Facing Issues in Performance of IBM Notes? Choose Lotus Notes Migration


Lotus Notes Migration

Many organizations use Lotus Notes and Domino Server environment for business communication and collaboration. They often find that there are many bugs and issues that deter the performance of IBM Notes. It costs a company a lot in terms of money and other resources. Many users prefer to move Lotus Notes to Outlook or Office 365. This seems like a viable option, considering the low-cost monthly subscription plan to use Microsoft cloud services. Many administrators look for solutions online to perform Lotus Notes migration on Windows PC. This post describes all the challenges faced by administrators during IBM Notes decommissioning and migration.

Reasons for Migrating Lotus Notes to Outlook or Office 365

  • IBM Notes has a high cost of purchase and maintenance as compared to other options.
  • It requires a specialist to maintain and administer all Notes accounts and mailboxes.
  • There are only handful of Experts in Lotus Notes migration and administration.
  • Not every user can understand and use Lotus Notes without difficulty.
  • IBM Notes requires being refreshed every now and again.
  • There is no multiple user access in Notes as compared to Office 365 or Outlook.

Challenges faced During Lotus Notes Migration and Decommissioning

IBM Notes has been here for more than two decades. It has catered to thousands of mid-sized and large-scale companies worldwide. However, technologies keep changing and many companies move to better IT strategy and infrastructure. Many companies have decided to move from IBM Domino to Office 365. This means moving all the data and applications built on Domino server to the new platform. It can be a challenging task to retain data for legal purposes. Here is why:

Business Challenges

  • Cost: High cost involved in data analysis, technology replacement, target customization, maintaining the quality of migrated data and controlling overall process.
  • Legal Requirement: every data much be migrated in the exact same manner without changes to avoid legal repercussions.
  • Time: The communication lag effecting business during Lotus Notes to Outlook migration period.

Technical Challenges

  • Large Number of Applications: Companies design their own application based on Domino server. The logic of these is difficult to move to a newer platform.
  • Applications Cannot be Moved: These applications are being used in daily communications. Any changes can affect the entire server infrastructure.
  • Encrypted Documents: Decrypting password protected files before Lotus Notes to Office 365 migration.
  • Document Transfer: There are documents created and deleted every day. It is important that newly created files be transferred as well as the old.
  • Different Document Types: Efficiently extracting different documents and their meta-data and transferring to a newer platform without data loss.
  • Richtext Fields: Each file has its own attributes like date, time, text, type etc. These need to be transformed to a format familiar with the new system. Keeping their data integrity during Lotus Notes migration is also important.
  • Attachments: ZIP files need to be extracted and saved in the newer platform. There is no guarantee that the individual files can be read on the target system.
  • Linked Documents: Some documents may contain a reference to another email or document. The link can refer to a file saved on a different Domino server. The linking for this needs to be maintained.
  • Document Versions: Changes are made with documents over time. All these versions have to be migrated successfully during Lotus Notes to Outlook migration.

Use an Expert solution for Lotus Notes Migration

There are multiple different challenges and considerations before planning to migrate to Outlook or Office 365. Some infrastructures have to be decommissioned and rebuilt from scratch with the newer platform. There is an easier way to perform Lotus Notes to Office 365 migration. This is to use a third-party software that is more professional and reliable. It is an easy alternative to perform the transfer without data loss. One such tool is the Lotus Notes Migration. It is very simple but effective tool. It is able to transfer IBM Notes NSF file to MS Outlook or Exchange on-premise account. The tool also supports migration of Domino server to Office 365 mailbox.

Conclusion

The complete Lotus Notes migration to Outlook or Office 365 may take a lot of time and has multiple challenges. It is important to keep the data integrity maintained for documents, attachments, file attributes etc. It is a long way to completely transition from Domino server to Office 365. This post describes al the challenges faced while trying to migrate Lotus Notes to Outlook or O365. An easy and expert fix is also discussed at the end to make the task much easier.