Microsoft Courts Lotus Switchers with New Migration Tools

January 21 2008

OK, let's get this one out of the way first...

This morning, Microsoft issued their annual Lotusphere spoiler release.  And I honestly laughed out loud when I saw that headline, because it is the same headline for the Lotusphere spoiler release in 2006 and 2007.  Does anyone not see the irony in that need to keep claiming that the migration tools are really better this time?

There's some funny math going on, too.  The release claims "300 firms representing 2.8 million people began the move", then proceeds to mention a few really small companies that maybe add up to 10,000 users (I am pretty sure they mean "Siemens Westinghouse", not "Siemens and Westinghouse").  So much for real-world references.

There's subtle wording in there, too.  These firms "began the move".  Why is it that the annual Microsoft press release never cites the companies that actually completed the move?  Oh wait, I can answer that.  Some, like one very big company that Microsoft works very closely with, still run hundreds of Notes applications more than five years later.  And their case studies on Notes migrations never talk about those applications and what happened to them, or the ROI/benefit from migrating (or should I say trying to migrate) them.  You should hear the figures being thrown around by Microsoft in some of these organizations, in terms of how much money MS will offer to cover migration costs.  Even they have realized there's a lot of cost with no benefit.

What Microsoft didn't mention in their release is how many of these Notes migration efforts they failed at during 2007.  Hundreds of companies representing millions of Notes users made strategic decisions to move forward with IBM Lotus during 2007.  Lotus won major competitive decisions at two large banks during 2007, merger/acquisition bake-offs at numerous organizations, and continued to acquire net-new customers in the area of Notes/Domino collaborative applications.  You'll hear about some of these stories from Lotusphere this week and in IBM's own press releases.

Update 1/29/08: Additional texture to this announcement is posted in a subsequent blog entry. 		Image:Microsoft Courts Lotus Switchers with New Migration Tools

Ed Brill Lotusphere 2008 Category:  Microsoft  Add/View Comments [10]

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  1. 1  Stuart McIntyre http://collaborationmatters.com | 1/21/2008 5:08:56 AM

    It's kinda tragic isn't it... 80,000 employees in 102 countries { Link } and the best they can come up with is FUD directed towards their biggest competitor on the first day of their annual conference. Hardly innovation, eh?

    It wouldn't be so sad if they hadn't already had 3 or 4 goes at it and failed so miserably. "Bull" indeed...

  1. 2  Erik Brooks  | 1/21/2008 5:34:54 AM

    Definitely comical. I clicked the link before reading the rest of your post and thought to myself "Isn't this exactly like last years'?"

    Playing Devil's Advocate, Ed: It seems like the major overtone in your last paragraph is that people stayed *with* Notes as opposed to migrated *to* it.

    I might be misreading that, but can you give us any more juicy "migrated from Exchange" references?

  1. 3  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/21/2008 5:41:56 AM

    @2 I'm saying both, Eric. There were some great wins in 2007 that were in existing customers re-evaluating their direction, but also many net-new wins. I am not sure yet which ones are being mentioned in the general session today, but if there are some obvious omissions, I'll try to cover them later. I do know that our largest win in '07 was a decision for a net-new deployment of 300,000+ users.

  1. 4  Daniel Schiavone http://www.SnakeHill.net | 1/21/2008 6:41:17 AM

    I just migrated four Domino databases into MS Assess for a client via XML. Granted these were basic document repositories with archival data, so the end users won't miss much, but I noticed a few things...

    1. It's great how Domino data and presentation are cleanly separate

    2. The users miss even basic functionality that requires no programming like type ahead and search.

    I may have to go back when MS Access reaches end of life.

  1. 5  Timothy Briley  | 1/21/2008 11:02:55 AM

    ComputerWorld is once again being a M$ fanboy. So far it has two "Lotusphere" articles, but neither is about Lotusphere. Instead both are M$ press releases. Too funny.

  1. 6  mark  | 1/22/2008 3:34:40 AM

    Hi Ed,

    Good to hear people (re)committing to Notes, can you tell us people who are actively migrating away from Outlook to Notes. I really think this is an area IBM need to sell way better, really to put it out there in the public domain

    cheers

  1. 7  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 1/22/2008 3:48:37 AM

    @6: a tricky one I reckon. How many businesses are going to (publicly) hold their hands up and announce that they're switching systems? I'm not singling out those who switch from Exchange to Notes either, it goes both ways: do these organisations not think that this makes them look bad? As a voter or shareholder with an interest in such an organisation, I'd be really teed-off at swingeing infrastructure changes without *very* good reason.

  1. 8  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/22/2008 9:50:03 AM

    @6 Bank of New York Mellon was highlighted in the Unified Communications keynote today. The Mellon side of the house is in the process of a rather large switch from MS to IBM.

  1. 9  Mike VandeVelde  | 1/22/2008 5:28:12 PM

    @5 - I just went there to see how bad it is, and saw a Lotus Notes And Domino 8 ad - "Feeling flooded by your desktop?" - on the article about the Atlantic announcement. Pretty neat, nice ripple effect. No mention of MS anywhere in the article :-) Same for the next one, about an aggressive SMB run by IBM. Oh wait, there it is:

    "Lotusphere: Exchange winning away Notes users faster than ever, claims Microsoft"

    How do they figure that fits under a Lotusphere headline???

  1. 10  Brian Vincent  | 1/24/2008 6:58:07 PM

    Sometimes I wonder what the ratio of spin doctors to programmers is at Microsoft. Their media presence and control is insane.

    The only frustrating thing is it seems every assignment I take lately is for some company thats been in the "Notes is dead" state for years running on old hardware, R6, no developers, and a neurotic stressed out admin exiled to some dark basement. I usually am brought in as a hired gun funded by the business side to fix critical Notes apps (developed a decade ago and still going) because the companies IT department has abandoned notes and refuses to spend a dime. IT managers and executives spooked by trade rags full of Microsoft spin make it so every user has to suffer with old versions and poor support.

    Sometimes I think Microsoft's plan has never been to make a better products, but to slowly kill competitors through long term media spin.