Removing Migration Barriers One (Lotus) Note at a Time…

Switching From Lotus Notes to Exchange
and SharePoint Just Got Easier With New Migration Tools and a Free Training
Offer for Notes Professionals

In my
job, I'm privileged to spend a lot time with current and prospective customers.
In the last six months, as I've met with companies switching from Lotus Notes
to Microsoft, I have consistently heard two requests: "How can you make it
easier for me to migrate to Microsoft?" and, "How can I get smarter on
Microsoft's technologies?"

Lotus
Notes professionals are some of the most experienced information technologists
in the world, but more and more they are finding themselves applying their
talents to a shrinking canvas. Every credible independent third party source
and industry analyst validates this trend. In fact, two new pieces of evidence
underscore this:

  • At Indeed.com, a job search site, you can see
    that the percentage of Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint-related job postings
    has skyrocketed, more than doubling in the past four years while the number of
    Lotus Notes and Domino-related job postings declined by nearly half for the
    same time period.
  • Ipsos,
    an independent researcher, found that IBM's e-mail market share in the United
    States has shrunk to less than 10% among businesses with more than 500 people -
    and the picture is not much brighter in the rest of the world. (There is
    a +- 4% margin of error on these figures.)

 

Organizational Share

Exchange Share

Notes Share

2009

2009

Companies with >500 PCs

US

74%

7%

Canada

63%

16%

UK

85%

9%

Germany

64%

27%

Australia

71%

21%

Brazil

44%

19%

Russia

53%

12%

China

45%

30%

             
Data source: World-Wide Email Share Research November 2009, survey of
3442 IT professionals, conducted by Ipsos Research, Microsoft primary
research

So,
in this environment, some Lotus professionals are looking to the future.

Microsoft Skills Builder:
Complimentary Training to First 500 Lotus Notes Professionals

Today,
I'm happy to announce a training offer for Lotus professionals to help them
meet the growing demand for expertise with Microsoft business productivity
technologies. This training offer is available to 500 Lotus professionals at no
cost on a first come, first served basis.  To qualify, Lotus Professionals
can e-mail msb@microsoft.com
with their name and valid e-mail address.  Participants can select from a
menu of Microsoft Office, Exchange, SharePoint and Office Communications Server
training classes to update their skills - at no cost to participants!

Easier Migrations

In an effort to make migration painless and more accessible,
we're working closely with three of the best companies in the business: Binary
Tree, CASAHL Technologies and Quest Software.  These three partners have
migrated over 35 million users from Notes to Microsoft in the last decade, so
their expertise is second to none.  Each of them is announcing new
solutions over the next several days to help customers migrate more easily and
more cost effectively. 

Julia White 

Director, Exchange Product Management