Various Issues during Notes to Exchange migration:

Lotus Notes and exchange both are one of the most commonly used email platforms. We can find many organizations migrating from Notes to Exchange. There can be various reasons due to which an organization decides to migrate from existing email platform to a new one. The most common reason for this is specific features available in Exchange that are not present in Lotus Notes.

Common reasons for Notes to Exchange migration:

• As per user experience, most of the users explain Exchange Server as reliable, flexible and cost effective email platform. It provides a bunch of interactive features for easy email collaboration and communication.
• Exchange provides the unified messaging feature which isn’t present in Lotus Notes. In case of Notes the additional functionality needs to be installed separately.
• Exchange provides voicemail to OWA integration functionality. It also supports SATA hard drives. Exchange provides a better look and GUI that also dominates over Notes. Though, Notes provides some new features such as: auto email address completion, vCard support, and mashing up the calendars but still most users found Exchange more impressive.
• As Exchange is best compatible with Windows based operating systems so, Most of the non-technical users find it an easy to use
• Existing Organization is being merged with another organization then there comes a need to create a common email environment. This forces the Lotus notes users to migrate to Exchange in order to bring uniformity.
• Exchange offers various data protection policies for mobile data security. It also let you access mail data, SMS text messages, voice mail, and save IM conversations using a truly universal inbox. Though, it provides only basic mobile experience to users as compared to Notes.

The above described are some common factors leading to Notes to Exchange migration. However, there are other comparative points between Notes and Exchange that forces users/organization to migrate from Notes to Exchange. To know more check out my previous article, “http://recover-email.blogspot.in/2013/07/why-to-migrate-from-lotus-notes-to.html”

Notes to Exchange migration:

Migrating from one platform to another is never an easy task. In the beginning the process seems easier but later on when its actually executed then organizations have to face several issues at various stages. Maintenance of the new platform after migration sometimes also turns a headache for the organization and users. 

So, before migrating from one email platform to another a proper strategic planning must be done and should be implemented with enough technical expertise and knowledge. Some organizations prefer to upgrade their existing notes application instead of migrating to a new platform.

Common Issues occurring during Notes to Exchange migration process:

• Sometimes the organizations decide to migrate from Notes to Exchange but they don’t have an exact idea about Tools, risks, cost and manpower required for the migration process. They simply make an estimate with the help of consultants and other experts to assist and manage the migration process for them. But later on, as the process goes on their estimates proves to be wrong, everything run out of boundaries set before starting the migration process.
• Domino administrator needs to get training about Exchange, its functioning and maintenance. That of course, a huge amount and time needs to be invested.
• It is quite obvious that as you are going to migrate, you will require more hardware and equipments. A truckload of hardware is to be brought. That is one more factor adding to the migration budget.
• End users training will be required for those who have migrated from Notes mail to Outlook. For those users who are not familiar with the working of new client, the learning curve will be more and extra training cost needs to be invested. This would lead to fall in productivity and increase in budget.
• Organizations are going to face several migration issues/risks at various stages of the migration process. Risk mitigation process consumes a lot of resources thus, adversely affecting the productivity. This also increases the pre-decided time span for the migration process to be completed.
• Migrating from the Notes mailboxes to Exchange is the most important step of the whole migration process. An Efficient Notes to Exchange migration tool should be used so that the notes mailboxes can be easily migrated without causing any further issue.  Sometimes some organizations choose to leave the existing notes mailbox data as it is without migrating it to Exchange. And then start with scratch on the new exchange server mailboxes.
• As the administrator and the user continues to use the new email platform. Obviously, they are going to face problems and their queries need a timely resolution. All this leads to an increased need for desktop support.
• With the continuation of the migration process, you would come to know that you are actually investing more than what you have decided prior to the migration process. The result is increased investment, more resource consumption, elapsed time and an ongoing clumsy migration process.
• After the migration is over, testing is required to ensure that all the data has been migrated properly and the newly installed applications and hardware is working properly or not.

If you are thinking to migrate from Notes to Exchange, first go through pros and cons of each, the comparative analysis of applications, the risks and cost involved in migration process etc. The next thing you need to do is to make a strategic plan for migration and then deploy it carefully. If the things are not planned properly, it can lead to disaster.

To know more visit: “How to migrate from Notes to Exchange?”