Business
IBM Rapid FUD Responder blog: migration case study says very little
Gartnerrecently published a case studywhich examines the Notes to Exchange migration done by RSM McGladrey. Microsoftalso has a versionof the case study posted. It'svery enlightening to read them both, and see what a difference the independentview from Gartner is.While I never like to lose a customer,this one is a result of an acquisition. There appear to have beensome business drivers as well, but those don't appear to have been consideredequally for both platforms. Regardless, the decision was made togo to MS.As my colleague AntonySatyadas writes on the FUD responder blog,the Gartner analysis concludes very little in the way of firm businessresults. Lots of expense -- US$214 per user for a cut-overe-mail migration... no coexistence, no application migration. Lotsof "hopes" -- the Gartner writeup uses the word "hope"or "believe" thrice. And the Notes applications are stillin place -- with an estimate of two years and another $200 per user tomigrate them (plus the two-year cost of running the Notes infrastructurein parallel to Exchange). Interesting that they believe they'll spendless per-user to migrate applications than they did to migrate mail.I always encourage customers to applya critical eye to reference stories from any vendor. I especiallyencourage customers to ask to talk to a customer being referenced, especiallythe big ones that are claimed as winbacks. In many many cases, thestory from MS customers is the same as RSM McGladrey -- ok, we moved thecommodity e-mail. Now what do we do? And they end up runningboth infrastructures for a long time, because there's nothing quite likethe value of Lotus Notes and Domino.
Gartner
recently published a case study
which examines the Notes to Exchange migration done by RSM McGladrey. Microsoft
also has a version
of the case study posted. It's
very enlightening to read them both, and see what a difference the independent
view from Gartner is.
While I never like to lose a customer, this one is a result of an acquisition. There appear to have been some business drivers as well, but those don't appear to have been considered equally for both platforms. Regardless, the decision was made to go to MS.
As my colleague Antony Satyadas writes on the FUD responder blog, the Gartner analysis concludes very little in the way of firm business results. Lots of expense -- US$214 per user for a cut-over e-mail migration... no coexistence, no application migration. Lots of "hopes" -- the Gartner writeup uses the word "hope" or "believe" thrice. And the Notes applications are still in place -- with an estimate of two years and another $200 per user to migrate them (plus the two-year cost of running the Notes infrastructure in parallel to Exchange). Interesting that they believe they'll spend less per-user to migrate applications than they did to migrate mail.
I always encourage customers to apply a critical eye to reference stories from any vendor. I especially encourage customers to ask to talk to a customer being referenced, especially the big ones that are claimed as winbacks. In many many cases, the story from MS customers is the same as RSM McGladrey -- ok, we moved the commodity e-mail. Now what do we do? And they end up running both infrastructures for a long time, because there's nothing quite like the value of Lotus Notes and Domino.
While I never like to lose a customer, this one is a result of an acquisition. There appear to have been some business drivers as well, but those don't appear to have been considered equally for both platforms. Regardless, the decision was made to go to MS.
As my colleague Antony Satyadas writes on the FUD responder blog, the Gartner analysis concludes very little in the way of firm business results. Lots of expense -- US$214 per user for a cut-over e-mail migration... no coexistence, no application migration. Lots of "hopes" -- the Gartner writeup uses the word "hope" or "believe" thrice. And the Notes applications are still in place -- with an estimate of two years and another $200 per user to migrate them (plus the two-year cost of running the Notes infrastructure in parallel to Exchange). Interesting that they believe they'll spend less per-user to migrate applications than they did to migrate mail.
I always encourage customers to apply a critical eye to reference stories from any vendor. I especially encourage customers to ask to talk to a customer being referenced, especially the big ones that are claimed as winbacks. In many many cases, the story from MS customers is the same as RSM McGladrey -- ok, we moved the commodity e-mail. Now what do we do? And they end up running both infrastructures for a long time, because there's nothing quite like the value of Lotus Notes and Domino.
Originally by Ed Brill from Ed Brill on March 4, 2006, 7:46am