Don’t Be the Last Company on Notes

The new year is starting off with a bang – a great new set of Notes customers decided to Exchange and SharePoint.  At this rate, 2011 could be one of our biggest Notes “switcher” years, yet.    With IBM’s annual Lotusphere conference starting next week, it means that Notes customers are evaluating what they can improve with their mail, messaging, and collaboration infrastructure.  And for many Notes customers, it means taking a look at what Microsoft has to offer.

All this week, I will be posting here to the UC Blog stories from some of our customers who have switched from Notes and our Partners who help with the transition.  These are just a few examples from the wave of customers migrating off of Lotus Notes --customers that include Daimler, Qantas, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, NTT DoCoMo, and Godiva Chocolatier.

Back in September in this post, I highlighted a Gartner report on email that I encourage everyone to read, regardless of what email system you use and whether or not you are considering changing your email system.

In another blog post last month, I cited an internal research study which shows “that Exchange market share has never been greater.  In US enterprises with over 500 PC’s, an incredible 73% of organizations use Exchange as their primary email system.  The next closest email platform is at 7%.”  What I didn’t mention at the time was that the 7% market share is Lotus Notes.  Microsoft has migrated 20 million Notes seats over to Microsoft in the last 5 years.  All but 2 companies in the Fortune 30 use Exchange as their primary email system, and one of those companies is IBM.  The question facing many attendees at Lotusphere this week is if they want to be the last organization left running Notes or if 2011 is the year to move to Exchange and SharePoint, the world’s leading email, calendaring and collaboration solutions.

I’ll talk more about our customer and partner stories later this week.  Check back each day this week for a new post.

Julia White

Senior Director, Exchange Product Management