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Our Migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft
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Posted at Sep. 05, 2008 02:27 PM CST | | | | Vidya S. Byanna, Global Infrastructure Executive Director | | | Some recent blog posts have discussed Accenture’s continued use of Lotus Notes. The contention is that Accenture should not present itself as a model of Lotus Notes to Microsoft migrations until Notes is completely removed from Accenture. Accenture’s migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft products and technologies remains a case study in large-scale and complex migrations even though a small number of Notes databases remain in Accenture’s servers. This is an aspect of a business driven migration strategy that we discuss with all of our clients. Here are the facts: | | | In 2002, Accenture began a large-scale migration of its e-mail and applications from Lotus Notes to Microsoft products and technologies. | | | After migrating e-mail and then applications, Accenture completed the move to Microsoft technologies in late 2006. This effort reduced our total Notes databases from 25,000 at peak to 600 databases. Two hundred databases support back end business processes and are in the process of migrating. The remaining 400 were kept on Notes for historical information. Migrating them just to retain the data was not cost-effective. The Lotus Notes client is rarely used by Accenture employees and will not be included in Accenture’s upcoming standard workstation image. Of Accenture’s 6000 servers, only 25 run the remaining Notes database applications and archives. This number will continue to reduce once Accenture migrates the remaining applications. The company has not hired Notes developers for internal IT in several years, though the needs does occasionally arise for client work in our consulting and solutions organizations. | | | | Comment on this post |
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Comments Posted by:
Peter Mullarky
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September 15, 2009 12:09 PM CST  | I'm assuming that $$ wasn't an issue in the decision to move platforms. |
Posted by:
Kevin A. Dana
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August 31, 2009 04:10 PM CST | Hi Paula - Accenture has historically placed a file size limitation on email attachments regardless of technology platform. Large files were posted to an online repository and a link sent via email to the intended recipients. Last year, our innovation program developed a simple solution enabling anyone to upload large files and then address and send an email message directly. The file is stored securely for a set period of time. Recipients receive an email with the message and link from the sender. The solution proved so popular and highly utilized, that is has evolved into a fully supported solution. |
Posted by:
Paula Skokowski
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July 22, 2009 05:15 PM CST | I'm interested how you handled the Exchange limitation of 10MB on file attachments. We have worked with a number of large companies migrating from Notes to Exchange who have needed to implement a manged file transfer solution so that users can transfer files greater than 10MB. My understanding is that Notes is much more liberal about the size of file attachments than Exchange. How did Accenture address this issue? |
Posted by:
Vidya S. Byanna
on
February 13, 2009 09:26 AM CST | Gordon - Thanks for your comments. I agree with you that there are pros and cons to each of the platforms. For Accenture, the tight integration with other Microsoft products and other business benefits we achieved make Sharepoint a better fit for our needs.
Anne - You make a very good point. Because of the distributed ownership of Notes applications prior to the migration, it was difficult to get movement from the business owners. The migration created a catalyst for business groups to assess the cost/benefit of making the change. Also, migration costs incented business groups to agree to eliminate low value applications or adopt existing enterprise applications or simple managed service platforms we built (e.g., Sharepoint Team Services, Portal Publishing, etc.). |
Posted by:
Anne
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February 06, 2009 05:05 PM CST | Not to sound argumentative, but why didn't you streamline your Notes application portfolio before? If I understand correctly, Accenture had almost 19,000 underutilised or redundant databases. I think the real success story here is not the migration (platform A to platform B, who cares), but the governance of applications. Well done! |
Posted by:
Gordon Hickley
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February 01, 2009 10:18 AM CST | I first heard about the Accenture Notes migration exercise a few years ago. Having spent 10 years working with Lotus Notes and the last 5 years with SharePoint, I feel able to pass a few observations. Granted SharePoint is more tightly integrated than any product with the Microsoft Office suite. But it still only has about 40% of the functionality of Notes. Okay, you can become completely dependent on Microsoft for the other 60%. I rarely had to patch Notes servers, these days I am forever applying Microsoft fixes and it is a major task keeping up with the patch level. Replication between sites / remote users was one of greatest features of Notes. |
Posted by:
Vidya S. Byanna
on
January 05, 2009 08:11 AM CST | Yes, Accenture is using the Sharepoint platform to replace Lotus Notes applications where there is a strong business need. However, before replatforming applications, we assessed business need and were able to retire almost 60% of the applications with another 15% being eliminated because existing functionality was available in global enterprise applications. With the remaining 25%, approximately 20% were moved to a “managed service” capability called “Team Services” which provides out of the box team collaboration capabilities using Sharepoint. The final 5% were remediated and replatformed onto a Sharepoint based .Net architecture platform. |
Posted by:
A former employee of Accenture
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December 30, 2008 11:28 AM CST | What about the Notes applications? How to replace them? Using SharePoint? |
Posted by:
Vidya S. Byanna
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December 09, 2008 08:21 AM CST | Hi James -
I think SaaS is going to change how IT organizations deliver business applications and capabilities. We’re seeing the tremendous growth experienced by companies such as Salesforce.com. Google Enterprise is certainly being looked at by a number of companies. Microsoft has responded with a pretty comprehensive SaaS offering for Exchange, Sharepoint and Office Communicator. I have not followed Lotus so I can’t comment on what impact it will have on them.
Some of the SaaS offerings have to mature and scale to support large enterprises and there will be some situations and requirements that won’t be a good fit for an SaaS solution. However, as companies look to replace legacy systems or deliver new IT capabilities, I think SaaS is going to be an attractive alternative that will get serious consideration. |
Posted by:
Vidya S. Byanna
on
November 19, 2008 01:29 PM CST | Franco, You are correct that not all 25,000 Notes databases were migrated. As part of the project, we eliminated/retired 57% of the databases and an additional 17% were replaced by other global enterprise applications we already had in place. The remaining 26% of the databases were migrated to new .Net/Sharepoint based platforms based on classification of the databases into key categories such as team repositories, publishing sites, discussion databases, etc. We are evaluating the timing of migration for the remaining 200 databases. We may not migrate some databases because there is not a justifiable business case. Those we don’t migrate will remain in a Notes archive environment. |
Posted by:
Franco van Vuuren
on
November 16, 2008 08:51 AM CST | Vidya
Of the remaining 200 databases, how many would be migrated in what time span? Also, you mentioned you had a peak of 25 000 Notes databases, how many of them were just "canned" and how many was fulfilling the same function, i.e. Discussion databases? In other words, did you MIGRATED 24 400 databases? Or did you just canned them? |
Posted by:
James
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November 05, 2008 01:04 PM CST | Its amazing that Accenture was able to go from 25,000 databases to 600! Vidya, what affect do you think Google Enterprise and other cloud based SaaS environments will have on Microsoft and Lotus? Thanks,
James |
Posted by:
Vidya S. Byanna
on
September 16, 2008 02:45 PM CST | In response to Kosta Kontos' comment...when we made the decision to migrate from Lotus Notes to Microsoft, three main key factors influenced our decision. First, the Microsoft mail platform provided better integration and functionality for client service delivery professionals in consulting and outsourcing, many of whom work remotely or only have browser based internet connections. Secondly, the Microsoft technologies were consistent with Accenture’s internal IT organization and skills. Finally, our analysis showed the Microsoft platform would provide Accenture with lower operating costs.
We also felt that Microsoft had a better vision with respect to integrating across their product suite such as Microsoft Office, SharePoint and Office Communications Server. |
Posted by:
Kosta Kontos
on
September 09, 2008 03:32 AM CST | Hi Vidya
What spurred the migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft?
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