Best Practices For Migrating From Lotus Notesto

Best Practices for Migratingfrom Lotus Notes to MicrosoftExchange and SharePointA White Paper Written by Technology Strategy Research, LLCand Sponsored by Quest Software

-Best Practices forMigrating fromLotus Notes toMicrosoft Exchangeand SharePointTable of ContentsAbstract. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Best Practices for Migrating from Notes to Microsoft Solutions . . . . . . . . . . 3Gathering Requirements for Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Project Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Project Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Migrating Mailbox and Calendar Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Migrating Application Content and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Administering the Target Microsoft Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6About Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Abstracttheir strategic investment in Notes. Some executives have apreference for the Microsoft platform because they have usedit successfully in previous jobs and mandate migration to thatplatform, with or without a cost justification. Many executivesrecognize the strategic value in partnering with the emergingmarket leader in communications technology. Other companiesalready have a significant investment in Microsoft software,servers, and infrastructure and want to standardize to theMicrosoft platform. In any case, Notes is often the one partof the IT infrastructure that doesn’t use Microsoft software,making migration from Notes a significant part of IT-relatedstrategy.Many organizations are migrating from IBM Lotus Notes toMicrosoft Exchange and SharePoint because of the rich feature set of the Microsoft solutions, the strategic value of partnering with Microsoft and the high availability of IT stafftrained on Microsoft technology. However, migrations arelong, complex, and expensive projects that must be carefullyplanned and executed. Reliable automated tools from QuestSoftware can play a key role in keeping a migration on-schedule and error-free. And after migration is complete, Quest’smaintenance solutions complement the native Microsofttools to ensure high performance and reliability.The availability of qualified IT staff also plays a role in thedecision to shift from Notes to Microsoft solutions. Becauseof the ubiquity of Microsoft technologies in the enterprise,engineers, administrators and support professionalsexperienced in building and maintaining Microsoft-basedapplications are readily available. Experts in implementingand maintaining Notes are less available, and fewer technicalprofessionals want to make the investment to developthose skills.IntroductionIBM Lotus Notes is one of the most popular enterprisesoftware applications. It was one of the first workgroupapplications—applications that made groups moreproductive by enabling members to easily share documentsand other information online. In the early 1990s, Notes wasalso a popular workgroup e-mail client and server, furtherenhancing communication among workgroup members.Millions of end user licenses of Notes were deployed inenterprises, and for more than a decade, Notes was theengine that drove communication and collaboration in theseorganizations.Finally, migration often provides new capabilities beyondthe existing infrastructure and architecture. For manyorganizations, those capabilities can add to the productivityof the end users, yielding an additional return on the investment in the new platform.One factor contributing to the success of Lotus Notes was thelack of a viable alternative from Microsoft. Microsoft’s growthduring the past two decades is legendary, and todayMicrosoft servers and network infrastructure are commonplace in many organizations. But until recently, Microsoft didnot offer a complete solution that could compete with LotusNotes. Although many organizations migrated their Notesmail to Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft did not provide amature alternative for Notes business applications untilSharePoint 2007 emerged as a fully capable content andapplication portal for organizations of any size. Now organizations that migrated their Notes mail to Exchange years agoare migrating their Notes applications, and others that waitedfor a complete Microsoft solution are migrating both theirNotes mail and applications.Any one of these reasons rarely provides sufficient justification for an organization to abandon its considerable investment in Notes. But considered together, these reasons oftenprovide a justification for migration. Migrating from Notes toMicrosoft solutions is not a project for the faint of heart: for anorganization with thousands of users and applications,migrating could cost into the six figures for licenses, systems,and personnel.Organizations can make back the bulk of their investmentfrom a technology migration by laying a foundation for futuregrowth and opportunity. In the case of a migration fromNotes to corresponding Microsoft technologies, organizationsincrease their return on investment by leveraging existingMicrosoft solutions as well as more fully utilizing Microsoftproducts with complementary features.As various types of communications and media converge,Microsoft is emerging as the vendor with the applications andtools to bring communication together into an integratedwhole. There is less distinction between e-mail, content, andproductivity applications, and an increasing trend towardbringing these disparate forms of content into a singlelocation. Microsoft’s focus on workgroups and productivityhas led it to develop a collection of applications that make itpossible to work across multiple media with relative ease.Now that a full migration from Notes to the Microsoftplatform is possible, many executives today are rethinkingBest Practices for Migrating fromNotes to Microsoft SolutionsDespite the plug-and-play nature of many Microsofttechnologies, migrating from Notes to equivalent Microsofttechnologies requires careful planning and execution.The necessary steps include the following:3

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.and the estimated time required for their completion. Itshould highlight any dependencies between tasks or onexternal events, the resources required, and a timeline.Gathering requirementsProject planningImplementing a pilot projectProject executionTestingGoing livePost-migration administration of the targetMicrosoft environmentIT must also select the Microsoft products that provide thefeatures specified in the requirements. Exchange Server andOutlook are almost always necessary to provide e-mailfunctionality, and in most cases, end users already haveOutlook as a part of a Microsoft Office installation.The Exchange and Outlook combination also provides basiccollaboration features. Many enterprises use shared folders inOutlook to make documents available for workgroups andprojects. However, the usefulness of these shared folders islimited. Although they are organized in a tree structure, theycan be difficult to navigate, making bulk document storageimpractical.Let’s examine some of these steps in further detail.Gathering Requirements for MigrationThe first step in migrating from Notes to Microsoft is todetermine the user requirements for the new environment.Understanding these requirements enables an organizationto determine if the current messaging and collaborationinfrastructure is truly serving its needs. If not, additionalfunctionality can be built into the requirements for thenew platform.The natural alternative is Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.SharePoint provides a mature portal environment that canintegrate content and applications in a single view.SharePoint also provides features for content management,enterprise search, collaboration, and workflow.These requirements direct the efforts of the migration teamby specifying the work to be done and the priorities ofindividual work items. Organizations should prioritize whichNotes features are mission-critical; these should be migratedfirst. Other features can follow later in the process. E-mail isalways a migration priority, but many businesses also rely oncritical applications built in Notes, such as human resourcessystems, financial applications, and document repositories,that may also need to be migrated early in the process. Enduser involvement is critical in making those determinations.Most enterprises find that they need many of the features ofboth Exchange and SharePoint Server. Once this determinationis made, IT must size the servers, select backup systems andsoftware, and analyze maintenance requirements for the levelof users and installations.Finally, the IT staff charged with the migration must ensurethat their skill sets are up to the challenge of the migrationand to administering the Microsoft environment afterthe migration. The importance of this step cannot be underestimated. The IT staff likely has significant experience inNotes administration and application development, and mustensure that it possesses the corresponding skills in the targetMicrosoft technologies.The requirements also provide important checkpoints todetermine if the migration is proceeding according to plan.This is critical in a project that can last well over a year. Andrequirements enable testers to determine whether thecompleted project was successful—that is, whether it fulfillsuser needs.The next step is to conduct a pilot project. Take a smallsample of mailboxes, calendars, content, and applicationsfrom Notes, and test your knowledge and processes bymigrating them to Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint. Thisenables the IT staff to iron out any issues or inconsistencies inthe process. In addition, a pilot project can give the migrationteam and management confidence that the migration can beperformed successfully.Ideally, this opening phase of the migration process engagesall of the stakeholders: the IT migration and administrationteam, application developers where required, business unitrepresentatives, and end users. Business analysts are in thebest position to work with all these groups to identify andflesh out user requirements. Organizations that do not havebusiness analysts on staff may need to turn to outsideconsultants for the appropriate level of skill and objectivity.Project ExecutionProject PlanningExecution of the migration project involves two parts: mailservices and portal/collaboration services. Each part requiresits own planning and migration process. Mail services includee-mail and attachments, personal address books and contactOnce requirements have been defined and approved, IT mustassemble a project plan that defines the tasks required tofulfill the requirements. It should include detailed lists of tasks4