Microsoft 365 is the best option for businesses wanting to take advantage of emerging technologies. By migrating to Microsoft 365, IBM Lotus Notes and Domino users can realize cost savings, reduce complexity, leveraging existing technology investments, and more.
Point Alliance has established a successful methodology for moving from IBM Domino to Microsoft 365, and we’ve used it to help many organizations modernize their application portfolio in a way that minimizes business disruption.
Below are the steps to take in that migration process:
Assess
The first step is to take stock of the data that exists within your IBM Lotus Notes applications that is potentially integrated throughout your enterprise. Historical information within the applications can exist in many places and be created by many different people. Using automation to take inventory of your servers and IBM Lotus Notes applications can help to analyze the level of complexity your business is dealing with. You can then identify where your migration strategies are of best use.
Rationalize
In this phase, Point Alliance can help you identify what needs to be migrated from your existing content. We categorize applications into functional grouping—mapped to corresponding solutions which enable you to make smarter decisions about where you should put your investments. Even though Microsoft 365 is an optimal place for your applications, it’s important to take an objective look at all solutions that might be best for your business. Point Alliance is your vendor-agnostic guide in this regard.
We can help you establish migration triage rules, consolidation, and retirement strategies for your applications in addition to creating lists with realistic costs for your migration to your new platform. We’ll also help you establish a roadmap for executing your migration.
Execute
This phase is also known as the “modernize” or “migrate” phase, and it is the process of transforming your applications with as little disruption as possible to your business. Execution can go in a few different ways:
- You might need to perform multiple waves of re-platforming, which could happen in tandem or in sequence.
- Point Alliance may create a project management process for managing your change management, re-platforming, communication, and user adoption, which will ensure activities are identified on your roadmap in their designated work streams.
Using project management from Point Alliance allows you to minimize disruption to your business and ensure a streamlined migration schedule. We’ll also help you establish governance for your new platform and create new work streams that assist in user adoption and training.
Archive and Retire
The last step is to shut down the Lotus Notes platform and retire your Notes applications after you have migrated only the most necessary data. What is the most necessary? That’s where Point Alliance’s consultants come into play.
We help you determine what needs to make its way to your new platform and what can be retired, and we take all compliance and regulatory concerns into consideration. There are ways to archive content safely that doesn’t need to migrate with your existing tools, and you can securely store old data. Every business is different, so we help you figure out how best to retire your data.
It’s Time to Say Goodbye to IBM Domino
Using this older solution is only hindering your enterprise’s growth. Point Alliance is here to help you move out of this system with careful consideration for all your moving parts and business goals. Contact us today if you have any questions about how to make a migration to Microsoft 365 or your first steps to leave behind IBM Domino.
