Benefits of the Microsoft Collaboration Platform:
A Study for Organizations Using Lotus Notes and Domino
Abstract
This paper presents the experience of organizations of various sizes around the globe
that have addressed the challenges of the new world of work by moving from Lotus
Notes and Domino to Microsoft collaboration solutions. Each of these companies
gained business value through reducing costs and complexity or adding value to
employees and business processes. This white paper can also help a company to
begin developing their own business case and planning for the move to the Microsoft
collaboration platform with links to additional resources.
January 2006
The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of
publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of
Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
This white paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
DOCUMENT.
Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this
document may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.
Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this
document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you
any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.
© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Active Directory, Excel, InfoPath, BizTalk, Outlook, SharePoint, Visual Studio, Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows NT,
Windows Server, SQL Server, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States and/or other countries.
All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
1205
Table of Contents
Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2
Business Value of the Microsoft Collaboration Platform ………………………………….… 4
Reduce costs and complexity ……………………………………………………….……..…. 4
Capitalize on existing investment
………………………………………………………. 4
Reduce messaging total cost of ownership
……………………………………………... 5
Reduce cost and complexity of legacy applications and infrastructure
………… 6
Reduce cost and complexity by standardizing on a single directory service……..
8
Increase end-user and business process value .………………………………... 10
Improve effectiveness of remote and mobile workers
Enhance workgroup collaboration
Improve business processes
Conclusion
………………………………..10
……………………….…………………………………11
…….…………………………………………….…….……..13
….…………………………………………………………………………………….……….…..17
Appendix - Customer Descriptions and Links to Full Case Studies …….…….…… 18
Executive Summary
As companies look for ways to be more competitive, the quickly changing processes
driving today’s new world of work are leading many organizations to reevaluate their
existing technology infrastructure – particularly their collaborative tools. More and
more of these companies have concluded that their existing collaborative solutions
built on older platforms have not effectively evolved with business trends and
practices. Therefore, they are looking to invest in a modern collaboration platform in
order to reduce costs and complexity and increase productivity.
This white paper describes how different organizations have realized significant value
by moving from IBM Lotus Notes and Domino to an integrated Microsoft®-based
collaboration solution. Each customer example provides an overview of the
organization’s business needs, the deployed solution, and the resulting benefits.
The business benefits gained by the companies highlighted in this paper include
reducing costs and complexity and adding value for the end user and for general
business processes. Table 1 (see below) provides a more detailed view of these
benefits. An appendix provides descriptions of the customers profiled in this paper
and links to more detailed case studies.
Table 1: Benefits achieved by companies that switched from IBM Lotus Notes and Domino to
Microsoft
Business Need
Reduce costs and complexity
Business Benefits of Microsoft Solution
Business Measures
Capitalize on existing investment
Increase employee productivity
Reduce messaging total cost of
ownership
Reduce capital and
administrative costs
Reduce cost and complexity of legacy
applications and infrastructure
Decrease application
development time
Reduce maintenance costs
Reduce cost and complexity by
standardizing on a single directory
service
Increase value
Improve effectiveness of remote and
mobile workers
Enhance workgroup collaboration
Decrease administrative time
managing and updating user
information
Increase productivity and
revenue potential
Increase revenue
Decrease cycle time and costs
Improve business processes
Improve productivity
Reduce process time and costs
1
Introduction
“Think of how you yourself work, on a day-to-day basis. This era is one of
virtual work performed by a highly decentralized workforce. Technology's role
in this era is to bring us effective horizontal fusion—reducing the cost of
coordination between us in a manner not possible with centralized technologies.
It should reflect the changing nature of work, from the physical workplace,
toward the decentralized workspace. And it most certainly will.”
Microsoft Chief Technical Officer and the creator of IBM’s Lotus Notes,
Ray Ozzie, weblog, March 14, 2004
For many years, Lotus Notes provided the primary technology option for companies
wishing to improve employee collaboration. As a result, a large number of companies
built their e-mail messaging, shared calendars, and applications on the Lotus Notes
and Domino platform. However, times have changed and the new world of work,
referenced above by Ray Ozzie, requires employees, partners, customers, and
suppliers to have anytime, anywhere access to their data and each other. This 24hour, 7-days-a-week accessibility places additional demands on the existing
collaboration infrastructure. Many Lotus Notes and Domino customers are now
looking to invest in a modern collaboration platform to meet the demands of this new
world of work.
Microsoft offers a compelling alternative to Lotus Notes and Domino. The integrated
Microsoft collaboration platform provides powerful new functionality at a lower total
cost of ownership (TCO) to meet the demands of the new world of work.
Microsoft is focused on providing software and services that address four critical
collaboration challenges:

Integrated communications
Information workers need to be able to communicate and access information
at any time and from anywhere. Because these workers use many different
devices for collaboration – landline phones, cellular phones, Smartphones,
PDAs, desktops, laptops, and Internet kiosks — connecting to data and each
other can be difficult.

Collaborative workspaces
When workers have to constantly change applications and devices to get a job
done, productivity suffers. Working together from any part of the globe on
different IT and communication environments can put stress on the workers
as well as the IT support infrastructure.

Access to information and people
With the always-on and always-connected work environment, information
workers need a way to easily cut through the clutter, access desired
information and connect to the right people at the right time.

People-driven processes
Organizations spend time and money automating back-end business
processes but sometimes do not get the full benefits of their investments by
not integrating their line-of-business applications in their employees’ overall
workflow. Although automation can save time, companies need to consider
2
that their employees need a unified platform for documenting, analyzing,
modeling, and automating business processes, so that enterprises optimize
their productivity and return on assets.
Microsoft’s approach to collaboration is striking a positive chord with the market.
A number of analysts have reported that Microsoft has not only taken the lead in the
collaboration market but is best positioned to prevail as the platform leader. A recent
report published by Gartner (www.gartner.com) provides an independent
assessment of major technology trends in collaboration. The report, entitled
“Microsoft and IBM Share Similar Collaboration Goals, but Follow Different Paths”
provides a solid objective view of a market undergoing some fundamental shifts, and
can be viewed here:
http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/gc/webletter/microsoft4_enterprise/2005/article1
7/article17.html.
Forrester Research (www.forrester.com) has also published a report which describes
key collaboration market trends. The report, entitled “Trends 2005: Collaboration”
can be viewed at: http://www.microsoft.com/business/collaboration/default.mspx.
Customers are showing their positive response to Microsoft’s collaboration products
in the marketplace. Looking at one of the most important components of the
collaboration platform, messaging, Microsoft has established itself as the market
leader and continues to gain in installed base. Industry analyst IDC estimates that
Exchange Server holds the leading share position in integrated collaborative
environments market based on 2004 worldwide revenue at 51%, 10% more than its
nearest competitor. In addition, IDC notes a year over year growth rate for
Exchange Server of 23%.
To learn more about Microsoft’s approach to collaboration go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/collaboration/.
3
Business Value of the Microsoft Collaboration
Platform
This section provides a number of customer case studies illustrating the value that
companies have realized by moving from Lotus Notes and Domino to the Microsoft
integrated collaboration platform.
Reduce costs and complexity
Lotus Notes and Domino customers selecting a Microsoft collaboration solution often
enjoy significant savings by taking better advantage of their existing investment in
infrastructure, office productivity applications, and end-user training. Costs and
complexity are also reduced with Microsoft solutions through reducing the messaging
total cost of ownership, retiring and consolidating applications and upgrading legacy
application infrastructure, reducing application development costs, and standardizing
on a single directory service.
Capitalize on existing investment
One of the key benefits gained by customers moving from Lotus Notes and Domino
to Microsoft collaboration solutions is the ability to better utilize existing Microsoft
applications and infrastructure. Most companies and their employees are familiar
with the Windows-based interface and already use Microsoft Office System
programs. Many Notes and Domino customers also use Microsoft software such as
the Windows® Server™ operating system with the Active Directory® service and
Windows SharePoint® Services technology in their organizations and can realize
benefits from further utilizing these products.
Table 2. Moving from Lotus Notes and Domino to Capitalize on Existing
Investment - Example
Company
Benefit Area
Business Measure
The Staubach
Company
User familiarity
with tool
Improved employee
productivity
Reduced training and
support costs
Microsoft Solution
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Windows SharePoint
Services
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
Staubach – The Staubach Company needed a collaborative solution to help its
brokers organize and exchange information across national and international
markets. The existing collaboration tool was inadequate to meet the users’ demands
and was abandoned by the brokers.
The initial collaboration tool, Channel 12, was built in Lotus Notes. Staubach was
faced with a decision about Channel 12: Do nothing and lose competitive ground, or
4
replace it. “We decided to create a state-of-the-art collaborative solution and
eliminate Channel 12,” says John Scheibe, Chief Information Officer, The Staubach
Company.
“I wanted something that was going to
Staubach decided to use Microsoft Windows
integrate and deploy very easily. In
essence, we were leveraging Microsoft
SharePoint Services to develop its new Web
Research and Development, because
portal. When developing the new solution, the
we knew Microsoft had already
goal was to capitalize on the software that
integrated Windows SharePoint
employees were already familiar with, such as
Services with all the other software
and services we would be using.”
programs in Microsoft Office Professional Edition
2003, and to provide seamless interaction
John Scheibe, Chief Information
among users and between users and the portal.
Officer, The Staubach Company
Because of user familiarity with the interface,
ongoing portal management and development of team sites can be done by end
users, saving IT staff time and enabling more timely publishing and updating of
content to meet business demands.
Reduce messaging total cost of ownership
Messaging is currently the most heavily used component of business collaboration.
Lotus Notes and Domino customers have achieved significant total cost of ownership
savings by moving to Microsoft. By deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2003,
companies can store multiple groups of users on one server. As a result of increased
user and server capacity, a company can decrease the total number of messaging
servers and server sites in its environment. This hardware and software consolidation
reduces total cost of ownership and simplifies management. It also lowers future
costs when new servers reach the end of their current life cycle. In addition,
Exchange 2003 deployment tools and documentation allow customers to reduce
deployment time.
For more information on reduced cost of ownership, the META Group have written a
report detailing the total cost of ownership advantages of Exchange Server 2003
over Lotus Domino, which may be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/compare/METAEx2k3vNotes.mspx.
Table 3. Moving from Lotus Notes and Domino to Reduce Messaging
Total Cost of Ownership - Examples
Company
Benefit Area
Business Measure
Microsoft Solution
Graphic
Packaging
International
Consolidate and
standardize
messaging platform
Reduced messaging
costs $450,000
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
ACNielsen ORGMARG
Standardize and
consolidate
messaging platform
to improve e-mail
handling
Decreased employee
costs $78,000
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
5
Graphic Packaging International – Graphic
Packaging International (GPI) merged with
Riverwood Holding in August 2003. The merged
entity had to integrate two e-mail systems in
order to standardize the messaging
infrastructure.
“With a centralized Exchange Server
solution, we’re able to complete all of
those administrative tasks remotely
and efficiently.”
Don Crooks, Systems Engineer,
Graphic Packaging International
GPI’s previous e-mail infrastructure consisted of 1,700 mailboxes running on
Microsoft Windows NT® Server operating system version 4.0 and Exchange Server
version 5.5. Fourteen branches each had their own dedicated Exchange Server–
based server computer, and a fifteenth server was located at corporate
headquarters. Prior to the merger, Riverwood Holding used Lotus Notes running in an
IBM environment for its 1,800 mailboxes.
GPI replaced the Lotus Notes mailbox system with Microsoft Windows Server 2003
and Exchange Server 2003. The upgrade and consolidation provided GPI with
$450,000 in savings in capital and administrative costs. Server consolidation, faster
branch office e-mail performance, a more productive e-mail environment, spam
filtering, and reduced deployment time all contributed to this savings.
In the previous environment, the Exchange Server administrator at GPI devoted
almost half of his time dealing with mailbox and mail server issues for remote sites.
GPI estimates that its new centralized system will reduce that administrator’s time
by at least 50 percent, freeing up 10 to 20 hours a week to work on other projects.
ACNielsen ORG-MARG – Part of ACNielsen,
India-based ACNielsen ORG-MARG was plagued
with lost productivity due to e-mail problems
experienced by its 1,500 employees spread
across 11 branch offices and 48 field offices.
“We expect to cover the costs of
deployment within one year.”
Bhushan Akerkar, Executive Director,
Information and Systems Technology,
ACNielsen ORG-MARG
ACNielsen ORG-MARG had a heterogeneous
messaging infrastructure spread across its Small Business Units, with each one
having a different domain name. Four hundred users were on Lotus Notes, 200 were
on Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, and approximately 320 others were on Webbased e-mail or other options. This mixed environment created numerous problems:
e-mail messages lost in transit, delivery delayed, and employee time wasted in
recording and updating multiple e-mail addresses.
By consolidating its e-mail infrastructure, ACNielsen ORG-MARG has created a
messaging and collaboration solution that is more efficient and dependable, and
reduces the cost of ownership. The company estimates that they saved over
U.S.$77,000 due to improved employee productivity and reliability of the new
solution.
Reduce cost and complexity of legacy applications and
infrastructure
Many Lotus Notes and Domino customers installed their initial collaboration solutions
a number of years ago. Over time, applications and databases have proliferated
through the infrastructure. Many companies are now having significant challenges
6
maintaining them or even keeping up with which ones are active. These customers
are looking to reduce costs, retire old applications or consolidate them with new
solutions, and upgrade legacy application infrastructure with new, more costeffective solutions using technologies such as SharePoint.
Lotus Notes and Domino customers have found that the Microsoft collaboration
platform enables savings in developing and maintaining applications. These savings
come from the abundance of programmers skilled in Microsoft .NET software.
Furthermore, programmers proficient in Lotus Script find it easy to transition to
Microsoft .NET. Customers also benefit from consolidating hardware and the reduced
support costs for applications on Microsoft technologies.
Table 4. Moving from Lotus Notes and Domino to Reduce Cost and
Complexity of Legacy Applications and Infrastructure - Examples
Company
Benefit Area
Business Measure
Ernst & Young
Malaysia
Application
development
Reduced application
development time
CGI-AMS
Application
infrastructure and
development
Decreased IT
infrastructure and
application
development costs
$500,000
Microsoft Solution
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
Microsoft .NET Framework
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
Microsoft .NET Framework
Ernst & Young Malaysia – The Malaysian practice of Ernst & Young is the largest
professional services firm in Malaysia, with more than 2,500 staff operating from 17
cities and towns. The firm found that the cost of developing and maintaining critical
business applications was excessive. The firm wanted to work with an end-to-end
solution and development system that would reduce development time and costs and
that would scale.
Ernst & Young Malaysia used the Lotus Notes
messaging and collaboration infrastructure and
had developed more than 50 Notes-based
business-critical applications that were stored
locally on servers at each of their 17 locations.
The Lotus infrastructure was costly to operate
and maintain because of the dispersed nature of
the infrastructure, the need to synchronize
systems daily, and the need to lease lines to
support the high bandwidth required to handle
larger amounts of data.
“The Visual Studio development
system and the .NET Framework win
on cost. We’ve lowered software and
development costs.”
Kum Wai Wong, Senior Manager of
Management Information Systems,
Ernst & Young Malaysia
At first, Ernst & Young looked to Lotus Domino to make the business applications
centrally located and Web accessible. However, compared with Lotus, development
time was significantly reduced with Microsoft applications and services. Building on
the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 platform with SharePoint Portal Server 2003,
Ernst & Young Malaysia was able to develop seven key applications in just three
7
months using the Microsoft Visual Studio® development system. Over the course of
a year, the team migrated more than 14 other business-critical applications. By
comparison, on Lotus Domino, Ernst & Young had been able to complete just two
applications in a single year.
CGI-AMS – Prior to its merger in May 2004 with
CGI, American Management Systems (AMS)
recognized that its existing Lotus Notes based
project management system was not keeping
pace with corporate growth and increasing
operational complexity. The firm needed a
solution that would make better use of IT
resources.
“There were many factors in our portal
decision, including functionality, cost,
and long-term product viability. We
decided on Microsoft.”
Keith Giacomo, Senior Principal
Information Technology, CGI-AMS
Projects had been managed using a Lotus Notes application named “Project in a Box”
(PIB). Over more than a decade of use, PIB had been implemented in hundreds of
ways, resulting in thousands of Notes databases. Other enterprise information
sources were not connected with one another nor maintained for relevance. This
made group collaboration difficult because members could not easily find and share
information.
CGI-AMS deployed a new collaboration solution, replacing thousands of Lotus Notes
databases with a work environment based on the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft
.NET Framework, and other Microsoft collaboration technologies.
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 helped CGI-AMS make better use of IT resources. One
administrator and two developers rolled out the initial AMS portal, compared with 10
to 12 people needed to launch a comparable Lotus Notes installation. Only about 10
servers will be needed to fully deploy SharePoint Portal Server, compared with more
than 100 Lotus Notes servers. These efficiencies alone combined for $500,000
savings.
Reduce cost and complexity by standardizing on a single
directory service
Lotus Notes and Domino customers that have moved to Microsoft are able to benefit
from a single, integrated directory that can be used in all of the applications
providing productivity savings to the end-user and significant savings in
administration time.
The Active Directory® service—a component of the Microsoft Windows Server
operating system—allows a single link between user accounts, mailbox accounts, and
end-user productivity applications—simplifying the task of adding, modifying, and
deleting user accounts. A single change in Active Directory can change the user
information for all applications and services. When users change their passwords in
Active Directory, they do not have to remember different passwords for their other
applications. When a group of users is created, such as the “sales group,” users can
e-mail the group to send a message to all users, administrators can allow security
access to resources based on the group name, and users can look up members of a
group by expanding the group information.
8
Table 5. Moving from Lotus Notes and Domino to Reduce Cost and
Complexity by Standardizing on a Single Directory Service - Examples
Company
Bandai
CompUSA
Benefit Area
Managing staff
changes and
interactions
between
departments
Customize
communications
with staff
Business Measure
Microsoft Solution
50 percent reduction in
time spent managing
and updating user
information
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
Increased productivity
of IT administrators
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
SharePoint Portal Server 2003
Bandai – The company is the world’s third
largest toy company with 35 subsidiaries in eight
countries. Bandai employees frequently change
groups and departments but the changes were
time consuming for IT staff to administer. The
company wanted a solution that would keep
communications flowing between its
departments to encourage creativity and
collaboration.
“We had to repeat the same
operations twice, even when we
updated user information due to staff
changes. We’ve cut that burden in half
by using Windows Server System
products across the enterprise.”
Yuki Teru, Network Solutions Team
Leader of the Information Systems
Department, Bandai
The company had been running Lotus Notes as
its e-mail server and for scheduling meetings and reserving meeting rooms. For user
authentication and shared folder access, Bandai used the Active Directory service.
But employee updates were not easily made because Lotus Notes did not integrate
with Active Directory.
The company decided to replace Lotus Notes with two cornerstones of Microsoft’s
collaboration platform, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office
SharePoint Portal Server 2003. The integrated network makes it easier to manage
and maintain users.
CompUSA – Communicating with a work force
of 14,000, which grows seasonally to 18,000,
spread across 245 stores in more than 90
metropolitan markets has always presented a
challenge to CompUSA.
“With this new solution, we will be
able to use Active Directory user
profiles to craft e-mail messages that
are much more targeted to specific
users and their job responsibilities.
This will cut down on e-mail traffic
while improving our ability to deliver
just the right messages to store
managers.”
Since 1993, the company had used Lotus Notes
as its messaging platform. Staff at headquarters
used e-mail to communicate with people at the
Cathy Witt, Chief Information Officer,
store level, but high employee turnover forced
CompUSA
CompUSA to minimize the number of users who
had access to Notes. “It was a mammoth job for us to assign user IDs with Lotus
Notes,” says Cathy Witt, Chief Information Officer for CompUSA.
9
In 2003, CompUSA decided to move to a Microsoft-based messaging solution
consisting of Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and SharePoint Portal
Server 2003. With the integration of Exchange Server and Active Directory,
CompUSA administrators are able to easily design policies for establishing and
changing mailboxes, create access control lists to help ensure that e-mail messaging
and collaboration are secure, and enable services such as mobile access. By
providing single-logon capability and a central repository for information for the
entire CompUSA infrastructure, Active Directory greatly simplifies both user and
computer management.
Increase end-user and business process value
This section will describe how many Lotus Notes and Domino customers have
generated a great deal of value by moving to the Microsoft collaboration platform.
Applications such as the Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 messaging and collaboration
client and Windows Mobile® software improve the effectiveness of remote and
mobile workers. SharePoint Portal Server and the InfoPath™ 2003 information
gathering program increase productivity by enhancing workgroup collaboration and
enable companies to redesign and automate their business processes.
Improve effectiveness of remote and mobile workers
More and more employees need anytime, anywhere access. Many Lotus Notes and
Domino customers are struggling to implement robust, scalable solutions for remote
and mobile workers. Microsoft is able to support the full information and functionality
requirements of the user regardless of the user’s location.
Table 6. Moving from Lotus Notes and Domino to Improve Effectiveness
of Remote and Mobile Workers - Examples
Company
Katten Muchin
Rosenman
CompUSA
Benefit Area
Productivity and
data security of
remote and
mobile workforce
Productivity and
effectiveness of
its remote work
force
Business Measure
Increased lawyer
productivity and
revenue potential
Reduced cost of
secure remote
connections
Increased productivity
and effectiveness of
store employees
Microsoft Solution
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
with Outlook Web Access
Windows Mobile 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
Katten Muchin Rosenman – The firm wanted to enhance client service and
increase productivity when its attorneys were off-site.
Katten Muchin Rosenman had been running its messaging solution on Lotus Notes
but found that solution less than optimal for its 1,800 users. On the client side, Notes
lacked the productivity- enhancing personal information manager interface, including
10
calendaring and e-mail, of Microsoft Outlook
software. In addition, third-party plug-ins for key
legal products were increasingly being developed
first for Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook,
and a year later for Notes if at all, according to
Alexander Diaz, Enterprise Development
Manager for Katten Muchin Rosenman.
“Outlook 2003 and Exchange Server
2003 will enable our attorneys to stay
connected while away from the office,
increasing their productivity twofold.”
Alexander Diaz, Enterprise
Development Manager, Katten Muchin
Rosenman
Katten Muchin Rosenman decided to move to
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with Outlook Web Access, Outlook 2003, and
Windows Mobile-based devices on the client side. The move to Exchange Server and
Outlook will give users a broader range of options for mobile computing while away
from the office. Laptop users will use Cached Exchange Mode to replicate their entire
mailboxes to their desktop version of Outlook 2003, enabling them to check any file
attachment that they receive through email no matter where they are.
Katten Muchin Rosenman will also take advantage of the ability of Exchange Server
2003 and Outlook 2003 to enable secure remote connections without a traditional
virtual private network (VPN). The software accomplishes this by tunneling remote
procedure calls inside HTTP from Outlook to Exchange Server, providing secure
remote access more easily and cost effectively than VPNs.
CompUSA – The organization relied heavily on
e-mail to communicate with store managers, but
its Lotus Notes system lacked the features
needed to send targeted messages to particular
users.
“The bulk of our employees are out on
the store floor. With Lotus Notes, it
was hard for us to get information to
these employees quickly. The
capabilities of SharePoint Portal Server
are changing that.”
Cathy Witt, Chief Information Officer,
After evaluating the alternatives and conducting
CompUSA
a proof of concept, CompUSA decided to migrate
to a Microsoft-based messaging solution
consisting of Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and SharePoint Portal
Server 2003.
Cathy Witt, Chief Information Officer for CompUSA, says the most significant benefit
will be the ability of CompUSA headquarters to streamline and target
communications to permanent employees with e-mail accounts, particularly store
managers. With SharePoint Portal Server, the company can more easily distribute
promotional announcements and other information that directly affect how well
employees such as floor salespeople and cashiers can do their jobs. An employee’s
profile in Active Directory determines what the employee sees on the portal.
Enhance workgroup collaboration
Many companies using Lotus Notes and Domino
have recognized the potential benefits of
capitalizing on their current Microsoft Office
System applications to more easily collaborate
with each other, external suppliers, partners,
and customers.
“It’s very beneficial to have the portal,
Office, e-mail, messaging, and all the
other Microsoft tools work together,
enabling people to collaborate
naturally.”
Keith Giacomo, Senior Principal
Information Technology, CGI-AMS
11
Table 7. Moving from Lotus Notes and Domino to Enhance Workgroup
Collaboration - Examples
Company
CGI-AMS
Benefit Area
Project
collaboration
Business Measure
Microsoft Solution
25 percent decrease
in document
production time
Revenue increase due
to improved
productivity
Accenture
Workgroup
collaboration
Reduced IT support
costs
Simplified
collaboration with
external groups
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with
Windows SharePoint Services
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with
Windows SharePoint Services
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
CGI-AMS – As introduced previously in this paper, the firm needed tools to make
collaboration easier, capture and leverage project experience, and uniformly manage
centralized workspaces.
To achieve these objectives, AMS decided to replace their Lotus Notes based project
management application, “Project in a Box”, and deploy a new information
management and collaborative work environment based on the Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 operating system with Windows SharePoint Services, SharePoint Portal
Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000. This solution
enabled AMS to implement enterprise-wide standards for all project-related activities
and access a single portal for analyzing and rendering data.
The project life cycle—from planning to delivery— has decreased by 10 percent. This
Previous CGI-AMS Project Document
Collaboration Process
2. Collaborators
return individual
documents with
revisions to
originator to
finalize
1. Originator
creates document
and submits to
collaborators using
e-mail, hard copy,
or CD for review
New Process Using SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
2. Collaborators
review and apply
changes to
document in
SharePoint Portal
Server
1. Originator creates
document and saves
to SharePoint Portal
Server
Collaborator
Collaborator
Originator
Originator
SharePoint
Portal
Server
Collaborators
Colaborator
Figure 3: CGI-AMS Project Document Collaboration Process Comparison
12
means more projects can be completed per year with fewer resources, resulting in
$50 million revenue growth for the first year alone. Quality and consistency
improved through the use of standardized templates and processes. Features such as
document check-in/check-out and versioning prevent interference with another
person’s work on shared files, eliminate proliferation of non-synchronized
documents, and have help cut more than 25 percent from the typical document life
cycle (creation, editing, and approval), and provide clear audit trails with high
document security.
Accenture - As Accenture’s business expanded
to include collaboration with third parties, the
proprietary nature of Lotus Notes began to
interfere with the company’s ability to
communicate and collaborate. Accenture
realized that it needed a more efficient way to
collaborate.
“We are committed to providing a
single, integrated desktop application
suite, enabling increased productivity
of our people and giving them greater
capability to collaborate and
communicate with clients and other
companies.”
Frank Modruson, Global Chief
Information Officer, Accenture
After carefully evaluating Microsoft and IBM
solutions, Accenture decided to migrate to
Microsoft Exchange Server, Office Outlook, and Windows SharePoint Services.
Exchange Server has dramatically improved the ease and quality of communication
between Accenture and its clients, strategic partners, and suppliers. “Because
Outlook uses HTML, and not a proprietary format like Lotus Notes, we can have
richer communication with our clients and partners…,” says Joseph Paradi, Senior
Manager of Infrastructure Architecture at Accenture.
With Windows SharePoint Services, Accenture created a central web location where
employees can share project information, documents, contacts, and tasks. “We
wanted to install the new set of applications for our users and to stop creating legacy
databases in Lotus Notes by offering a new collaboration option,” says Janet Remus,
Associate Partner for Accenture. “With 15,000 databases, we have a lot of content,
and our goal was to minimize our costs by not having to do a lot of content
conversion.” The strategy seems to be working. Remus says that employees are
creating approximately 150 new SharePoint sites every month, which indicates a lot
of interest in and excitement for SharePoint Services.
SharePoint sites allow for self-provisioning, which means that users can create and
post sites and content without IT intervention. By cutting the support needs for
collaboration, SharePoint sites have lowered IT costs and freed up resources for
other essential tasks.
Improve business processes
The benefits of automating business processes
with collaboration software were sometimes hard
to achieve with Lotus Notes and Domino
technologies. Customers that have moved to
Microsoft solutions have taken advantage of
Microsoft’s additional functionality to redesign
and automate business processes with benefits
in increased productivity and improved quality.
“The new solution—which uses
InfoPath, Windows SharePoint
Services, and BizTalk Server—creates
greater visibility and control around
the provisioning process, beyond what
was possible with Lotus. It allows us to
be a proactive rather than a reactive
organization.”
Sara Allen, Information Systems
Manager, Sara Lee HBC Australia.
13
Table 8. Moving from Lotus Notes and Domino to Improve Business
Processes - Examples
Company
Benefit Area
Business Measure
Sara Lee HBC
Australia
Network access
provisioning
process
Increased IT staff
productivity
Wonderware
Web site development and maintenance workflow
Increased Web-team
productivity 50 percent
Clinic for
Minimally
Invasive Surgery
in Berlin
Patient record
management
Increased
documentation quality
Surgeon productivity
increased
Microsoft Solution
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003
Microsoft Content Management
Server 2002
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003
Microsoft SQL Server
Sara Lee HBC – The Sara Lee Household and Body Care (HBC) division in Australia
had developed several workflow processes based on the Lotus Notes client. The most
critical was its Employee Provisioning System (EPS), which managers use to
provision network access for the division’s 200 employees. When Sara Lee
Corporation directed its worldwide divisions to migrate from Lotus Domino Server
software to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Sara Lee HBC Australia needed to find
a replacement for its Lotus Notes-based workflow processes.
With the move to Exchange
Server, Sara Lee HBC saw an
opportunity to capitalize on
additional Microsoft
collaboration tools to automate
the EPS process to increase
throughput and reduce cost. By
deploying InfoPath, BizTalk®
Server and Windows SharePoint
Services in addition to Exchange
Server, the new workflow
solution goes beyond simply
replacing what Sara Lee had
before; it adds key functionality
to increase flexibility and
efficiency. The most significant
improvement is automated
management alerts sent to all
specified managers related to a
provisioning request, to notify
them that they need to approve
a change or a new user setup.
Sara Lee HBC Employee Provisioning Workflow
1. Manager opens
InfoPath form from
SharePoint library
2. Manager
submits
completed
form
Requesting
Manager
4. BizTalk Server
automatically updates Windows
SharePoint
status in SharePoint
Services
library allowing manager
to view updates and
approval
3. BizTalk Server generates
e-mail to business owners,
who approve or decline
request
BizTalk Server
Business
Owners
Figure 4: Sara Lee HBC Provisioning Workflow after deploying
Windows Sharepoint Services
14
This automated notification saves IT resources significant time in tracking down
managers for approval.
Wonderware – The Wonderware global
“SharePoint Portal Server provides a
network of 4,000 distributors and system
true online collaboration environment
integrators, as well as the internal sales force,
that really makes a difference in our
rely on the company’s Team Wonderware
ability to manage versioning. Now we
extranet site as a crucial portal for all the
can build in more control over the
approval process, and the webmaster
information that they need to sell Wonderware
no longer has to get involved.”
products. The existing process of maintaining
the Lotus Domino based site with the latest
Shauna Watanabe, Director of
information and desired functionality was
Business Systems, Wonderware
inefficient and made it difficult to respond to
the needs of the site’s different audiences. The company wanted to decrease
developer expenses and improve content management and collaboration processes
for its Web sites.
The Team Wonderware extranet ran on an aging, expensive Domino platform that
provided poor content management functionality. Workflow around content creation
and collaboration for any of the Web sites was a cumbersome process that generated
long e-mail trails with documents attached for review. The Marketing, Technical
Support, Training, and Legal Departments contributed the bulk of the content for the
Web sites with only a rudimentary workflow process. “Collaboration was through email: Here’s the latest version. What do you think? Check the areas highlighted in
yellow,” says Shauna Watanabe, Director of Business Systems at Wonderware. “We
had the inevitable mix-ups, and, without a clear approval process, content
sometimes got published before it was ready.”
Previous Wonderware Web site
Development Process
New Process Using SharePoint Portal Server
2003 and Content Management Server
1. Business owners create and
revise content in Word, then
submit request to webmaster
2. Webmaster converts
to HTML, uploads to
development Web site
Business
Owners
Development
Production Web site
Web site
Webmaster
3. Business owners
review Web site,
submit corrections/
approval to webmaster
Business
Owners
Business owners
create/revise
content on
SharePoint site
SharePoint
Site
4. Webmaster makes
revisions, uploads to
production Web site
Figure 5: Wonderware Website Development Process Comparison
With Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002 and SharePoint Portal
Server 2003, Wonderware employees can build, deploy, and maintain Web sites
quickly and efficiently. Workflow available in MCMS and SharePoint Portal Server will
replace the improvised e-mail process that was used for content collaboration and
document creation.
15
Wonderware estimates that it will achieve a 50 percent improvement in productivity
among the three web team full time equivalents that no longer will be spending their
time on routine content updates. This freed-up time will enable the developers to
work on new features and functionality to help capture additional revenue.
Clinic for Minimally Invasive Surgery in Berlin – Surgeons at the Clinic for
Minimally Invasive Surgery historically took all their notes by hand after treating
patients, entering them later in the clinic’s patient record management system. The
Clinic performs nearly 3,000 endoscopic operations a year—around 11 a day—in a
single operating theater. The amount of time
and paper required for the old system was much
“We now have more rapid access to
patient data, which means we can
too high, and ran the risk of mistakes through
make clinical decisions based on more
double entry of information. The clinic wanted to
comprehensive information. Since we
improve its management of patient records by
can document the details of patient
giving surgeons access to up-to-date clinical data
visits into the system within seconds
and store them in SQL Server 2000,
and images on hand-held devices throughout the
we have all the more time to attend to
hospital.
our patients’ special needs.”
Recently, the clinic replaced its Lotus Notes
Dr. Martin Susewind, Surgeon, Clinic
for Minimally Invasive Surgery
communications platform with Microsoft
Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003.
Outlook was integrated with the clinic’s electronic patient file system, OS:EPA.
OS:EPA stores all patient information in Microsoft SQL Server 2000.
In 2004, the clinic introduced Tablet PCs for the surgeons to use for note taking and
report writing, instead of having to type up their paper notes on their desktop PCs.
Doctors using the Tablet PCs also can access data from OS:EPA while at patients’
bedsides. Microsoft Office
InfoPath 2003 informationPrevious Patient Record Process for Clinic For Minimally
gathering system was
Invasive Surgery
introduced into the OS:EPA.
InfoPath 2003 uses XML, so
surgeons can enter
information into initial
Doctor consults with patient
Doctor takes notes by hand
Doctor types notes into patient
records management system
examination or operation
report templates which saves
time and avoids duplication of
efforts.
New Process with InfoPath and Tablet PC
By using InfoPath 2003 and
Tablet PCs, surgeons working
at the Berlin clinic have much
more rapid access to patient
data and can see it in a single
source.
Tablet PC
Doctor consults with patient
Doctor takes notes on Tablet PC and uploads
to patient records management system
Figure 6: Clinic for Minimally Invasive Surgery patient record process
comparison
16
Conclusion
Businesses increasingly see collaboration as an important element affecting growth
and profitability. Investing in the right collaboration solution is becoming a larger
concern.
As this paper has described, many companies
have generated significant business value by
successfully moving from Lotus Notes and
Domino to Microsoft collaboration platform. They
have reduced the cost and complexity of their
collaborative environment and reaped new enduser benefits as well as additional business
process improvements.
“Looking at how Lotus and IBM were
planning to change the architecture of
the product, we realized that staying
with the status quo would have been
more costly than migrating to
Microsoft.”
Frank Modruson, Global Chief
Information Officer, Accenture
Building the business case for a move to the Microsoft collaboration platform is a
significant and complex task. While this whitepaper has illustrated the types of
benefits that other companies have achieved, each company will have unique
opportunities for realizing value. Microsoft and its partners have significant
experience in helping organizations to identify and quantify the benefits and costs of
making the move to Microsoft and can assist in preparing a compelling and realistic
business case.
In addition to building the business case, carefully planning and communicating the
transition is critical to the success of the move to Microsoft. Companies of all sizes
with varying levels of Lotus Notes and Domino dependency have moved to Microsoft.
Microsoft and its partners have extensive experience moving Lotus Notes and
Domino customers to Microsoft. There are many proven coexistence tools, migration
application offerings, and change management services available to assist customers
with their successful transition to the Microsoft platform.
For companies considering moving to the Microsoft collaboration platform, there are
numerous documents and resources to help you make an informed decision.
Please go to:
Resources on the Microsoft collaboration platform
www.microsoft.com/business/collaboration/default.mspx
Resources on planning a smooth transition to the Microsoft collaboration platform
www.microsoft.com/technet/interopmigration/collaboration/default.mspx
17
Appendix – Customer Descriptions and Links to Full
Case Studies
Headquartered in Bermuda, Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing
company with approximately 123,000 employees in 48 countries.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=3192&LanguageID=1
ACNielsen ORG-MARG, a division of ACNielsen, is a leading market information company with 11 branch offices
and 48 field offices in India, and employs 1500 people.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=3704&LanguageID=1
Based in Tokyo, Japan, Bandai is the third largest toy company in the world with more than 30 subsidiaries in
eight countries.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=4479&LanguageID=1
CGI-AMS is an affiliate company of CGI, which is among the largest independent information technology and
business process service firms in North America.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=3495&LanguageID=1
The privately run Clinic for Minimally Invasive Surgery in Berlin, Germany, is a pioneer in minimally invasive
surgical techniques and technology-based workflow procedures for patient care.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=4012&LanguageID=1
Dallas, Texas–based CompUSA is a major U.S. retail supplier of computer and electronic products and services
with 245 stores across the country.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=13353&LanguageID=1
Malaysia’s largest professional service firm, Ernst & Young Malaysia provides assurance and advisory business
services as well as tax and corporate finance services to an array of clients.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=4751&LanguageID=1
Based in Marietta, Georgia, Graphic Packaging International is a leading provider of paperboard packaging
solutions to multinational food, beverage, and other consumable product companies.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=2561&LanguageID=1
Katten Muchin Rosenman, known prior to May 2005 as Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman, is a nationwide
commercial law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois serving startups, emerging-growth firms, middle-market
leaders, and Fortune 500 corporations.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=1901&LanguageID=1
Sara Lee Household and Body Care Australia is a division of Netherlands-based Sara Lee/DE. The division has
200 employees and markets its products throughout Australia and New Zealand.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=4406&LanguageID=1
Headquartered in Addison, Texas, The Staubach Company is the leading global real estate advisory firm that
delivers cost-effective solutions for the users of office, industrial, and retail space.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=3653&LanguageID=1
Headquartered in Lake Forest, California, Wonderware is a leading supplier of industrial automation and
information software.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=4640&LanguageID=1
Yamaura, founded in 1920 and based in Nagano, Japan, is a midsize general construction firm. Yamaura has 300
employees and annual revenues of U.S.$187 million.
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=3527&LanguageID=1
18