I think it will make sense if i post it here to get a view from everyone. One of the things i wonder about people making a switch from Lotus to MS
For mail, yes the migration is not so difficult and they can easily move to Exchange. End of the day it's still only email but people still move for a variety for reasons ranging from end user push to pro MS CTO to MS-Exchange. May be for other reasons too; may be mobile experience for email is good and the iPhone support in MS. Am not very sure on Lotus traveler part and iPhone mail integration for Lotus cos i haven't use it. But my experience with Exchange for mail in the desktop is not very good. I have been using Outlook for 3 years now and before that i have used Notes for more than 7 years.
Ok, that is only part of the equation. Then the Notes applications. I believe many customers who are running LND will have lots of Notes client applications starting from simple doc repositories, simple workflow applications, some situational applications, to some complex applications integrated with LOB apps including SAP, CRM etc. In some cases, they may also have web based apps running in Domino but at least in Singapore as far as i know it's very much Notes client apps than Domino web based apps. All of that is possible with just IBM LOTUS NOTES AND DOMINO. Now if a customer chose to make web as platform, with few good domino developers they can consolidate all the client based apps and make the transition to web without too much change in their infra. It will still be IBM LOTUS NOTES AND DOMINO.
Is it the same case when they want to move to MS.
I believe for doc repositories, simple workflow applications there is a equivalent in MOSS and since they also have 40 business applications out-of-the-box more or less customer can make use of all. If the Notes client app is not heavily customized, they can be moved to MOSS world (you still have to port the data to the new application)
Now what about the complex applications and i am sure that long time Notes customers would have at least a handful in every environment. You cannot move them directly (even for the simple doc repositories MS - Transport suite has failed big time, if there are lots of Notes RT fields MS cannot do anything but to rely on Lotus consultants to move to MOSS safely)
In those situations it has to be rewritten as a .NET app ( i believe it is not possible in MOSS). To do that, you need to have many development tools ( .NET Framework, Visual Studio, Infopath, Windows workflow foundation etc) and to support that you need to have a infra starting from AD, IIS, MOSS etc.
When customers are talking about lowering the cost why do they want to rewrite the existing app and finally get the same functionality in a different platform. If they refactor the existing app and use the newer technologies that are in Domino, will that not reduce the overall cost?
Curious to know..Or are there still very compelling reasons to move to Sharepoint?
Hi Jake,
I think it will make sense if i post it here to get a view from everyone. One of the things i wonder about people making a switch from Lotus to MS
For mail, yes the migration is not so difficult and they can easily move to Exchange. End of the day it's still only email but people still move for a variety for reasons ranging from end user push to pro MS CTO to MS-Exchange. May be for other reasons too; may be mobile experience for email is good and the iPhone support in MS. Am not very sure on Lotus traveler part and iPhone mail integration for Lotus cos i haven't use it. But my experience with Exchange for mail in the desktop is not very good. I have been using Outlook for 3 years now and before that i have used Notes for more than 7 years.
Ok, that is only part of the equation. Then the Notes applications. I believe many customers who are running LND will have lots of Notes client applications starting from simple doc repositories, simple workflow applications, some situational applications, to some complex applications integrated with LOB apps including SAP, CRM etc. In some cases, they may also have web based apps running in Domino but at least in Singapore as far as i know it's very much Notes client apps than Domino web based apps. All of that is possible with just IBM LOTUS NOTES AND DOMINO. Now if a customer chose to make web as platform, with few good domino developers they can consolidate all the client based apps and make the transition to web without too much change in their infra. It will still be IBM LOTUS NOTES AND DOMINO.
Is it the same case when they want to move to MS.
I believe for doc repositories, simple workflow applications there is a equivalent in MOSS and since they also have 40 business applications out-of-the-box more or less customer can make use of all. If the Notes client app is not heavily customized, they can be moved to MOSS world (you still have to port the data to the new application)
Now what about the complex applications and i am sure that long time Notes customers would have at least a handful in every environment. You cannot move them directly (even for the simple doc repositories MS - Transport suite has failed big time, if there are lots of Notes RT fields MS cannot do anything but to rely on Lotus consultants to move to MOSS safely)
In those situations it has to be rewritten as a .NET app ( i believe it is not possible in MOSS). To do that, you need to have many development tools ( .NET Framework, Visual Studio, Infopath, Windows workflow foundation etc) and to support that you need to have a infra starting from AD, IIS, MOSS etc.
When customers are talking about lowering the cost why do they want to rewrite the existing app and finally get the same functionality in a different platform. If they refactor the existing app and use the newer technologies that are in Domino, will that not reduce the overall cost?
Curious to know..Or are there still very compelling reasons to move to Sharepoint?