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It can cost up to $1,000 per user to move from Notes to Exchange

Darren Duke  November 19 2008 08:56:47 AM
In a ZDNet story about Microsoft's new online options it is mentioned that it can cost an organization up to $1,000 to move a user to "move away from Notes". Now, presumably this is to an in-house Exchange server. Again this is per user.

As Ed Brill points out, it is noteworthy that MS have stopped touting moving Notes applications to Sharepoint, .NET, whatever. This is because you can't! (and on a related note).

Unless you have a specific business reason why would anyone see the need to change email platforms. I have yet to see a concrete justification, although "people" suggest it will save them money.....yeah, and oil won't run out either. So lets say you have 500 users. You get a new CIO or IT department manager and you are a Notes shop, they want their corporate security hole with built in email Exchange and Outlook. Do the math:

500 x $1,000 (the MS estimate for a per user move) =  $500,000.

And if you have applications then you still need the Notes client.

So, today I have a email platform, that is open standards based (even more so in R8), secure, can be accessed remotely (iNotes/DWA), has a myriad of mobile options (BES, Traveler, etc) and I'm going to drop $500,000  to move my 500 users to Exchange (plus a possible hardware refresh, and up to 4x more physical servers than I currently run Domino on) and what do I have to show for that investment? Erm, an email platform. These people should be take out and shot for throwing shareholders money into these stupid decisions. It is almost criminal.
Comments

1Jim Casale  11/19/2008 11:41:38 AM  Agreed on all points except

there are some companies/CIO's that do not see money as an issue. I know as I have been in that situation. It did not make sense to move economically but it did make sense politically.

2Darren Duke  11/19/2008 11:44:53 AM  It can cost up to $1,000 per user to move from Notes to Exchange

@1, true but is that really the point? With the length of tenure of IT managers is it really practical for the COO, CEO and IT Steering committees to allow this type switch? It goes back to marketing and for IBM to start delivering the message. The amount of times I hear "Notes is dead" would be amusing, except for the belief of this statement within said IT departments.

The thing that strikes me is that the call for Exchange rarely comes from the CIO. More often than not, it is IT mangers and the DB admins (yes, SQL Server DB Admins) and AD admins. The ground swell this generates is usually the precursor to the switch.

3Jim Casale  11/19/2008 12:24:27 PM  Yes but

There are some, although certainly not the majority, of CIO's that get the marching orders to go to Exchange from the company owners, etc. Not wanting to disagree with the powers that be, they give an estimate of how much it costs. They don't mention the lower degree of high availability, etc. They just say it is going to cost X dollars to switch. They know it doesn't make sense but who is going to tell the owners that? I know this is a small percentage of companies but I am now at a company where this can happen (this is the second time I am going through this - I must have a black cloud over me) You have to work in an environment that values politics over sound business decision for this to make sense.

I do agree IBM marketing needs to more to dispel all the rumors that are out in the IT world.

4Darren Duke  11/19/2008 3:23:36 PM  Valid point

5Lisa Duke  11/22/2008 1:36:10 PM  Domino is more than an email server

The biggest message that needs to be communicated is that IBM Lotus Domino is not just an email server. If a shop is using Domino only for email, calendar, and contacts, then it's fair to compare features against Exchange.

But Domino is not just a mail server, it's also a web server and an application server. And for applications, it is a rapid application development platform.

The truth is, the decision to move from Domino with applications to Exchange + something you will have to rebuild from scratch is not based on logic. There's no way logic would win. It's based on faith, belief, and emotion.

The user wants Outlook because it's what they used at the last company (you know, the one they got laid off from because they the company was loosing money, partly because email was always down?). So when the right user with the right budgetary control gets put in charge, the move begins.

It's more like England in the 1500s (new leader with a new religion, let's get rid of all the followers of the old religion) than like a true cost vs. benefit business decision.

6Idan Zuckerman  1/5/2009 7:53:05 AM  Sometimes SharePoint is the key driver

Hi there,

Found Darren's blog during a google search and I find this thread quite interesting.

At Mainsoft we are seeing Lotus Notes shops migrating to Exchange as the final stage of a process that begins with adopting WSS 2/3 as a 'free' collaboration platform. Once this is done, sometimes without central IT being aware of it, SharePoint slowly becomes a silo of strategic information that, a year or two later, demand the attention of central IT and the CIO.

By then SharePoint is an important IT asset and the decision to migrate becomes easier.

I am curious to learn what is your opinion about this, based on your own experience.

Jim - you mentioned being faced with a migration scenario. Is it related to SharePoint adoption?

Thank you.

7Darren Duke  1/5/2009 7:58:43 AM  SharePoint can (and usually is) the driver

Which is ironic because SharePoint (a services company wet dream by the way) is exhibiting the exact same growth pattern as Notes did in the late 90's. Small silos, dispersed control and before long there will also be SP "craplications". By this I mean the vast majority of organizations have only just started to delve into the development side themselves and that is when you start see unmaintainable and non-extensible code in the "I will learn by doing" mentaility. "I know vb therefore I can do SP", says an internal developer. Hum. Sounds a bit like Notes in 1996 doesn't it?

As you stated, before you know it you are hip deep in Microsoft licensing and they invariably make it worth you wild to move to Exchange (indeed occasionally they will even pay services companies to do the job, so it is gratis to the client). Again an irony as we are seeing a lot of MS clients forgo Software Assurance except for server OSs and SQL servers. Office and Windows SAs are falling like flies.

SharePoint itself is nothing special. It just filled a need to share office documents. Now it is getting into the realm of bloatware. It is just J2EE by another name. It is not RAD, it is not an environment where you can solve business needs with a small application and has a somewhat "limited" security model. There is a good post here on the "differences" in the real world here.

The integration with Microsft SQL Server Reporting Services is where I see a big increase in use. Again "free" integration.