and customers to convert Notes applications to Exchange. The Exchange Application Converter for Lotus Notes replaces two former products: the Exchange Application Connector for Lotus Notes version 5.5 and the Exchange Application Conversion Assistant for Lotus Notes version 5.5.
The Exchange Application Converter for Lotus Notes enables customers to analyze and migrate Lotus Notes applications to Exchange Server, enabling businesses to use a single, integrated platform for messaging, collaboration and applications such as workflow, tracking and routing. New features include these:
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New user interface design with wizards for increased ease of use
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Integration with the Windows® Microsoft Management Console, for full integration with other Exchange administrative tools
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Automatic conversion of Notes views and column formulas, for greater time savings in conversions
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Custom controls that increase the number of Notes application elements which can be included in the Exchange version of the application
This tool significantly reduces the cost of migration for organizations switching from Lotus Notes to Exchange Server. The Exchange Application Converter for Lotus Notes will be available soon for free* download from the Microsoft Web site.
Microsoft Announces Service Pack 3 for Exchange 5.5
The Exchange team also recently announced the availability of Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Microsoft Exchange 5.5. Included in SP3 are these new features:
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The Mailbox Manager Service enforces corporate e-mail retention policies. Administrators can configure the mailbox manager to delete messages based on criteria such as message age, message size, folder location and server.
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The Anti-Virus Interface provides an interface for third parties to plug in antivirus software to scan for viruses such as Melissa and Worm.ExploreZip.
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MTA Mixer allows the creation of either algorithmic or configurable mappings between X.400 and SMTP addresses for customers interested in relaying mail between the two networks.
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Microsoft Exchange Connector for Novell GroupWise provides direct transport of mail and calendar data along with directory synchronization between all versions of GroupWise and Exchange 5.5.
SP3 also contains several previously released tools for migration and coexistence. The full package, which is available only by mail order, includes the Outlook® messaging and collaboration client for the Macintosh and Microsoft Outlook 2000. SP3 without the Outlook clients is available for free* download at http://www.microsoft.com/Exchange/downloads/SP3_EngDL.htm .
Microsoft Continues Sales Leadership in Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration
Since it was first launched in 1996, Exchange Server has licensed a total of more than 34 million users, making it the fastest-selling application server in Microsoft history. Customer adoption of Exchange also demonstrates the product’s leadership for enterprise messaging and collaboration: There are currently 30 deployments of Exchange of over 50,000 seats, including 12 deployments of over 100,000 seats and one of over 200,000 seats.
Microsoft Exchange leadership is further apparent from the results of studies from International Data Corp. As announced in August, results from IDC show that for the first two quarters of 1999, Microsoft Exchange outshipped Lotus Notes, with more than
8.1 million new users of the product compared with Lotus Notes’ 7.4 million. As these figures indicate, in just over three years, Exchange Server has become the fastest-selling platform for messaging and collaboration.
“Exchange is an excellent infrastructure on which to build and run high-end, value-added business applications such as workflow and knowledge management,”
said Ross Johnson, director of Strategic Alliances at EDS E.solutions, a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider and global alliance partner.
“Exchange’s support for the extensive array of Microsoft development tools and third-party extensions make it a ‘lock’ for consideration in all systems integration development opportunities.”
EDS is currently completing a project for the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) that includes the deployment of 95 Exchange servers and creation of 33,000 Exchange mailboxes across 78 National Defense sites. Future phases by the DND will expand this operation to 50,000 mailboxes.
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