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How to migrate from Lotus Notes to SharePoint


I need to migrate a Lotus Notes application to SharePoint. I understand that a Quest Software tool helps in migrating.
But I need advice from people who have already experienced these migrations. Which would be the best tool(s) available and what
would be the best approach?
migration

lotus-notes

asked May 30 '11 at 5:03


Deepu Nair
5,314
1 9

19

migrated from stackoverflow.com May 30 '11 at 14:46


This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

3 Answers
Migration utilities can only move standard Lotus Notes templates, (including mail). Due to the
proprietary nature of Notes applications, manual analysis and then custom configuration of
Sharepoint is the best you could expect. If you have custom applications, migrating them from
one platform to another is the most challenging environment. If you just have mail, then the job
is alot easier.
Quest and BinaryTree are leaders in the area of mail only migration. If you need to do apps as
well, there is no easy solution. So, this answer is to expose the some of the real work involved in
migrating applications in a high level guide.
Your best bet is to do a thorough analysis of your current environment. What typically happens
is that a BP or vendor gets your mail across but not the applications, so you could be, in the
worst case be stuck with a "hybrid model" where you maintain 2 sets licenses for users and
servers. Most organisations have fallen into this trap. I call it a trap because the vendor
probably knows this to, but if they don't tell you upfront, then they're milking the client after
making some quick wins.
Here is my recommended approach, which is heavily tilted towards analysis and investigation
upfront. Justification for this approach is based on seeing a few largish migrations go quite
awry, the common factor is a lack of analysis up front combined with inadequate partnering
from Domino specialist. The objective of this approach is to provide you with the best chance
at setting realistic expectations, and completing the project in within an estimated timeframe/budget.
Pre-project.
1/ Establish the required skill set.
Good place to start, is look at the "end-game" platform specifications, Database, server and
application skills. Do you need Sharepoint only ? or Sharepoint + C# + ASP.Net. You'll need
Window server engineers + Exchange + SQL Server ? Or do you also need to support MS Live
Communication servers as well ?
2/ Initial resource costings.
Obtain the daily cost requirements for those resources.
3/ Estimate resource requirementsduring conversion and post-deployment (BAU).
You don't have the whole picture, but do some rough calculations in supporting the new
environment after deployment. If all goes well, you can expect to taper off this resource
demand within the first 6 months. Assume $5k/week/person + hardware + software licencing
costs.
http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/13594/how-to-migrate-from-lotus-notes-to-sharepoint

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migration - How to migrate from Lotus Notes to SharePoint - SharePoint Stack Exchange

4/ Engage resources.
You should engage a credible Domino consultant ( or 2 for larger sites) to help you for the next
phase as well as Sharepoint (SP) / MS specialists.
Current state-of-play Analysis (aka "AS-IS" Analysis)
1/ Obtain a current inventory of running applications.
Many Notes databases fall dormant in large organisations and can easily be culled from the
migration once known.
2/ Identify integration points.
Focusing on current active applications, and establish all the integration points outside of the
application. Over many years, Lotus Notes systems tend to be threaded into many external
systems. You will most likely need to rebuild these integration services in the new platform as
well. These are typically found in Script libraries and agents. You might find some nasty bits of
code in Forms, but that should be the vast bulk of it.
Establish New Architecture (aka "TO-BE" State)
1/ Identify effort to re-code current applications + the integration points.
Be sure to include database designs and server requirements depending on volume. One thing I
have noticed is "feature fidelity gaps" between Lotus and SP. Features you take for granted in
Lotus Notes may not be available in the Microsoft stack. Ofcourse you may also get new
features, but the risk here is preventing feature regression.
If features that are part of a critical application are not available natively in SP, then this
presents a very high risk of cost over-run as you may have to code up the widget in C#.
I had one critical CRM application which used the Lotus Notes embedded scheduler widget to
obtain available meeting times of users. AFAIK this widget is not available in the MS solution
stack. Perhaps there is a 3rd party solution, or has since been implemented natively. So you
need to identify them with the SP and Domino specialists working together. I have a final hit
list below of things to watch out for, (see "Navigating the document minefield" below)
2/ Eliminate "feature fidelity gaps".
Now you should have your inventory of applications to migrate. Any significant "feature fidelity
gaps" risks identified should be investigated with a pilot to know that it can be resolved. Or
negotiate with system owners to work around features not available in the new platform. This is
your go/no-go point.
3/ Detailed project plan.
Create your project plan at this point. It should have 2 distinct parts email migration and
application migration. Typically the CIO will mandate mail to go first, I think this is potentially a
big mistake because because the applications take easily 12-18 months on average to move
assuming no major budgetary constraints, otherwise it's anyone's guess. An ill-informed CIO
can leave a company crippled in a hybrid model with skyrocketing resourcing costs if they
focus on the quick win. Be it because of pressure from the board, or ego.
One approach to is to migrate native Lotus Notes applications to the web first, and thus unshackle you from the Notes client, (beware of offline access requirements here, see below). A
recent Domino based product, (the evolution transformer), that claims 100% fidelity of
migrating your applications may be worth considering this as a transitional step. to reduce
ongoing licencing costs if you have a prolonged application migration.
But I would recommend structuring your migration plan in phases. Phase 1 should be small
easy apps and some mail. This is like a pilot, you will learn alot from this phase, so keep it small
and complexity as low as possible. Phase 2 and so on are as you see fit, scaling up as required
depending on budget, resources, complexity.
4/ Communication plan.
Think about how you're gonna get this change through to users. Afterall, some will think, "we
are going from an email system to another email system". Or they'll be resistant to losing
applications they might be comfortable with. Ideally you'll want to bring them willingly. So,
plan to identify and garner support from key users who have influence with others.
Build/Test/Deploy
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migration - How to migrate from Lotus Notes to SharePoint - SharePoint Stack Exchange

If you've done all the analysis work and planning, then this step should be un-eventful. What is
important is communication with the business and make sure your users are onboard and
informed. Make sure you have a pre-production environment to kick around because you'll
want to know problems before real users get them. Get "user champions" who can give it to
you straight and don't just flail their arms about when something goes wrong.
Navigating the document minefield
Application based Document links : If you have document links that are embedded in rich text
fields throughout applications, how will you convert those links into the "new world"
Email document links : Applications tend to send links in emails to documents. You will need to
consider how to convert that for sharepoint.
Long term storage / Legal compliance: Sometimes legal compliance requires that you keep
servers and databases available in "original format". Financial organisations tend to have this
compliance requirement.
Local Replicas and offline access: If users have local replicas running on their laptops or home
pc's they will lose this in the migration.
answered May 31 '11 at 1:06
giulio
136
2

thanks for the details.. Deepu Nair May 31 '11 at 13:03

You would have to look for migration utility available from third party vendors. one which you
have found is good one and most commonly used but its your requirement which is best thing
to decide which tool is best. do a requirement mapping with at least 3-4 products available in
market. and then choose the one which best suites your requirement.
the others with which you can do a comparative study is :
http://www.2sharepoint.com/lotusnotes-to-sharepoint.html
http://www.binarytree.com/Products/Migrate/CMT-for-Sharepoint.aspx
answered May 30 '11 at 6:57
Ashutosh Singh-MVP SharePoint
160
5
thanks for the links. Deepu Nair May 30 '11 at 9:34

What would be the best approach definitely depends on your situation. How complex is the
application? How deeply does it integrate to the Lotus Notes platform? How many users will
be affected?
I've used the Quest tool for migrating email and it does an excellent job, so that company
would be high on my list to look at for migrating apps. But moving applications is much more
difficult than migrating email. Email works the same in Notes as it does in Exchange or any
other mail platform. Notes applications on the other hand can have complex dependencies on
the Notes platform itself, and often it is very hard to replicate that platform outside of Notes.
For all the applications I've moved from Notes I've taken the migration process as an
opportunity to rethink the design. For simple Notes applications, like document libraries, or
simple workflows, it was easy to move those to SharePoint. I'm sure third-party tools could
make that even easier. For more complicated Notes applications, though, I often developed a
replacement ASP.NET site backed by Microsoft SQL.
Whatever you choose to do, the end result will be an application that is very different than
what you have now. It may have the same fields, data, etc, but the interface will be radically
different. Perhaps it will be a web application in SharePoint, or ASP.NET, but it won't be as
tightly integrated into your email platform as it was when you were using Lotus Notes. Given
that such a change is unavoidable, the best thing you can do is make sure your end result
delivers on user experience. If SharePoint can live up to that, great, otherwise rebuilding the
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migration - How to migrate from Lotus Notes to SharePoint - SharePoint Stack Exchange

app may be a better solution.


answered May 31 '11 at 1:16
Ken Pespisa
101
2

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