Migration of Lotus Notes and Domino Applications to SharePoint

Migration of Lotus Notes and Domino Applications to SharePoint.
Supported by software supplied by our partners, most notably Quest, we have considerable experience of handling large scale migration projects.

We have extensive experience and capability with planning and delivery of migration projects including the migration of:

• Standard Lotus Notes Template Databases
• Custom Lotus Notes Databases
• Bespoke Domino Web Applications
• Integrated Lotus Notes and Domino Applications

BMN has developed hundreds of custom Lotus Notes and Domino applications since we first began working with the technology in 1994. Using dual certified professionals (IBM CAAD and Microsoft MCTS), our expertise with both IBM and Microsoft technologies leaves us ideally placed to handle migration projects from Lotus Notes / Domino to SharePoint.

Our Recommended Approach

The migration of Lotus Notes applications can be complex and time consuming projects. Notes databases can consist of either simple designs, applications based on standard Notes templates, or be a highly customised design that may have taken several man years effort to develop. For this reason it is essential to understand what you are dealing with before undertaking a migration project of multiple applications.   Whether you are looking at 25 or 25,000 Notes applications, end we recommend a Discovery, Analysis and Migrate approach.

• 1. Discovery
  
  During Discovery BMN recommend undertaking an iterative triaging of applications to provide you with a view of your existing landscape and its suitability for migration. With each iteration of Discovery, we drill down into more detail and identify areas of underutilisation or potential hurdles for  migration to SharePoint. Through experience, we have found it essential to engage the business owners at the outset to identify areas of criticality or suitability for archiving.  Using this steer, the migration team can focus on areas or suites of custom designs to assess complexity and decide on suitable migration targets. It is usually possible to provide the business with a basic list of applications and usage stats within hours of installation of Quest’s Notes Migrator for SharePoint (Discovery Edition). At the end of a Discovery phase, BMN provide the customer with a full report and recommendations for next steps.  



• 2. Analysis
  
  Whilst standard template based applications can be simply mapped used an existing migrator tool migration job, some applications are simply too complex to be considered for migration to out of the box SharePoint sites. Therefore BMN consultants help your IT management build the business case for custom .NET/SharePoint applications or a COTS business applications. Approximate estimates for migration and build costs for these types of applications are therefore provided to the customer at the end of an Analysis phase. As with any system analysis, the more time spent on it the more accurate the estimate can become.  
  
  
• 3. Migration
  
  For applications that have been given the approval for migration, BMN employ Quests Notes Migrator for SharePoint (Full Edition) to move data to specific target. As already stated, for standard template databases these are predefined actions that the tool can act upon. For custom applications, BMN will create custom jobs to migrate content to pre-built custom SharePoint targets. We have found that the use of ISV software, such as Nintex Workflow and Forms, significantly increases the speed of build out of these custom SharePoint targets, thus providing excellent ROI on the migration alone. Of course, once complete the tools can then also be used to enhance the platform further.

  Professional Services Offer: Notes to SharePoint Discovery by BMN (125kB)

Our Tool of Choice

Using the Quest Notes Migrator for SharePoint, the following benefits can be attained:

• Scan & Plan: Discover Notes databases, classify applications and analyze their usage and complexity to determine which applications are unused, as well as those that will need development resources
• Rules-based Automation: Starting with data collected during analysis, assign new target locations and migration jobs using a customizable rules-based engine. Use predefined rules for standard Notes applications or define your own rules for custom applications. Then, automate hundreds of individual migration jobs, reusing design work where appropriate, to finish the migration faster and reduce the chance of error.    
• Power Provision:  Provision new SharePoint lists, libraries, sites and sub-sites automatically based on your Notes, Domino.Doc or QuickPlace/Quickr infrastructure, reducing IT burden
• Extreme Data Fidelity: Migrate Notes rich text and complex application data with no loss in fidelity, ensuring a smooth transition experience for end users. Preserve all essential data, including keyword fields, multi-valued items, nested tables, embedded objects, document metadata and security attributes
• Dynamic Document Destinations: Choose from a variety of migration options for applications, beyond just lists and libraries, that best achieve business objectives: 
  
  • Migrate to SharePoint wiki pages, basic pages and content publishing pages when end users need an intuitive, page-oriented experience
  • For archiving content in a practical format, migrate to Microsoft Word, PDF or HTML documents
  • For applications requiring custom form layouts, migrate your Notes documents to InfoPath XML documents, web part pages or custom Microsoft Word template
• Complex App Accelerator: Migrate complex applications, including approval status, versioning and in-process workflow state, minimizing new development by leveraging native SharePoint features whenever possible