REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 17, 2006 — As part of its broader strategy to make it easier for Lotus Notes/Domino organizations to move to the Microsoft collaboration platform, Microsoft Corp. today announced a suite of new and updated tools to help organizations analyze their Notes/Domino application environment and move important application data to Microsoft’s collaboration platform. These tools, which will be available for free download, include the Microsoft® Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino, Microsoft Data Migrator 2006 for Lotus Domino, and new Windows® SharePoint® Services Application Templates. In addition, Microsoft announced the immediate availability of updated messaging and calendaring migration and coexistence tools, available now for free download, that include Exchange Connector for Lotus Notes/Domino, Exchange Calendar Connector for Lotus Notes/Domino and Migration Wizard for Lotus Notes/Domino. Microsoft continues to be the collaboration platform of choice with hundreds of companies worldwide, such as Arcelor, First Data Corp. and Wolters Kluwer, making the decision to move in the past six months. Leading industry analyst firm IDC has also identified Microsoft as the market leader in Integrated Collaborative Environments, with a 51 percent share, a 10 percent distance over its nearest competitor based on 2004 revenue.*
“Every year Microsoft invests more than $700 million (U.S.) on the Office system of programs, servers and services to ensure our customers get the most value possible from our integrated collaboration platform. Today we are responding to the strong demand we’re seeing from customers using Lotus Notes/Domino who are planning a transition to this platform,” said Kurt DelBene, corporate vice president of the Office Server Group at Microsoft. “This announcement is a big step in our overall strategy toward helping these customers make the move so they can begin to take advantage of our platform’s benefits.”
New Tools Ease Application and Messaging Transition
Many organizations are looking for assistance in developing and executing on a transition plan for their Lotus Notes/Domino applications. The new and updated Microsoft tools announced today will help customers analyze and address their unique environments. The tools include the following:
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Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino. This tool, available in the first quarter of 2006, will significantly improve the process of analyzing a Notes/Domino application environment and provide a framework for making recommendations to transition those applications to the Microsoft platform.
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Microsoft Data Migrator 2006 for Lotus Domino. This new tool, available in the second quarter of 2006, will allow organizations to migrate data from Lotus Domino template-based applications to Windows SharePoint Services Application Templates.
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Additional Windows SharePoint Services Application Templates. Building on the success of 30 application templates released in August 2005, Microsoft announced three new application templates available today developed for customers using similar Lotus Notes/Domino templates today: Discussion Database, Team Work Site and Document Library.
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Updated Messaging and Coexistence Tools. To assist companies with the transition from Lotus Notes/Domino messaging to Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft is providing enhanced functionality and increased stability for Exchange Calendar Connector for Lotus Notes/Domino, Exchange Connector for Lotus Notes/Domino and Migration Wizard for Lotus Notes/Domino.
Microsoft will continue to deliver new solutions to help these customers make the transition to Microsoft’s collaboration platform. For example, there is a recognized need to provide a way for customers to build and customize workflow-enabled applications on SharePoint Products and Technologies, and Microsoft will be addressing this need in the coming months.
Customers and Partners Choose Microsoft’s Integrated Collaboration Platform
Customers are making the strategic business decision to move to Microsoft’s collaboration platform to increase employee productivity, reduce IT costs and improve business processes. Arcelor, a leading player in the global steel industry, recently decided to standardize its 50,000 European users on the Microsoft collaboration platform with the majority of them moving from Lotus Notes and MEMO. First Data Corp., which employs 32,000 people worldwide, announced this month that it is moving from Lotus Notes/Domino to the Microsoft platform. In the past six months, hundreds of Lotus Notes/Domino customers have begun making the move to Microsoft’s collaboration platform. Some of these customers include Adaptec Inc., BASE nv/sa, BC Biomedical Laboratories, BRFkredit, CompUSA, Endsleigh, FNAC, Sanborns, SGS, Wolters Kluwer and Wonderware.
“After a thorough analysis of our environment, we recognized that we could significantly cut costs and increase productivity for our 18,400 employees by replacing it with Microsoft’s integrated collaboration solution,” said Kevin Taylor, principal architect for Internal Technology Outsourcing at Wolters Kluwer.
In addition, worldwide migration solution providers such as Casahl Technology Inc ., Quest Software Inc. and SourceCode Corp. provide complementary solutions to assist these customers in their move. “Over the past eight months we have seen a definite trend of larger organizations choosing to move from Lotus Notes to the Microsoft collaboration platform,” said David Waugh, vice president, product management, Infrastructure Management Solutions at Quest Software. “Today we are licensing our migration software at a rate averaging 50,000 seats per month, which we see as a strong indicator of the volume of customers moving to Microsoft’s collaboration platform. Customers are looking for a way to quickly and seamlessly move to the Microsoft platform, and Quest is happy to provide solutions that help them meet that need.”
Finally, services providers such as Avanade, Fujitsu Consulting, Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services are providing consulting expertise. “In the last six months, worldwide demand for Avanade’s migration services from Lotus Notes/Domino to the Microsoft collaboration platform has more than doubled, and we expect to see that growth continue,” said Larry LeSueur, vice president of Infrastructure and Security Solutions at Avanade. “To address this customer need, Avanade has invested in developing a Lotus Notes/Domino messaging and application migration solution based on our previous enterprise migration successes, and we are eager to include Microsoft’s new tools in the portfolio.”
More information on these tools and resources can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/interopmigration/collaboration/default.mspx.
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* Source: IDC’s Worldwide Integrated Collaborative Environments 2004 Vendor Shares: Warm Spots Found on the Expanse of ICE, June 2005
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