Lotus Notes to Exchange - Application replacement

Hey guys, wasn't sure where to put this question (Software, Windows, Help etc) but I'll throw it out there and mods an move it as they see fit.

Just wondering if anyone has done a Notes to Exchange migration? We have it in the pipeline for the next 8 months and I've been tasked with the wonderful job of identifying the owner, requirement and if needed replacement of the 700 random group mailboxes, databases and applications we currently have within Notes.... yey :wallbash::wallbash:

The two main applications would be Meeting Room booking & Visitor Management. Exchange has its own Meeting room stuff which would do the job perfectly but the issue is I'm not sure how to go about the switch over time while both Notes & Exchange are running as it will take a while to get 1200+ people migrated over.

As for VMS I think that's going to be a full replacement, maybe something web based... A quick google gives 1000's of results so this is more of a does anyone have a system they actually recommend? You know how it is, when you work with a system long enough you get pretty jaded and wouldn't recommend it to anyone :P

I did it back in 2007, at the time were about 350 people over 11 locations in 9 countries. Fun it wasn't. Because it was quite a while ago I did mine (and we're still using Exchange 2003) most of what I did won't be useful but a couple of general points might be;

- Plan the swingover from having Notes accepting the emails from the internet, to Exchange very carefully. You shouldn't have to worry about the crappy MS Notes to Exchange connector like I did but keep a close eye on mail flow and queues.

- Use a migration tool. You could do it by running one of the Systools products but it's a very manual process and when you've got a lot of mailboxes to do having to grab an NSF, convert that to a PST them import that into Exchange using powershell. It's workable for a mailbox or two but on this scale it would be madness. It is cheap though whereas a proper migration tool that grabs stuff from Domino and injects it into the Information Store isn't.

- Try to establish what delegation is set on user mailboxes before you start to migrate. It's a pig of a job but I found it better to do that upfront rather than have to deal with users moaning that they couldn't read their colleagues email.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tips, we already know its going to be a bit of a bitch overall (1200+ people, 13 countries, lots of remote roaming users) throw in the fact we are doing a full domain migration, office 365, lync, sccm 2012 and some other projects the next year is going to interesting... I'm looking forward to it :)

That sounds like a nice project to get your teeth into :)

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Originally Posted by Dooms

The two main applications would be Meeting Room booking & Visitor Management. Exchange has its own Meeting room stuff which would do the job perfectly but the issue is I'm not sure how to go about the switch over time while both Notes & Exchange are running as it will take a while to get 1200+ people migrated over.

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you do this on a per room basis IMO. Work out when people who are likely to book a certain room are supposed to be on exchange and book the room up totally until that date. from that date on the old system, block the old room totally. then people are responsible for their own bookings.

2 things.

1. recurring bookings. email everyone advising them whats going on and giving them a date to be able to migrate their recurring booking.

2. make a champion for each room and include their name in the comms. this person is responsible for fixing conflicts or helping muppets who can't work it out for themselves.

I'd love to get a bit of work like this one, it could be a lot of fun.