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Serena Software migrates from Google Apps to Microsoft Online Services #BPOS #msonline

In November 2008 it was all over the press : Serena Software is moving from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. The motivation for this move was TCO so the articles said. November 16, 2008 I wrote a blogpost on this :

eWeek featured an article with the title : “Serena to Dump Microsoft Exchange for Google Gmail, the Cloud”.

The article ofcourse got my interest and when I started reading I thought this can’t be true. The article is one big confusing apples and oranges overview. I am quite sure that nor Mr Bister of Serena, nor the journalist has used Microsoft Excel to do their calculations …

And my (arrogant ?) recommendation back then :

My recomendation to Serena Software would be to do some homework, look into Microsoft Online Services and reconsider their options …

read the whole blogpost : here

No more than a year later Serena Software has made the choice to migrate from Google Apps to Microsoft Online Services, and here is some of their motivation to do so :

… One of Serena’s core values is a deep, organization-wide commitment to customer success.  We work closely with our 15,000 worldwide customers to deliver solutions that help them be more successful.  As a result, we rely heavily on collaboration tools for our employees to share information and work together with customers and partners. 

This is one of the chief reasons we’ve chosen to adopt Exchange Online and SharePoint Online together with Office 2010.  They deliver trustworthy, enterprise-class solutions – with the performance, security, privacy, reliability and support we require. We know that Microsoft is a leader in the providing these kinds of solutions, and in our discussions with them, it became clear that they are 100% committed to Serena’s success and delivering solutions that drive the future of collaboration.

Using Office, SharePoint and Exchange will allow us to collaborate more effectively internally and with customers and partners, many of whom use the same technologies, and we can do so without having to deal with content loss or clients being unable to open or edit a document. In particular, Exchange is unchallenged in its calendaring and contact management abilities, mission critical functions for a global company such as Serena.

There are alternatives on the market that promise lower costs, but in our experience, this is a fallacy.  When looking at alternatives, CIOs should really evaluate the total cost of ownership as well as the impact on user productivity and satisfaction, as there can be hidden costs and higher TCO.  For instance, slow performance and/or lack of enterprise-class features (e.g., with calendaring and contact management) will torpedo the value of such a backbone system, and may get the CIO fired. …

Source : Microsoft Online Services Team Blog

Google’s prime argument for ‘switchers’ often is TCO (or plain cost is a better choice of words) and most often always comparing older versions of on-premise email systems to their online offering. Apples and oranges as I have explained more often.

Serena Software’s motivation for migrating from Google Apps to Microsoft Online Services is one of value. The sheer value the Microsoft collaboration platform can bring to an organisation compared to just a cheap solution proves to be more valuable in the long run.

And Serena Software is not the only organisation switching from Google Apps :

• Vinci PLC leaves Google Apps for Microsoft watch the video interview http://bit.ly/9FBvl0
  
• Phaeton Automotive blogs on their decision to leave Google Apps for Microsoft

Get The Most Value From Social Computing For Business

New whitepaper by Microsoft on the benefits of Social Computing for Enterprises :

The whitepaper discusses the value of social computing for business, citing 2 customer references of large scale enterprise deployments, and the technologies that enable successful results from social computing.

The whitepaper also addresses the business and technical benefits from using SharePoint Products and Technologies and how the platform differentiates compared to other social computing vendors.

Social computing is not a passing trend, so organizations should think of this “new way of work” in context of a broader enterprise collaboration strategy.

Source : Get The Most Value From Social Computing For Business
Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:50:23 GMT

Inter Access levert SharePoint Online aan Leiden

Een mooi voorbeeld van Microsoft Online Services in de gemeente markt …

… De gemeente Leiden neemt een nieuwe samenwerkingsomgeving in gebruik, die door Inter Access is ingericht en geleverd. Deze 'het nieuwe werken'-omgeving is gebaseerd op Microsoft SharePoint en biedt samenwerkingsportals waar medewerkers van de gemeente informatie delen, gezamenlijk documenten creëren en de voortgang van projecten en processen bewaken.

Inter Access voerde in 2009 bij de gemeente Leiden een proof of concept uit met Microsoft SharePoint als platform voor samenwerking. Hierdoor kon de gemeente zonder al te veel kosten ervaring opdoen met het platform voordat werd besloten er (gemeente)breed mee door te gaan. Inter Access maakte daarbij gebruik van IMPACT 2.0, een  methodiek om het nieuwe werken bij organisaties in te voeren.

De gemeente Leiden neemt de Microsoft SharePoint-omgeving af in een cloud-variant: Microsoft Online Services. Daardoor beschikken de medewerkers over alle functionaliteit op het gebied van SharePoint, Office Communication Server, Exchange en Live Meeting zonder dat de beheerlast toeneemt. Alle functionaliteit is via internet beschikbaar. Inter Access verzorgt het beheer van de omgeving. …

Bron: Channelweb.nl

SkyTeam bespaart aanzienlijk met overstap op Microsoft online applicaties

Wortell, een van de Microsoft Online Services partners van het eerste uur is verantwoordelijk voor deze mooie BPOS implementatie. SharePoint Online wordt nu gebruikt door ongeveer 450 medewerkers van de luchtvaartmaatschappijen die binnen SkyTeam in werkgroepen samenwerken.

… SkyTeam, de wereldwijde alliantie van luchtvaartmaatschappijen, heeft gekozen voor de Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). BPOS is door SkyTeam in samenwerking met Wortell geïmplementeerd. Het centrale kantoor van de alliantie op Schiphol werkt al enkele maanden met de onderdelen Exchange Online, Office Communications Online en Live Meeting. Het laatste onderdeel van BPOS, SharePoint Online is nu ook in gebruik genomen. Door deze keuze wordt een kostenbesparing bereikt van ongeveer 50 procent vergeleken met een traditionele omgeving.

SkyTeam heeft negen leden – Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, Aeroflot, Delta Air Lines, China Southern Airlines, Czech Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines en Korean Air – en twee geassocieerde maatschappijen Air Europa en Kenya Airways. Met 13.122 vluchten per dag vervoeren de SkyTeam-leden (www.skyteam.com) jaarlijks 384 miljoen passagiers naar 856 bestemmingen in 169 landen. Het centrale kantoor van de alliantie gebruikt nu de volledige Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite voor de bijna 20 medewerkers die veel mobiel werken. Zij hebben dankzij BPOS altijd en overal, gemakkelijk en snel toegang tot hun bedrijfsgegevens. Aangezien het centrale kantoor in Amsterdam staat, werd in Nederland gezocht naar een Microsoft-partner voor de implementatie van BPOS. Wortell voldeed het beste aan de eisen.

SkyTeam heeft voor BPOS gekozen om het IT-beheer zoveel mogelijk te beperken. Dankzij de overstap op BPOS zijn geen investeringen nodig in de serverinfrastructuur, softwarelicenties en IT-personeel. Bruno Faccini, verantwoordelijk voor IT bij SkyTeam: “Ik denk dat we met de overstap op BPOS ongeveer 50 procent van de kosten besparen, vergeleken met de voorgaande situatie. De bekendheid met de tools - zodat er geen tijd verloren gaat met het leerproces - en de probleemloze integratie met onze IT-omgeving waren voor ons belangrijke redenen om te kiezen voor het online-aanbod van Microsoft.” SkyTeam heeft ook gekeken naar voor de hand liggende alternatieven. Maar de Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite sloot naadloos aan op de systemen die SkyTeam al in gebruik had. Ook kon BPOS in gebruik worden genomen zonder noemenswaardige IT-inspanningen.

Danny Burlage, oprichter en Technisch Directeur van Wortell: "De migratie naar BPOS is relatief simpel. Organisaties die hun hele e-mail infrastructuur migreren zijn doorgaans binnen enkele weken klaar met het complete project, waarbij de technische migratie veelal binnen enkele dagen is gedaan. Met BPOS kunnen we dus in zeer korte tijd een complete zakelijke online omgeving opbouwen, zonder na te hoeven denken over de technische infrastructuur. Het gaat dus voornamelijk om de bedrijfsmatige inrichting van de software, zoals we bij SkyTeam met SharePoint Online hebben gedaan." …

Bron en vervolg van persbericht : MCSonline.nl

Microsoft Online Services / BPOS Case studies

As the BPOS business is really taking off, a lot of clients and partners ask us for reference cases during the sales cycle.

When you go the the Microsoft Case studies website you can find all them under the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite solution.

Here’s the right query : Business Productivity Online Standard Suite.

It includes both clients and partner reference cases.

We have a few good Dutch references in the pipeline … stay tuned.

'Twee e-mailsystemen naast elkaar is geen optie' Verzekeraar Achmea migreert van Notes naar Exchange

Computable publiceerde gisteren een moooi artikel over de emailmigratie van Achmea van Lotus Notes/Domino naar Microsoft Exchange. De emailmigratie is al enige tijd geleden, maar de publieke communicatie volgt altijd later. Achmea is een van de vele organisaties in Nederland die deze migratiestap heeft gemaakt in de afgelopen jaren.

De quote over de keuze van Microsoft Exchange in het artikel vind ik heel mooi :

'Het was een gemakkelijke keuze', vertelt de programmamanager. 'Exchange is de de facto standaard in vergelijkbare bedrijven en we willen geen uitzondering zijn. Bovendien hebben de meeste medewerkers thuis geen Notes en gebruikte hun vorige werkgever het ook niet.'

Het feit dat Microsoft nu ook een Exchange Online oplossing heeft gaat de resterende bedrijven in Nederland die nog op Lotus Notes / Domino zitten zeker helpen die beslissing (sneller) te nemen ..

… Na de fusie met Interpolis besloot verzekeringsmaatschappij Achmea zijn mailomgeving te migreren van IBM Lotus Notes naar Microsoft Exchange. 'Het was een makkelijke keuze', vertelt programmamanager Steph Berghuis. 'Exchange is de de facto standaard in vergelijkbare bedrijven.' Toch is niet iedereen tevreden.

Het is rustig in het grote pand van verzekeraar Achmea in Apeldoorn, met hier en daar wat medewerkers die aan hun pc of notebook werken. Net zo rustig als vorig jaar, toen de hele organisatie overstapte van IBM Lotus Notes naar Microsoft Exchange. Die migratie verliep vrijwel probleemloos, vertelt programmamanager Steph Berghuis van Achmea IT. 'We hebben tijdens de projectinventarisatie geen gekke dingen over het hoofd gezien.'

Migreren was nodig doordat Achmea in 2005 fuseerde met Interpolis. 15.000 medewerkers van Achmea gebruikten Notes en de 8000 van Interpolis hadden twee Exchange-omgevingen. Het naast elkaar gebruiken van beide platformen was geen optie, legt Berghuis uit. Hoewel tweederde van de gecombineerde organisatie Notes gebruikte, werd het Exchange.

Gemakkelijk

'Het was een gemakkelijke keuze', vertelt de programmamanager. 'Exchange is de de facto standaard in vergelijkbare bedrijven en we willen geen uitzondering zijn. Bovendien hebben de meeste medewerkers thuis geen Notes en gebruikte hun vorige werkgever het ook niet.' Het bedrijf gebruikt Exchange voornamelijk voor e-mail, agendabeheer en interne chat.

Per afdeling zette de verzekeraar in zo kort mogelijke tijd de drie systemen over op een nieuwe Exchange-server. 'Vooral de verhuizing van Notes was een huzarenstukje', vertelt Berghuis. Zo kon het persoonlijke mailarchief van Notes niet worden overgezet, waardoor alleen berichten jonger dan twee maanden werden ingeladen in Exchange. Voor oudere correspondentie moeten medewerkers alsnog de archieffunctie van Notes gebruiken. 'Maar uiteindelijk ging alles goed. Achteraf was iedereen er blij mee.' …

Read more: Computable.nl

Forrester : Case Study: Learning From GlaxoSmithKline's Cloud-Based Email Decision Process

GlaxoSmithKline already in January announced they plan tp save up to 30% on their Communication and Collaboration infrastructure costs by moving from Lotus Notes/Domino to Microsoft Online Services.

Forrester created a research paper on this that provides more background. Very interesting read for this still on Lotus Notes :

Executive Summary

GlaxoSmithKline is moving approximately 90,000 email users to Microsoft's Exchange Online, a cloud-delivered service. To make the decision, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) went through a rigorous internal discovery process to calculate costs, find dependencies, and analyze its workforce. The result is that GSK is able to optimize its messaging and collaboration platform to meet the full range of its end users' requirements — while saving on its ongoing costs. To make your own cloud-based opportunity, learn from GSK's experience and: 1) analyze your workforce needs; 2) tier your workforce to optimize costs; and 3) calculate your own fully loaded costs.

Continue at source : Forrester.com

NIBC Bank kiest e-office voor migratie IBM Lotus Notes naar Microsoft Exchange

Weer een Microsoft klant die van Lotus Notes Domino naar het Microsoft platform migreert. Al enige jaren geleden is NIBC SharePOint gaan gebruiken, nu de laatste lootjes …

… Houten, 28 april 2009 - e-office, the human software organisation en specialist in het optimaliseren van de digitale werkomgeving van professionals, verzorgt voor de Nederlandse zakenbank NIBC N.V de migratie van IBM Lotus Notes naar de Microsoft Exchange-omgeving. De migratie past in de lijn van NIBC's strategische keuze voor het Business Productivity-platform van Microsoft als basis voor hun digitale werkomgeving.

"e-office heeft uitgebreide kennis van en ervaring met beide technologieën. Zij voeren vaker migraties als deze uit, maar de belangrijkste reden dat NIBC voor e-office kiest, is hun projectaanpak. De grote aandacht voor de eindgebruiker in de verschillende fases van het project is uniek", aldus David van ’t Hoog, Manager Infrastructure van NIBC. "Wij zien dat de aandacht voor de mens in alle fases van het traject, de acceptatie binnen de gehele organisatie verhoogt waardoor een soepele overgang naar een nieuwe werkomgeving ontstaat."
De migratie van IBM Lotus Notes naar Microsoft Exchange wordt bedrijfsbreed doorgevoerd. Het traject bestaat uit twee fases. In de eerste fase vindt een uitgebreid vooronderzoek naar de eisen plaats en wordt een analyse gemaakt van de huidige situatie. Daarna volgt de technische inrichting en uitrol. De inzet van workshops en persoonlijke trainingen maakt de overgang naar de nieuwe werkomgeving voor het personeel zo eenvoudig mogelijk.
Zakenbank NIBC biedt geïntegreerde oplossingen aan middelgrote bedrijven in de Benelux en Duitsland op het gebied van financiële advisering, financieringen en co-investeringen. Daarnaast is het een belangrijke speler op het gebied van asset financiering in sectoren als financiële dienstverlening, olie & gas industrie, infrastructuur en onroerend goed. NIBC Bank heeft kantoren in Den Haag, Brussel, Frankfurt, Londen en Singapore. Daarnaast richt NIBC Bank zich op de consumentenmarkt met de spaarbank, NIBC Direct.  …

Bron: e-office.nl

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) nu commercieel beschikbaar in Nederland.

Vandaag hebben we de laatste stap in de lancering van Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) gehad. Deze laatste stap is de Commercial Availability; dit houdt in dat BPOS vanaf nu te bestellen is in Nederland. ook betekent dit dat de bestaande evaluaties na 30 dagen aflopen.

Er zijn inmiddels al een aantal bedrijven in Nederland die BPOS gebruiken. Van 3 van onze klanten en de betrokken partners zijn vandaag Nederlandstalige referentie cases gepubliceerd. Hopelijk een goede inspiratie voor toekomstige klanten en onze partners.

	Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite levert NoSuch Company tijdbesparingen op tot 40%. NoSuch Company schakelde onlangs over van een eigen communicatieserver naar Business Productivity Online Suite, een krachtige set online diensten voor communicatie en samenwerking. Teus Baars, directeur NoSuch: Meegaan met innovatie levert gewoon business op, we gaan gigantische klappen maken.
	Procore realiseert met Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite nieuwe business. Adviesbureau Procore realiseert met Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite nieuwe business én kostenbesparingen van € 51.000,= en (jaarlijks) € 77.400,=
	annatommie bespaart op IT-kosten dankzij Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. Orthopedisch Centrum annatommie realiseert met Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite een jaarlijkse besparing op IT-kosten van € 43.000 en een zakelijke besparing door hogere productiviteit van € 105.000,= per jaar.

GlaxoSmithKline standardizes on Microsoft Online Services; service upgrades coming soon.

I just posted about the GSK decision to migrate to Microsoft Online.  The MS Online blog contains much more detail on this great win for Microsoft .. read all about it .

This is Erik Gunvaldson, Service Program Manager for Microsoft Online. We are excited to be launching in the very near future an upgrade of Microsoft Online Services in 19 new countries and 4 new languages. As part of this upgrade, we’re introducing instant messaging and presence awareness with Office Communications Online as well as streamlined, low-cost email and collaboration with the Deskless Worker Suite. If you are interested in access to this upgrade before general availability in early April, let me know through our feedback form or the comments below.

In the spirit of this international upgrade, I wanted to share comments from GlaxoSmithKline, a recent customer who decided to standardize on Microsoft Online Services for their more-than 100,000 employees worldwide. Below GlaxoSmithKline’s Vice President of Information Technology Strategy, Ingo Elfering, shares his experience deciding to make a platform change and provides advice for other companies considering a similar path. It is fascinating to hear this perspective from an industry leader like GSK, and a leader like Ingo who has such a significant global role in GSK’s IT organization. …

Continue at source: GlaxoSmithKline standardizes on Microsoft Online Services; service upgrades coming soon.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) reduces collaboration tools costs by migrating t0 Microsoft Online Services

 

On February 5th GSK presented their 2008 year end results.

The presentation contains a very interesting statement about their migration from their current collaboration platform (I believe this is Lotus Notes Domino) to Microsoft Online Services.

On slide 43 they state :

Innovative partnership with Microsoft Online: 30% decrease in collaborative tool costs …

This illustrates quite clearly how Microsoft Online Services can contribute to substantial cost saving / cost predictability for organisations …

Source : GSK 2008 Year End Presentation

Quest’s IBM Lotus Notes migration campaign : 800.000 licenses sold in 2008

Quest provides many solutions for organisations that are migrating from IBM Lotus Notes / Domino to the Microsoft platform.

In the newsletter I receved today they provide a brief overview of some of the clients who have licensed Quest software to migrate to Microsoft Exchange and / or Microsoft Office SharePoint :

Notes-to-Exchange Migrations

Quest sold more than 800,000 licenses of Notes Migrator for Exchange in 2008. Some of our recent wins include:

• CACI International
• Dentsply International Inc.
• Dominion Resources (with Coexistence Manager for Notes) 
• ECCO
• Hendrickson International Corp (migrating to Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite)
• Highmark
• LHDN Malaysia 
• Light (Portuguese case study now available) 
• National Australia Bank Ltd
• Revlon Consumer Products Corp
• Technip 
• University of New South Wales
• Virgin Atlantic Airways

Notes to SharePoint Migrations

Quest sold more than 100,000 licenses of Notes Migrator for SharePoint in 2008. Some of our recent wins include:

• AT&T
• Kirkland & Ellis
• Navigant Consulting (with Notes Migrator for Exchange)
• Nykredit (with Notes Migrator for Exchange and Coexistence Manager for Notes)
• Paramount Pictures
• Quintiles Transnational Corp (with Notes Migrator for Exchange)
• Sauer Danfoss    
• Swiss National Bank
• Wistron
• Xunta de Galicia
  
  
  Source: Quest.com

Also important news is that Quest also supports migration to Microsoft Online Services :

Quest Supports Migrations to BPOS

Notes Migrator for Exchange supports migrations to Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite, including a direct migration of e-mail and calendar data. Quest and PointBridge Solutions have successfully migrated Eddie Bauer to the cloud.

“This move toward hosted support keeps Quest in line with Microsoft, and one step ahead of our competitors," said David Waugh, Vice President of Unified Communications and Collaboration at Quest Software. "We are committed to always providing the best and most up-to-date technology for customers who are clamoring for the lower rollout and run rate costs that BPOS provides."
Click here to read the full press release.

Casestudy OCS 2007: Royal Dutch Shell Envisions Improved Working Environment with Unified Communications

A casestudy of Shell using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 for the 150.000 employees :

Royal Dutch Shell currently relies on multiple vendors for communications and collaboration services. Since these capabilities are not integrated, they can inhibit the effectiveness of the company’s global teams.

To improve the work environment, Shell has chosen Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 to provide a single user interface for all real-time communications.

Shell currently has 150,000 users taking advantage of instant messaging and presence and more than 8,000 users for the voice capabilities. Shell is currently testing Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and when fully deployed, the solution will provide an integrated platform for voice, video, instant messaging, and Web conferencing for all users within Shell.

Shell will be able to consolidate approximately 200 PBX systems and multiple audio and video conferencing services into a single cost-effective solution.

•  RoyalDutchShell OCS2007R2.doc
•  ShellCaseStudy 700k.wmv

Source and whole case study: Microsoft.com

AG: 'ROI-vraag geen issue bij collaboration-project’

Automatiseringgids publiceerde een goed artikel over de ‘ROI’ van collaboration projecten met specifiek Accenture als voorbeeld.

Accenture, ooit een van de grootste gebruikers van IBM Lotus Notes/Domino is naar het Microsoft platform gemigreerd en benoemd in het artikel de voordelen van het Microsoft platform. Het artikel biedt ook inzicht in was concrete ‘Enterprise 2.0’ voorbeelden van interne social networking bij Accenture.

… Accenture heeft in twee jaar tijd zijn platform voor onderlinge samenwerking gemoderniseerd. Notes moest daarbij plaatsmaken voor SharePoint.

E-mail is voor sommige bedrijven een beetje ouderwets aan het worden. Voor Accenture geldt dat ook in toenemende mate  - al wordt het zeker niet afgeschaft. Het bedrijf heeft zijn 186.000 medewerkers in 49 landen vanaf begin 2007 voorzien van een groeiende verzameling hulpmiddelen die in de IT-wereld doorgaans onder de noemer ‘collaboration’ vallen.

Ter verklaring van die beslissing geeft het bedrijf vaak het voorbeeld van de medewerker die een bepaalde expert binnen de organisatie zocht. Hij begon met het traditionele rondje per e-mail langs de collega’s uit zijn directe netwerk. Maar tegelijkertijd zocht hij op Accenture People, de nieuwe interne Linked­In­-variant, waar al veel medewerkers een volledig profiel hebben staan. Binnen twintig minuten was de expert gevonden. Het e-mailoffensief leverde dezelfde naam op – twee dagen later …

Veel organisties hebben inmiddels de van IBM Lotus Notes / Domino naar het Microsoft platform gestart of doorlopen (zie o.a. dit recente artikel).

Critici geven vaak aan dat de migratie van email niet het punt is, maar dat men nooit helemaal loskomt van de Domino applicaties. Binnen een grote organisatie zijn dat er vaak duizenden. Frank Modruson, Accenture’s CIO, heeft hier een heel duidelijk antwoord op. Zoveel Domino applicaties is ‘wildgroei’ en dat moet opgeruimd worden.

… Accenture was tien jaar geleden nog een van de grootste Lotus Notes-gebruikers ter wereld, maar het bedrijf is inmiddels geheel overgeschakeld naar Microsoft-technologie. De genoemde toepassingen zijn grotendeels gemaakt op basis van SharePoint, Outlook, Exchange en Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007. “We gebruikten Office al als platform en je kunt gemakkelijker nieuwe technologieën toevoegen. Je iPhone is in drie stappen in de Exchange-omgeving in te haken. Dat soort dingen was belangrijk voor ons.” Als bijkomend voordeel van een dergelijke ‘verhuizing’ noemt Modruson het opruimeffect. De vele duizenden applicaties die er op het Notes-platform waren aangemaakt, waren erg duur in het beheer. Eenzelfde wildgroei op het SharePoint-platform probeert Modruson nu bij voorbaat te voorkomen. “SharePoint gebruiken voor opslag is prima. Maar we willen daar geen bedrijfsapplicaties zoals we bij Notes kregen.” …

Zelf heb ik in de afgelopen jaren meerdere grondige Domino applicatie analyses gedaan bij grote Nederlandse ondernemingen en multinationals. In alle gevallen kan ik stellen dat zowel de Notes specialisten, ICT management en business management (als gebruiker van de applicaties) tot dezelfde conclusie kwamen als Dhr. Moduson; wildgroei die opgeruimd moet worden. Eigenlijk ook heel logisch, want bij elke migratie is rationalisatie van applicatie / functionaliteit de grote kans; meer doen met minder en ruimte bieden voor nieuwe innovatieve oplossingen. 

Gaan we verbouwen of verhuizen ?

Je zou zelfs kunnen stellen dat de ‘legacy’ van Domino applicaties IBM en haar klanten net zo in de weg zit bij een platform upgrade als dat het klanten aan het denken zet bij een migratie naar het Microsoft platform. Bij zowel ‘verbouwen’ als ‘verhuizen’ is opruimen de grote kans. Verhuizen biedt je echter nog het voordeel dat je dingen radicaal anders kunt doen, Accenture geeft daar goed inzicht in …

Bron : Automatiseringgids : 'ROI-vraag geen issue bij collaboration-project’

Microsoft Online Services - Casestudies

What better way than let customers and partners tell you they are satisfied and enthusiastic about your services. Here’s a first batch of customer casestudies for Microsoft Online Services :

• Partner Case Study: LINK Conference Service
  
  Online Services Provide Strong Entry into New Markets for Conferencing Company
  
  Concerned that the company might be typecast as a conferencing services provider only, executives at LINK Conference Service actively sought avenues to provide valuable new Unified Communications solutions to their clients. Extending company offerings, they believed, would not only add value to their existing customers; it would also open the door to new opportunities. LINK Conference Service quickly realized these anticipated results with the Microsoft® Business Productivity Online Suite. This new subscription-based service makes Microsoft Exchange Online, Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office Communications Online, and Microsoft SharePoint® Online available for a low cost, monthly, per-user subscription fee. The ability to offer hosted enterprise-class software solutions that a small business does not have, and that larger organizations can use to streamline their communications and simplify their IT management has helped LINK Conference Service win new clients such as Datatune and support its existing customers more fully.
  
  
• Customer Case Study: Datatune
  
  Online Services Help Software Firm Affordably Access Enterprise-Class E-mail
  
  Based in Seattle, Washington, Datatune is a small business software development firm that serves information-driven companies. After 10 years of running Microsoft Exchange Server onsite, Datatune moved to Google Apps to cut costs. Productivity diminished as users struggled with navigating the unfamiliar interface and had difficulty managing their schedules without the calendaring features of Microsoft Outlook to which they were accustomed. A year later, when communications solutions provider LINK Conference Service presented the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services, Datatune did not hesitate to sign up. With Microsoft Exchange Online and the familiar Outlook client software, Datatune gained an enterprise-class communications solution for a low monthly fee and without the expense or effort of maintaining an on-premise e-mail infrastructure.
  
  
• Partner Case Study: Virteva
  
  Reducing IT Management Burden Creates Opportunities for New Strategic IT Initiatives
  
  Many of the organizations with which the IT consultants from Virteva work have limited resources. As a consequence, these organizations feel they can barely maintain their existing IT environments at the levels they want. They certainly have no time to talk about whether their operations are running as efficiently as possible or how they might use other technologies to enable their organizations to accomplish even more. Virteva needed a way to help these organizations lessen the pain of running their IT environments. The Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services provides just that. By offloading the day-to-day IT management and infrastructure responsibilities to Microsoft Online Services, Virteva’s clients save money, gain unsurpassed support, and have time to work with Virteva on other IT opportunities that may provide more strategic benefits to their businesses.
  
  
• Customer Case Study: Archiver’s
  
  Online Services Delivers Enterprise-Class Communications to Growing Retail Business
  Archiver’s had established 45 retail outlets across the United States in less than eight years. But with that expansion came growing pains. The company’s POP3-based e-mail system, which had worked well during the company’s early days, no longer suited the enterprise into which Archiver’s was evolving. At the same time, Archiver’s was not in a position to migrate to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, much as its executives wanted to. Archiver’s three-person IT team did not have the time or the resources to build or support an expensive on-premise infrastructure. Archiver’s turned to Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Virteva, which introduced them to the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. By subscribing to Microsoft Exchange Online, Archiver’s gained the enterprise-class features and services it needed without the cost of building—or the burden of managing—in-house infrastructure.
  
  
• Partner Case Study: PointBridge
  
  Realizing a Recurring Revenue Stream by Reselling Online Services
  
  PointBridge specializes in connecting people to people and people to information with technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office Communications Server, as well as collaborative business intelligence technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Office Performance Point Server. But PointBridge also understands that for a large number of organizations, the infrastructure and staffing requirements associated with collaborative technologies is beyond reach. By directing these customers to the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, however, PointBridge has been able to offer the enterprise-class functionality these customers desire in an online form that eliminates the on-premise infrastructure requirements. For PointBridge, the results are happy customers and recurring revenue streams without associated cost of goods sold.
  
  
• Customer Case Study: Recycled Energy Development
  
  RED Saves Green Using Online Document Management Service
  
  Each Recycled Energy Development (RED) project involves complex, multimillion-dollar contracts that need to be carefully negotiated, controlled, maintained, and audited. RED recognized that it needed a better way to manage these documents, but it could not afford to divert its financial or human resources to support a full-service in-house document management infrastructure. Microsoft® Gold Certified partner PointBridge came up with a better approach that used Microsoft SharePoint® Online, part of the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft Online Services delivers the functionality RED needs without the upfront capital expense it wanted to avoid.
  
  
• Partner Case Study: Arctic IT
  
  Online Services Create Ongoing Revenue Stream while Delivering Customer Value
  
  Arctic Information Technology is a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner based in Anchorage, Alaska that offers end-to-end Microsoft business solutions to organizations in Alaska and throughout North America. Arctic IT recognized that many local organizations did not have the resources, infrastructure or staffing required to support on-premise collaborative technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Exchange Server. This barrier dropped with the introduction of the Microsoft Online Services and the Business Productivity Online Suite, which enable Arctic IT to provide enterprise-class functionality in an online, subscription-based form that reduces or eliminates the need for an on-premise infrastructure. As a result, Arctic IT can deliver business value to its small and mid-sized business client companies, while gaining new customers and creating a new recurring revenue stream.
  
  
• Customer Case Study: Staser Consulting Group
  
  Online Collaboration Services Support Consulting Company’s Quantum Growth
  
  Based in Anchorage, Alaska, the Staser Consulting Group (SCG) brings together an interdisciplinary team of experienced business intelligence professionals to help companies make better fact-based decisions. To handle a recent four-fold growth, SCG needed enterprise-class communication and collaboration software, but deploying an on-premise solution was not economically feasible, nor was it practical considering SCG’s virtual business model. As a knowledge-based company, SCG found the right solution when Arctic Information Technology—a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner—introduced the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft® Online Services, which provides the capabilities SCG needs in an online, subscription-based service. This solution enables SCG’s highly dispersed team to work together effectively and have access to the latest documents and contact information.
  
  
• Partner Case Study: SBS Pros
  
  Online Services Enables IT Consultant to Refocus on Higher Value Strategic Services
  
  SBS Pros is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Torrance, California that provides IT services to organizations across the United States—from the federal government to small and mid-sized businesses. Although SBS Pros offers a comprehensive portfolio of IT services, particularly in the area of security, it often found that it was spending more time helping clients administer and maintain core infrastructure than helping them overcome business challenges. With the introduction of Microsoft Online Services, SBS Pros can help its clients migrate their cumbersome in-house infrastructures to a cost-effective enterprise-class online service. This saves its clients money, strengthens its role as trusted advisor, and positions SBS Pros to more effectively help clients refocus on more strategic projects—which contribute more fully to SBS Pros’ bottom line.
  
  
• Partner Case Study: Evolve Partners
  
  Gaining a Comprehensive Messaging and Collaboration Solution to Meet Client Needs
  
  Many of the small and mid-sized organizations that Evolve Partners supports wanted more than just e-mail—they wanted more complete collaboration solutions to accompany their e-mail infrastructure. However, Evolve could not find a service provider partner that could offer a more comprehensive enterprise-class messaging and collaboration solution to meet its client’s needs. Not until, that is, Microsoft Online Services began offering the Business Productivity Online Suite. This offering provides precisely the kinds of enterprise grade messaging and collaboration tools that Evolve Partners’ clients had been seeking—and all for a low monthly subscription fee. Microsoft Online Services is helping Evolve meet its client’s needs, opening doors to new business opportunities, and increasing its revenues.
  
  
• Partner Case Study: BEI
  
  Online Communications Solution Opens New Doors for IT Service Provider
  
  Business Engineering, Inc. (BEI) has been designing, building and maintaining Microsoft® Windows Server®-based networks for clients in the Washington D.C. area for more than 20 years, but it knows that in-house infrastructures are not right for all organizations. BEI wanted a solution that would enable its clients to access to an enterprise-grade messaging and collaboration environment that they did not have to build and maintain in-house—and it found just the solution in the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. By reselling Microsoft Online Services, BEI can meet its clients’ need for enterprise-grade messaging and collaboration services, but requirements for in-house infrastructure and IT support resources are significantly reduced. It’s more cost-effective for BEI customers and it opens doors—and increases revenues—in ways that BEI could not before.
  
  
• Partner Case Study: ClearPointe
  
  Offering Online Services Points to a Clear Win for ClearPointe
  
  ClearPointe built its business on the remote management of client infrastructure. But many of the small to mid-sized business that ClearPointe serves were not taking advantage of newer messaging and collaboration technologies because of the high cost of building the infrastructure and licensing the software. When ClearPointe began to offer the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services, it found an excited audience among its clients. Arkansas Physicians Management, Inc., seized the opportunity to move forward with an e-mail migration project that had been languishing for years. This expanded service provider role enables ClearPointe not only to deliver results much faster and with virtually no up-front costs, but also to achieve increased revenues and an expanded set of business relationships with existing and new clients alike.

Energizer says Microsoft's a great host

Energizer is one of Microsoft’s first clients of desktop services; Microsoft Managed Services which was the precursor of Online Services … this has brought Microsoft reat insight as to what’s needed to provide these services and it has also brought Energizer some great benefits …

One might think that as a CIO, it would be tough to have someone else running all of your desktops and many of your servers.

Not so, says Randy Benz, CIO of Energizer. For more than three years, Energizer has handed off much of those duties to Microsoft. And he'd be fine with Microsoft running just about everything, save perhaps for the company's iconic battery-powered bunny.

"If I never run another server in there for the rest of my life, I'm as happy as can be," Benz said over lunch last week following the launch of Microsoft Online, essentially the company's effort to turn the Energizer experiment into a business.

Initially, Microsoft is offering to host only a few of its server products--Exchange and SharePoint, although over time businesses will gain the option to run most of Microsoft server products as a service running from inside the software maker's data centers.

So, one might reasonably ask what Benz and his team are doing if they aren't running all the servers and managing desktops?

For one thing, his group now offers a much broader range of computer training for Energizer workers. Beyond just teaching how to use specific products, Benz said Energizer now has classes for different types of workers focused on their particular role. One recent creation is a specific program just for road warriors.

"It cuts across products," Benz said.

Read on : cNet.com

Stenden Live @ Edu is ready for launch

Edgar van Gorkum, ICT Manager of Stenden University, blog about Windows Live @ EDU going live at Stenden University …

… Microsofts Live@edu E-mail is a part of Microsofts total suite called Live@edu, in which students of Stenden University become an e-mailbox of 10 GB, share agendas, create Microsoft Spaces and use a Skydrive of 5GB to store and to access data form any pc worldwide (with a Internet connection) Our primary goal is first to setup up this new e-mail environment, but feel free to use all other options available!

We are still working with Microsofts Live@edu team to give the interface a better look and feel. But for now every 1st years studenten of the Stenden University is able to use this new feature.In the next weeks/months all remaning students will be moved from the current e-mailsystem to Live@edu . …

For more information check out :http://chnet.chn.nl/liveatedu.html

Source: Weblog Edgar van Gorkum

Coke's Largest Bottler Taps Microsoft For SaaS

Good article about Coca Cola Enterprises choosing MIcrosoft’s Business Productivilty Online Suite and therewith replacing Lotus Notes / Domino based email system and extranet :

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Coke's largest bottling company, has faced seesawing fortunes in recent years, from a $1.1 billion loss in 2006 to a $711 million gain last year to lowered profit forecasts for this year, forcing changes across the business. In IT, one of the most visible is the company becoming Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s largest software-as-a-service customer to date, contracting for 35,000 employees to get their e-mail and other collaboration capabilities via a subscription service.

By later this year, most of the 35,000 knowledge workers at Coca-Cola Enterprises, known as CCE, will have moved from IBM (NYSE: IBM) Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook with Exchange Online, the SaaS version of Microsoft's e-mail server. It's the first piece of a larger move to Microsoft collaboration tools that CCE hopes will bring the company the ease of management and the consistent user experience of an integrated suite. The switch to a hosted model, which will take place over the next year, also will include SharePoint Online for ad hoc team collaboration and content management, Live Meeting for Web conferencing, and Office Communications Server Online for unified communications.

Up till now, CCE's collaboration strategy has used nonintegrated tools. There was an IBM-based extranet managed partially by a service provider, Lotus Notes for e-mail, a legacy intranet, and a separate Web conferencing tool. "We were missing the mark," says John Key, CCE's senior manager for collaboration.

When the new system's in place, executives will be able to broadcast live video to all of the company's knowledge workers. Employees will be able to schedule Live Meeting Web conferences through Outlook, or take a chat session in the Office Communicator instant messaging tool and turn it into a phone call. A new intranet based on SharePoint will include industry news, video and audio content, executive blogs, and employee polls.

Continue at Source: InformationWeek

Microsoft Online Services compelling for organisations using Lotus Notes ?

Microsoft announced the pricing and partner model for the Business Productivity Online Services last week at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston.

The press release also features a number of new clients, and some of them are (or have been) quite large Lotus Notes / Domino users such as Eddie Bauer, Nokia and Avivia Plc …

Maybe Microsoft’s Online Services promises to be a good  accelerator for “Exchanging” customers …

Microsoft Unveils Pricing and Partner Model for Web-Based Messaging and Collaboration Services

…  Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, today announced new pricing, packaging and partner compensation details for Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft Corp. is introducing two new suites of subscription services as part of the Microsoft Online Services family. The new offerings are tailored to meet the needs of the entire work force — from employees who use a PC infrequently to information workers who require advanced capabilities.

“Today we are taking an important next step in delivering Microsoft Online Services, and we’re doing so with a broad set of Microsoft partners, that are crucial to bringing this solution to our customers,” Elop said at the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston. “Microsoft Online Services is a key component of the software plus services initiative, and we’re seeing customers, partners and even competitors embrace this flexible approach to the cloud.”

Microsoft Online Services delivers enterprise-class Microsoft software as subscription services to businesses of all sizes hosted by Microsoft and sold with partners, and include Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft Office SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Communications Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. …

… Microsoft Online Services Momentum

Customer and partner interest in Microsoft Online Services remains high. Customers including Belay Development, Clean Power Research LLC, Cowan, Gunteski & Co., P.A., Eddie Bauer, Gunteski & Co. P.A., PFT-Medway and Transpara Corp have begun using the new services as part of a beta trial.

In addition, a growing number of large enterprises have chosen Microsoft Online Services for their messaging and collaboration needs, including A.P. Moeller-Maersk Group, Aviva plc, Doosan Infracore Co. Ltd. and Nokia. …

Source: Microsoft Unveils Pricing and Partner Model for Web-Based Messaging and Collaboration Services

Televisie land heeft het “Silverlight” gezien

AG meldt dat na de NOS gaat ook Net 5 gebruikmaken van Silverlight. DIt is een belagrijke erkenning voor een super Microsoft produkt …

Net 5 biedt live streams van Wimbledon

Tv-zender Net 5 gaat alle wedstrijden van het Wimbledon tennistoernooi live via internet streamen. Het maakt net als de NOS gebruik van een SilverLight speler.

Bron: Net 5 biedt live streams van Wimbledon

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. Announces Migration to Microsoft Collaboration Suite

This is a very cool (ice cold) reference to have. If I am not mistaking Coca Cola is a  Lotus Notes Domino shop ... Now moving 'to the cloud' to Microsoft's new

Business Productivity Online platform

 

 

 

 

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Coca-Cola Enterprises (NYSE: CCE) today announced that it will begin using Microsoft’s integrated communication and collaboration tools across its organization.

The use of Microsoft Office suite, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Office Communications Online and Live Meeting for Web and video conferencing will integrate CCE’s communication and collaboration capabilities and improve its speed, flexibility and effectiveness. This integrated platform will combine technologies by connecting software and internet services through Microsoft Online.

“To become the best beverage sales and customer service company, we must drive efficiency and effectiveness throughout our company while significantly increasing opportunities for collaboration among employees, customers and suppliers,” said John F. Brock, president and chief executive officer. “By working with a world-class leader like Microsoft, we can continue to drive innovation throughout our organization and more effectively address the complexities of today’s global business environment.”

“Coca-Cola Enterprises operates in an environment where better collaboration and communication can deliver a real strategic advantage,” said Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft Corp. “By providing the flexibility to manage software over the Web or from servers managed on-site, Microsoft Online will help Coca-Cola Enterprises drive greater efficiencies and enable employees to connect to each other more effectively than ever before.”

Coca-Cola Enterprises is the world's largest marketer, distributor and producer of bottle and can liquid nonalcoholic refreshment. CCE sells approximately 80 percent of The Coca-Cola Company's bottle and can volume in North America and is the sole licensed bottler for products of The Coca-Cola Company in Belgium, continental France, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Monaco, and the Netherlands.

Source: Businesswire.com

CIO Magazine: SharePoint 2007 Demystified: How to Cash in on Collaboration Tools

Very comprehensive and well balanced overview of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 :

... As the technology partner (head of IT) at global law firm Bryan Cave, John Alber saw increasing resources being devoted to keeping multiple information systems integrated and the data flowing among them. Over time, the law firm brought in what it considered the best tools to handle tasks such as document repositories, e-mail management, conflict-of-interest databases and calendar management, to help attorneys and support staff research, collaborate and stay abreast of case developments. And keeping those tools working together was a necessary price to be paid. But now, Alber is implementing a different approach: He's using the new Microsoft SharePoint 2007 platform as the common system for many of these tasks.

Until the new version's October 2007 release, Alber wouldn't have considered SharePoint, since its previous incarnation didn't have the management chops he needed. Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 was widely considered a departmental tool good just for non-critical intranet sites and project-based file sharing, says Rob Koplowitz, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. But the new version brings in much of what an enterprise needs to manage documents, create project workspaces, manage information repositories and tie into content management, analytics and search tools—all with IT-based control over security, access management and data structures. ...

Continue at source: CIO.com

Case Study : Q-go : Intuitive Language Software Automatically Answers 90 Per Cent of Customer Questions

Q-go is a Dutch company with an impressive lost of customers ...

... Q-go is a fast-growing independent software vendor (ISV) specialising in natural language search (NLS) technology. It wanted to offer its customers an alternative solution to search engines such as Google. By integrating the company’s NLS solution with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 for Search, users pose questions to organisations in their own language and get an immediate answer...

Source and full case study : Microsoft.com

HP's Unified Communications Journey, A real customers experience

CAsestudy about the UC implementation at Hewlett Packard :

... HP began deploying Exchange 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007 in live internal and customer environments long before these products came to market. In this session you will hear about the trials, tribulations and ultimate success of implementing a consolidated Exchange 2007 environment across multiple geographies, complete with Unified Messaging and then Office Communications Server 2007 integrated with Cisco Call Manager.

 
Understand the business objectives and requirements that lead to this implementation including the unexpected benefits as highlighted in the case study. Learn from our mistakes, understand the real value, and pre-requisites for full functionality and ultimately streamline your own deployment! ...

Source: Unified Communications Journey, A real customers experience
Author: Date Published: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:54:25 GMT

PGGM start een nieuwe blog over implementatie MsCRM

Arjen meldt de komst van een nieuw PGGM blog helemaal gewijd aan de implementatie van Microsoft CRM bij PGGM :

Afgelopen donderdag is akkoord gegeven voor de implementatie van een nieuwe CRM applicatie, Microsoft Dynamics 3.0, bij PGGM. Op het blog PGGM implementatie CRM zullen de komende maanden de belevenissen, ontwikkelingen, strubbelingen, tegenslagen, meevallers, kortom de ervaringen van de implementatie...

Source: PGGM start een nieuwe blog over implementatie MsCRM
Author: Arjen Bruinning
Date Published: Sun, 14 Oct 2007

PGGM gebruikt Office Communicator 2007

 

PGGM, een Microsoft klant die innovatie als een belangrijk middel inzet in haar processen heeft al enige tijd een innovatie blog. Tot mijn schaamte kom ik daar nu pas achter, maar beter laat dan nooit.

Op dit blog kwam ik de ervaringen die PGGM als 'early adopter' heeft met Communicator tegen ...

... Afgelopen maart lanceerde Microsoft de opvolger van Live Communicator Server, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 (public beta). En sinds 2 weken heeft PGGM deze software ook draaien en zit ik in het testteam. Mijn eerste ervaringen wil ik delen in deze post.  ...

... Een toegevoegde waarde zit ook in de simpelheid om een conference chat of call te organiseren. Het is een kwestie van contactpersonen uitnodigen en accepteren en een chat of call is opgezet. En gewoon via de microfoon en luidsprekers van de pc of laptop. Daar komt geen fysieke telefoon bij kijken.

Een optie die ook aangeboden wordt is het beluisteren via een normale telefoon van je voicemail, agenda en e-mail berichten. Daarbij kun je ook voice gestuurd signalen geven om bijvoorbeeld een afspraak een half uurtje te verschuiven wanneer je in de file staat (de genodigden krijgen ook automatisch een wijziging toegestuurd). De menusturing is nog in het Engels, maar een vriendelijke vrouwelijke stem leest de e-mail berichten in Nederlands voor. En dat doet ze best aardig. Aangezien ik uitgerust ben met een PDA en Windows Mobile zal ik waarschijnlijk van dit spraakgedeelte weinig gebruikmaken. Ook de voicemail berichten worden straks gemaild, dus die krijg ik per e-mail binnen. Waar ik wel gebruik van zal maken is de mogelijkheid om iemand te bellen vanuit de spraakbesturing. Scheelt weer moeilijk doen op mijn touchscreen PDA. [ik begrijp net dat dit onderdeel is van Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging: thanks Hans]

Op dit moment wordt de Communicator alleen nog getest door een beperkt aantal collega's binnen PGGM en staat de verbinding nog niet open naar buiten voor externe contacten. Ik hoop dat dit wel snel zal gebeuren.

Ik ben enthousiast over de mogelijkheden en het gebruiksgemak dat Communicator biedt en zal het ook zeker blijven gebruiken. Sterker nog, ik denk dat het gebruik alleen maar zal toenemen, vanwege de verschillende communicatiemogelijkheden. En ik ben ook blij dat de IT afdeling van PGGM het initiatief heeft genomen om een pilot te starten met het doel om het uiteindelijk onderdeel te laten zijn van de beschikbare communicatieset van PGGM. ...

Bron: PGGM Innovatie Blog

Today e-office upgraded to OCS2007RTM!

Joachim Farla of e-Office , one of our business partners, reports that they have upgraded to the OCS 2007 RTM version. Great stuff Joachim ...

Milestone!

Today I upgraded the entire OCS environment from e-office to RTM. We also have installed Microsoft Communicator Web Access. In the next couple of days users are migrated from LCS2005SP1 to OCS2007. More information on how to migrate read my blog or contact me by e-mail

Unified Communications

Source: Today e-office upgraded to OCS2007RTM!
Author: Joachim Farla (MCSE2003)
Date originally published: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:17:38 GMT

Forrester: Case Study: Microsoft Customizes Multilevel Privacy Training For Its Employees

This was initially before my time, but now its part of our annual training programs ...

... In the late 1990s, Microsoft moved to bolster the security of its products, services, and operations and found that its employees lacked understanding and awareness about data privacy. It then embarked on an employee training program. Although Microsoft had to overcome the challenges of a decentralized corporate structure in training its employees while also incorporating privacy awareness into its software development life cycle, it has succeeded in training 100% of its employees on privacy. But generic privacy training isn't enough: Microsoft has also instituted specialized training for data handlers, marketing and sales campaign managers, and its vendors. ...

Source: Case Study: Microsoft Customizes Multilevel Privacy Training For Its Employees
Author: "Jennifer Albornoz Mulligan"
Date originally published: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 04:00:00 GMT

Office Business Applications Momentum Book

Very good and comprehensive overview of the solutions and potential based on Office Business Applications.

 

... Read the success stories in this 49-page book to see how companies have created Office Business Applications (OBAs) to develop and strengthen customer relationships, create innovative products and services, improve operations, reduce costs, and build higher value connections with partners and suppliers....

Source: Office Business Applications Momentum Book
Date originally published: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:39:22 GMT

UK's NHS moving to Microsoft Exchange 2007 supporting over 260.000 users.

Several newssites report on the decision of NHS to move to Microsoft Exchange 2007. The size is enormous : 260.000 users. Aparently various solutions have been evaluated in a feasibility study and Microsoft came up a winner.

• Source : Sillicon.com 
  
  ... The NHS will be moving its internal email and directory system onto Microsoft Outlook, according to supplier Cable & Wireless.
  
  Cable & Wireless, which in 2004 took over responsibility for the NHSmail messaging system from its rival supplier EDS, said the system will undergo a "technology refresh" involving a transition from the existing core platform to Microsoft Exchange 2007. The switchover is planned for the spring of next year.
  
  Around 260,000 NHS staff use NHSmail, which, although it is accessible from any internet-connected computer, is a secure system for sending confidential patient information. It is believed to be one of the largest single-domain secure email systems in the world.
  
  In a statement, Cable & Wireless said, although "the technology originally deployed was found to be the most appropriate solution available at the time… rapid advances in technology have meant that new and alternative options have become available which better meet the evolving requirements of the service".
  
  Martin Goodman, managing director for public sector business at Cable & Wireless, said: "Cable & Wireless worked in partnership with NHS [Connecting for Health] on a feasibility study to establish the most appropriate technology solution moving forward and, between us, we have concluded that, as a result of increasing demands for functionality and flexibility of use, Exchange 2007 offers the best option for an enhanced user experience." ...

• Source : e-health-insider.com
  
  ...  “Most people are already familiar with Microsoft e-mail technology, but there will be multiple benefits from moving to Microsoft Exchange 2007, not least for clinicians the ability to put e-mails and wireless synchronization to mobile devices using the Exchange synchronisation.
  
  “There will also be the improvements through the use of the calendar, flags system and an increased disaster recovery capability. Even when the system is offline, the staff will be able to move mail into folders and store them easier. It will improve the contacts functionality, allowing managers especially to share contacts using v-cards. Spell checking facilities will be available and e-mail addresses can be saved so auto-completion lets you select an address quickly. Effectively, the transition will provide a greater range of options for e-mails and a much more modern view.” ...
  
  ... Connecting for Health listed the benefits to EHI in a statement. “The new NHSmail service will run on Microsoft Exchange 2007 and users will benefit from such new features such as:
  
  • ‘Push’ email and wireless synchronisation of calendar, contacts and tasks to mobile devices using Exchange ActiveSync
  • A very significant number of improvements to calendars – representing a completely new presentation of the calendar to our portal users
  • Increased disaster recovery capability
  • The ability to ‘drag and drop’ when organising folders, emails and calendars
  • The ability to make changes to accounts when offline, e.g. by moving mails between folders (if using MS Outlook)
  • Improved ‘Contacts’ function – including the ability to share Contacts with colleagues
  • Improved ease of use for the spell checker function
  • Improved ‘Help’ facility
  • A function to ‘auto-complete’ email addresses, based on previous addresses used
  • Greater range of options for altering the look of emails and the way an inbox is organised. ...
  
  ... Will Moss, programme head for NHSmail at NHS Connecting for Health, told EHI: “Microsoft Exchange 2007 with Outlook Web Access 2007 (for web users) will offer NHSmail users all the advantages that the current NHSmail service offers (security, web access, 24x7x365, email address for your career) with the added advantages of higher levels of functionality and usability. Easier and better functionality increases productivity and enables the automation of a wider range of tasks – more productivity means more time with patients.
  
  “The significant increase in functionality for NHSmail web users and the extension of the range of supported mobile devices will further enhance the working lives of the many peripatetic users in the NHS – extending the ways in which they can communicate with each other and their patients. As a result of the technology refresh NHS staff will be using the de facto standard for email services.”
  
  

Communications Firm Implements Next-Generation Groupware Using Microsoft Platform

New Notes migration casestudy was published today ...

LG-Nortel, founded in 2005 as a joint venture of LG Electronics and Nortel Networks, provides communication equipment and networking solutions to a global market. Recent rapid growth required the company to implement a new groupware environment to replace its existing Notes-based platform and to support projected capacity. It needed independent e-mail and communication systems; it wanted to synchronize its business processes with its IT systems; and it wanted an easy-to-implement system that would offer a robust IT infrastructure to support business capabilities. LG-Nortel opted for an in-house groupware environment using Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 to satisfy its requirements and increase internal and external communication capabilities. The new platform enables LG-Nortel to create a foundation for internal communication innovation.

Download full Document : Microsoft Download

New Lotus Notes Domino to Microsoft migration casestudies

Statoil

Oil and Gas Producer Migrates from Lotus Notes to New Information-Worker Solution

Statoil, a leading oil and gas producer, plans to merge with part of Norsk Hydro to create the world’s biggest offshore oil company. Statoil had depended on Lotus Notes for 10 years, but needed a new enterprise document and records management system to improve collaboration, archiving, and regulatory compliance. Having considered solutions from Documentum and IBM, Statoil worked with Meridio and Microsoft to roll out its new programme— Collaboration@Statoil - to more than 26,000 Statoil information workers. Statoil has consolidated all its records into a single repository, ensuring that previously hard-to-trace information stored in several locations could be located easily. Information workers are now much more productive and can share documents and data with external partners, regulators, vendors, suppliers, and other enterprises.

---

The Israeli Ministry of Defence

Israeli Defence Ministry Upgrades E-Mail System in Just Three Days

The Israeli Ministry of Defence (MoD) wanted to upgrade its e-mail messaging system for knowledge workers because the existing platform had become too expensive and provided insufficient support for Hebrew. After evaluating several options, the MoD replaced Lotus Notes with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 communication and collaboration server. The MoD also upgraded its desktop estate with Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 and Microsoft Office 2003. By using Microsoft Systems Management Server version 2.0, the software distribution process took just three days—without any glitches or inconvenience to users. The MoD considers it has advanced its e-mail messaging system a whole generation, improved integration with other critical systems, saved on employee training, and improved the productivity and satisfaction of users.

---

Just OnePlace

ISV Sees 300 Percent Revenue Increase with Partner Program Support, Technology Switch

When Just OnePlace evaluated its operations, the independent software vendor realized the significant benefits of moving from IBM and Lotus to Microsoft® technologies. The company made the switch and joined the Microsoft Partner Program, which opened doors for its technical and business staff. Since joining the program, Just OnePlace has experienced a 300 percent revenue growth and an enthusiastic response from customers and shareholders.

Ofcourse there's lot's more where these came from : Microsoft Casestudies on Lotus Notes Domino migrations

SharePoint Fuels Chevron Efficiency Project

Very good customer example of how SharePoint and Microsoft's ECM capability in general ...

... Two years ago, oil company Chevron Corp. noticed an alarming trend: Employees were creating digital files such as emails so quickly that the amount of such data was growing at 60% a year.

The explosion of these office documents -- not including the technical data that Chevron gets from its refineries -- produced several ill effects. Besides the cost of buying new storage systems, Chevron's employees were spending between 1½ to three days a month just searching for the correct information they needed to do their jobs, taking a toll on productivity, the company found.

"We haven't adequately managed all our information," says Lynn Chou, Chevron's general manager of global technology and strategy, adding that the 59,000-person company processes one million emails a day. "There's been a digital tidal wave."

To date, the San Ramon, Calif., company estimates it has amassed 1,250 terabytes of corporate office data such as emails, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, photos and video files. (Each terabyte is equivalent to the data of one million books). So it has launched a massive effort to reduce the flood, using a combination of technology tools and changes in employee work habits. ...

... Chevron's system will require new office documents to be tagged according to their type and importance, such as noting whether the document is confidential, classified or just informational. As a result, the company expects to delete some documents of lesser importance as soon as 90 days after creation. Employees will also be encouraged to work using SharePoint, rather than simply the Microsoft Office applications that they're used to. ...

source : Wallstreet Journal

How Dell Does IT : Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

A casestudy by Dell on their MOSS 2007 deployment ...

Challenge

The need to collaborate more effectively led business units within Dell to deploy their own instances of the Microsoft®  Office SharePoint®  Server, resulting in a decentralized infrastructure that contributed to higher costs and imperiled important business data

Solution

Dell Services and Dell IT upgraded to centrally managed Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 collaboration software deployed on DellTM  PowerEdgeTM  servers running the Microsoft Windows Server®  2003 Enterprise Edition operating system; to handle data access and storage, Dell IT deployed Microsoft SQL Server on Dell PowerEdge servers, as well as an EMC®  Symmetrix®  SAN and EMC®  Legato®  NetWorker®  SharePoint Portal Server Client Connection software

Benefits

The new collaboration tool set provided by SharePoint 2007 helps employees share knowledge and work together on projects more productively; the centralized SharePoint infrastructure contributes to higher availability, better disaster recovery, and a lower cost of ownership, as well as better security and easier compliance with regulatory requirements

Source : Dell.com

Windows Mobile gaining ground over BlackBerry in US Army

This is a very good first step in this account. I expect with the new Windows Mobile 6 OS that perhaps certain encrytion solution still required by the US Army may become obsolete in certain configurations, as Windows Mobile 6 supports Information Right Management also in the mobile email client ...

... Until recently, Army employees accessing sensitive e-mail messages on the Global Information Grid had to use BlackBerry wireless devices from Research in Motion Ltd.

“Now I have a choice,” said Lt. Col. C.J. Wallington, the Army’s advanced technologies director at Fort Belvoir, Va.

In February, the Army approved Sensa secure mobile e-mail from Appsware Wireless, doing business as Apriva, for use with sensitive-but-unclassified and for-official-use-only e-mail. The approval makes available to the Army a host of personal digital assistants from multiple carriers running the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system.

Sensa provides public-key encryption-Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions encryption for e-mail and attachments using the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard. It supports the Defense Department’s Common Access Card (CAC) and soft tokens stored on the device for authentication, signing and encrypting. In addition to securing transmissions, it includes ApprivaVault for encrypting data stored on the device. ...

Source : GCN.com

Kudos : Michael Sampson

KPN boosts share of Online Email Market with Hosting Solution

Hosted Exchange is a very hot topic judging for example based on the press coverage it gets in the recent months. Hosted Exchange solutions are not new; KPN, the largest telco in The Netherlands, for example introduced a hosted Exchange offering little over a year ago.

Today I got an alert that the case study is available in English. The hosted solution is part of KPN's offerings to consumers, called Het Net. It is also among the largest hosted Exchange Solutions in Europe, with over 1.5 Million users :

Download Casestude : Microsoft.com

NetworkWorld: Marines flex their muscle with SharePoint

Good example of an Microsoft SharePoint deployment is what you could call a mission critical environment. A solution based on SharePoint in combination with CorasWorks Workplace Suite is used  by the US Marines in Iraq ...

... While the Marines have been serving in every conflict since the Revolutionary War, there is one thing they have never had at their disposal – a virtual work environment to keep them connected.

That has changed with the Iraq conflict as the Marines are piloting a virtual office collaboration system built on the back of Microsoft’s SharePoint Server and the CorasWorks Workplace Suite, a set of business intelligence tools for building collaborative and workflow-based applications.

Marines playing a support role behind the front lines in Iraq use an application built for the SharePoint system to request supplies needed in the field. The Marines use a browser to access the secure system to request equipment and touch off an electronic workflow process that can be tracked from beginning to end. ...

Similar solutions are already used for quite some time for example by the FAA. Ron Simmons who is the director of KM integration for the Marine Corps Combat Development Command (MCCDC) seems to especially like the fact that SharePoint allows for a fully browser-based solution:

... Simmons created a similar system for the Federal Aviation Administration in 2002 that started out with 50 users. By 2005, it had 22,000 users and had been designated the FAA’s enterprise collaboration system and was being used for such tasks as storing engineering drawings and collaboration notes. The following year, Simmons was recruited by the Marines.

“I teasingly say that the FAA was version 1.0 and the Marines are 2.0,” says Simmons.

Just like the FAA system, the Marine Corp version has a browser as the only front-end software needed on client machines and it operates over a secure extranet using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

SharePoint serves as the repository and CorasWorks provides a layer of business intelligence. ...

The current solution is still based on SharePoint 2003, but that's only a matter of time. Furthermore Simmons is also considering of expanding the solution with Real Time capabilities using Office (not Live) Communications Server 2007 in the near future:

... He is now eyeing an upgrade from today’s SharePoint 2003 running on Windows Server 2003 to the recently shipped 2007 version that more tightly integrates with the Office family of tools.

Simmons is evaluating the improved workflow capabilities in 2007 supported by the new Windows Workflow Foundation technology and Live Communications Server (LCS) 2007, Microsoft’s real-time communications hub.

“LCS allows you to have presence or [instant messaging] capability within SharePoint,” says Simmons. “To me that changes group dynamics. Now while you’re sitting in a meeting you can connect to your staff through IM.” He says the goal will be to all a real-time communications element to the entire system.

“I get around to a lot of federal agencies and I can say in government we are reaching a tipping point to moving to SharePoint as our office environment,” says Simmons. ...

Cool huh : "in government we are reaching a tipping point to moving to SharePoint as our office environment"

New case Study : Tesco replaces Lotus Notes Domino by Microsoft Office System

Tesco, a very large organsiation with 380.000 employees moved from a heterogeneous collaboration environment to Microsoft Office System, replacing Lotus Notes Domino and other systems ...

... Tesco Employees Drive Service Excellence with New Communication Infrastructure

To work together effectively, employees need sophisticated, fully integrated collaboration tools. With this in mind, leading U.K. retailer Tesco has created a communication environment that takes advantage of major investments in Microsoft® enterprise and desktop solutions. The fully integrated solution is based on Windows® SharePoint® Services, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. The new technologies, which are set to enhance collaboration on a global basis, deliver project workspaces that capture key information and drive successful solutions for customers. What’s more, Tesco is reducing travel expenses and protecting the environment with new video conferencing capabilities.

Situation

Effective collaboration helps employees deliver better solutions for customers, promotes creative thinking, and reduces operational risk. In addition, it helps to drive productivity by improving communication between geographically distributed teams.

The success of leading U.K. retailer Tesco stems directly from the quality and commitment of its employees. The store, which operates a major international division, operates 2,500 stores worldwide, 1,900 of which are in the U.K. The group employs more than 380,000 people.

This international workforce consists of dynamic individuals working hard to develop world-class services for customers. The IT team, for example, aims to deliver excellent service for employees across the group, requiring consistently excellent communication between core teams in the U.K. and in Bangalore, India.

Previously, employees found it difficult to collaborate effectively between these locations. This is because communication depended on standard telephony, ISDN-based video conferencing, and Lotus Notes for e-mail and Web-based work spaces.

Mike Yorwerth, Group Technology and Architecture Director, Tesco, says: “With different communication platforms between the U.K. and India, we found it difficult to support effective employee collaboration. In addition, video-conferencing was expensive, limiting its value for driving projects.” ...

Source : Microsoft.com

VoiceCon: Shell bets big on Microsoft for global VoIP plans

Large article about the IP Telephony / Microsoft implementation at Shell. This is a huge and impressive project which is just getting started. Implementation involves Office Communication Server 2007, Exchange 2007 fully integrated with the Nortel IP telephony platform ...

... Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is planning a global VoIP rollout with tens of thousands of IP phones that will ultimately run off of a mostly Microsoft-based server platform.

Shell plans this year to begin testing Office Communications Server 2007, Windows Vista, along with Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007, and rolling the platforms into production by early 2008. Shell now has Nortel's Communication Server 1000 IP PBX running in its data centers, which host around 1,000 IP phones worldwide.

When the Microsoft infrastructure is in place, Shell will start to switch over large numbers of employees to Office Communicator softphone clients, hosted by the Microsoft OCS platforms, as well as Nortel IP hard phones, managed by CS1000 IP PBXs.

"Ultimately, we don't see the need for separate IP telephony" and Microsoft messaging platforms.That is our vision, but it depends on whether Microsoft delivers," said Johan Krebbers, group IT architect at Royal Dutch Shell, during a presentation at VoiceCon this week. ...

...With the forthcoming voice mail features that will be included in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Krebbers said OCS 2007 and Exchange will serve as the core VoIP and messaging platforms for the company. Nortel will still have a role in Shell's network for specialty applications such as call centers. Nortel VoIP gateway equipment also will be used in data centers, to connect to the public switched telephone network, as well as in branch offices, for backup phone connectivity. ...

Hotel developer to marry SAP user access to Office front end

This is a clear example of the value add of DUET i.e using Microsoft Office as the front-end for SAP Applications.

... SAP AG business software is often seen by users as complicated to work with. But one midsize company thinks it's solved the training and productivity challenges involved by using an Office interface with its SAP apps.

Englewood, Colo.-based hotel development and management company Stonebridge Companies announced Friday that it plans to use a special integration technology called Duet that will link its SAP ERP 2005 back-end suite with Microsoft desktop applications. Duet is a set of links between SAP's powerful business applications and Microsoft's Office software that allows users not versed in SAP's intricacies to easily synchronize tasks directly through Microsoft Outlook calendar software or other Office apps.

Stonebridge intends to use SAP ERP to help automate several of its financial, human resources, compliance reporting and real estate management processes. The move is designed to help Stonebridge, which develops properties over the western U.S., to double in size over the next several years, the company said in a statement. ...

Source: Computerworld.com

Rabobank Casestudy - Dutch Bank Improves Communications and Collaboration to Support New Way of Working

Very good casestudy on Rabobank. It articulates how the change process within a large bank is facilitated by innovative technology ...

Dutch financial services group Rabobank serves 9 million business and private customers. In 2010, it plans to close multiple offices in Utrecht and relocate 6,300 employees to a single campus. In tandem with the move, the bank is promoting its New Way of Working programme, which offers new flexible and home working opportunities. This will reduce the amount of office space required for each employee and cut overall operational costs by up to 15 per cent. To help achieve these benefits, further collaboration and support multimedia communications, Rabobank has deployed a new solution based on the 2007 Microsoft® Office system. ....

Read on : Microsoft.com

Dowload casestudy : Microsoft.com

Lotus Notes Domino to Microsoft migrations ... they keep on coming

A service to all of you is reminding you every once in a while that evey month we publish new casestudies of organisations that trade in their Lotus Notes Domino infrastructure for the Microsoft platform. What's good to see is that there's more and more Exchange 2007 case studies in there.

Festo, a company with some 11.000 employees, is a good example of adoption of Exchange 2007 and integration with SAP Portal.

Go check them out : Lotus Notes Casesudies on Microsoft.com

BMW Takes Employee Collaboration to New Heights with Communication Software

Good case study of BMW deploying 2007 Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

BMW is one of Europe’s most successful motor vehicle manufacturers, employing 100,000 people worldwide and managing 15 production sites in seven countries. Communication and collaboration between project teams and individual employees is central to the company’s success. In early 2006, the company agreed to take part in the Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) for the 2007 Microsoft® Office system and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. BMW employees are now taking advantage of more integrated communication tools to create, share, and store information, and to collaborate with co-workers on projects and business processes more effectively. The company also hopes to reduce administration management, hardware, and software costs by consolidating its messaging servers.

“Our IT administrators can maintain the new Exchange Server 2007 messaging system and get a faster run time, using less server hardware.”

Bernd Heckelmann, Project Manager for the Microsoft Exchange Server, BMW

>> Download Case Study

Deloitte Nederland kiest voor Windows Mobile voor 5200 medewerkers!

Blogje van mijn collega Maarten Sonneveld. Wow ! 5200 users just like that.

BlackBerry in Nederland ... hoe lang nog ... :-)

Gisteren hebben we samen met Deloitte Nederland het persbericht verstuurd dat Deloitte Nederland gekozen heeft voor een Windows Mobile device om haar 5200 medewerkers mee uit te rusten. Men heeft de iMate JAQ3 Pocket PC Phone Edition geselecteerd als device. Een zeer dun apparaat, met een groot toetsenbord, GPRS, EDGE, WiFi en een heus "Wheel" voor navigatie. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lees verder ... Maarten Sonneveld

Keeping the dream alive ?

Last week I read an interesting post over on Ed Brill's Blog :

ZDNet Australia: AHL ousts Exchange for Lotus and Ed's comment :

"Another merger/acquisition story goes in favor of Lotus Notes..."

I thought "Another ?" As if you read Microsoft to Lotus Notes / Domino migrations on a regular basis. I don't at least. When reading further I noticed that Ed came across this "competitive win" by accident (via Duffbert) ...

Looking at the various comments to this post most of the readers seem to agree with me in that analysis.

After reading this "Success story" for IBM I have a few remarks :

... Microsoft's Exchange collaboration platform will no longer be used by Amalgamated Holdings (AHL), as the diversified Australian company has started standardising its operations on IBM's rival software Lotus Notes....

Sure this hurts ;-) however... Microsoft Exchange is not Microsoft's Collaboration platform. It is an email / calendaring platform which is part of the collaboration platform. I guess ZDnet should know this ...

... The Notes consolidation work is part of a larger technology refresh project being carried out by local systems integrator IMC Communications, who will do work in over 100 of AHL's sites nationwide. ...

..."They've got corporate-wide business applications that run on Notes as well, so it sort of made sense to bring the mail across from Exchange to have everything run on the same platform."...

All to often the Domino applications are a point of discussion. Which makes sense, because the company has made investments to create them and most likely they are depended on some / all of the functionality. But have they really analised the applications ? .... assessed their functionality ? ....reviewed their relevance ? In today's world it is not uncommon, especially with a large technology refresh project underway to rationalise applications, no matter the platform. I am not saying this company would have made a different decision, but they would have had more insight to their decision most likely ...

... AHL is also in the process of migrating around 1500 PCs from the unsupported Windows NT platform to the latest versions of Microsoft's XP operating system and Office XP software suite, with its servers moving to Windows Server 2003 R2...

The latest versions ? Office XP was introduced some 5 years ago ! Maybe Office 2007 would have been to much of a leap for this company (coming off of Windows NT and Office 97 or 2000 most likely), but Office 2003 would have been a better choice. This makes you wonder how this project was approached and why they settle for older versions.

Anyway .. back to Ed's claim ..  "Another merger / acquisition goes in favor of Lotus Notes..."

I went over to the IBM Website to check out the most likely huge list of competitive wins ...

Here are according to their website the most "recent" competitive wins (checked on 17/12/2006) :

• CCPOA: May 2006
• Baleno : May 2006
• Municipality Prostejov : June 2006
• ASTORplast Klebetechnik : June 2006
• DOV Pharmaceutical : March 2006
• Vernon Carus : January 2006

It seems the commenters to Ed's post are right : There is not much to write about I guess. But someone has to keep the dream alive ...

 

Microsoft on the other hand is doing very well in moving Lotus Notes clients over to the Microsoft platform; even those with Domino applications ;-) Don't take my word for it, check the case studies, check the market analysis.

Always good to check the Microsoft website for some recent casestudies :

December 2006 :

• Hommes & Process
  Software Provider Adopts Dynamic Collaboration Solution for Internal Projects
  Executives at Hommes & Process, a major French distributor of collaboration solutions based on Groove® Virtual Office, now part of the 2007 Microsoft® Office system, wanted to apply their expertise internally. They deployed an early version of Office Groove 2007 to a group of testers, who found the solution to be a convenient collaboration tool for the company’s highly mobile workforce and a dynamic environment for working across firewalls.
  

November 2006 :

• Endsleigh Insurance
  CRM Solution Supports Insurance Company Growth and Offers Seamless Integration
  The IT architecture at Endsleigh Insurance, which was based on Lotus Notes, was stifling the company’s ability to take on new prospects. Employees were frustrated by the time-consuming nature of the system, and the reliance on paper-based processes was impacting security. Working with Microsoft® Gold Partner Ciber, Endsleigh Insurance implemented Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM as part of an overall initiative to standardise on Microsoft technology. Having installed the solution, the group then upgraded to Microsoft CRM 3.0 to give each team access to information relevant to their division, without having to search through an entire database. The upgrade also lets the teams benefit from the seamless integration of Microsoft CRM and Microsoft SQL Server™„Reporting Services, improving the efficiency of staff and letting them take on board a wave of new prospects.
  
• Hauser
  European Transport Company Boosts Customer Service with Integrated CRM System
  Hauser is an International haulage company employing around 130 people across England and Scotland. It strives to deliver a fast and reliable service and the company must have an IT infrastructure on which it can rely as it found that as a growing company, its existing technology was not flexible enough to handle the growth of its business.
  
• Industrial Technology Research Institute
  Research Institute Replaces Lotus Notes with Exchange Server 2007 Messaging Solution
  The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is a nonprofit research and development organization in Taiwan. Comprising more than 20 technical and research centers, ITRI needed a messaging solution that met the needs of each group and the organization as a whole. ITRI had outgrown its IBM Lotus Notes e-mail system, which was unable to handle the growing volume of messages. Wanting a secure solution that would accommodate multiple user domains, ITRI replaced its existing e-mail system with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007. The new solution offers enhanced calendar and e-mail management features and gives users options for remote and mobile access. The system is far more stable and reliable, and administrators are able to enforce more stringent access and security policies.
  
• Universitätsklinik Aachen
  University Clinic Cuts IT Management Costs with Next-Generation Messaging System
  University Hospital Aachen (UKA) houses all patient care services, including medical and dentistry faculties and student training, under one roof. At such a large organization—with more than 5,500 employees treating 160,000 patients and training more than 2,700 students a year—communication is critical. The UKA messaging system, based on IBM Lotus Notes 6.5, was increasingly expensive to administer and failed to integrate with third-party core applications. To optimize resource management and develop mobile communications, UKA started the migration to a Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 environment as part of the Rapid Deployment Program (RDP). The hospital has already seen better performance, synchronization of mobile devices, and improved integration with the 2007 Microsoft Office system and third-party applications. What’s more, UKA has cut administrative costs considerably.

Anyway ... lots of them : Please check http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/search.aspx?Keywords=lotus%20notes if you want more ...

New casestudies on the Microsoft Platform vs Lotus Notes Domino over on Microsoft.com

A post by Ed Brill triggered me to look if there are any new casestudies on the competitive front over on the Microsoft site ... and there are so here are some :

• Endsleigh Insurance CRM Solution Supports Insurance Company Growth and Offers Seamless Integration - The IT architecture at Endsleigh Insurance, which was based on Lotus Notes, was stifling the company’s ability to take on new prospects. Employees were frustrated by the time-consuming nature of the system, and the reliance on paper-based processes was impacting security. Working with Microsoft® Gold Partner Ciber, Endsleigh Insurance implemented Microsoft CRM as part of an overall initiative to standardise on Microsoft technology. Having installed the solution, the group then upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0 to give each team access to information relevant to their division, without having to search through an entire database. The upgrade also lets the teams benefit from the seamless integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SQL Server™ Reporting Services, improving the efficiency of staff and letting them take on board a wave of new prospects.

• Mercuri International Global Sales Performance Firm Saves €15,000 in Six Months with Web Content Tool - Mercuri International, Europe’s largest sales performance and training consultancy, wanted to revitalise its international communication. Its legacy Web site, which used IBM Lotus Notes, was difficult, time consuming, and costly to update in 40 countries. As Microsoft is recognised as a leading provider of Internet-based marketing communication technologies, Mercuri turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Satama MST for advice. It recommended deploying Microsoft Content Management Server to give the company a unified content management toolset. Mercuri saved €15,000 (U.S.$18,383) in the first six months alone through server consolidation. Collaboration between Mercuri and its customers has improved. Staff find it easier to update Web pages and are less dependent on e-mail for communication with customers. The company’s Web site now has a much more modern look-and-feel, helping Mercuri bolster brand awareness and win new business

• Craigavon Borough Council Craigavon Borough Council Reduces Risk with Microsoft Security Technology - Craigavon Borough Council wanted to streamline their communications infrastructure and install a platform that would support future developments, such as remote access and the use of mobile devices. The council turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, 4sol, to install a Dell server running Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004

.

• Sysnet Solution Provider Adopts Microsoft Software, Sees Profit Margin Rise by 30 Percent - Sysnet—a longtime partner of Lotus and IBM—resisted the IBM focus on licenses and wanted a more solutions-based approach to selling. When the IT provider learned more about Microsoft and its partnership philosophy, Sysnet enthusiastically joined the Microsoft® Partner Program. Developing solutions with tools from Microsoft is 35 percent faster than with IBM tools, and the company’s profits have soared since making the switch.

and there's more ofcourse over on : Microsoft.com

Banca Intesa Standardizes Messaging Infrastructure, Enhances Services

Great new case study of a large migration to the Microsoft platform . Banca Intesa employs more than 57.000 people and operates 3.700 branches. Prior to the migration, Banca Intesa had some 28.000 users on webmail, 10.000 users on Lotus Notes and 500 users on IMAP Cyrus/Linux ...

Banca Intesa launched in Italy following the merger of three major credit companies. It standardised its messaging infrastructure by deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. The decision was based on the Microsoft solution's ease of administration, integration with existing systems, low total cost of ownership, and enterprise-class support. Using the new e-mail infrastructure has greatly enhanced messaging services for mobile working, and the integration with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 reduces IT management and supports centralised provisioning of user accounts. Banca Intesa migrated 33,000 mailboxes in less than two months, rationalising the management of the service, increasing its reliability, enabling new user functionalities, and opening a path for new collaboration services.

More information and full casestudy over on : Microsoft.com

A lot of new examples of Lotus Notes / Domino to Exchange migrations ...

Haven't visited Microsoft's Global Evidence Management site for a while now, it turns out a lot of new casestudies on Lotus Notes / Domino migrations have been posted :
The whole list can be found here. A few highlights I haven't linked to yet or in the past :

• The Weather Channel
  The Weather Channel Gains Efficiency with Switch from Lotus Notes to Exchange Server
  Since 1982, The Weather Channel has grown from a television network devoted entirely to weather, to a multimedia organization that delivers breaking weather news to more than 87 million subscribers throughout the United States. As the company grew, management wanted to increase efficiency and productivity by providing workflow applications to automate many day-to-day tasks. However, trying to build those applications on the Lotus Notes platform proved extremely time-consuming and did not offer the easy integration that the company was looking for. By switching to Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003, The Weather Channel is able to quickly build automated workflow applications that integrate smoothly with its other business systems. Through this migration, the company provides more functionality for both local and remote users.

• Rogers & Hollands
  Retailer Improves Corporate Communications and Boosts IT Productivity 25 Percent
  Rogers Enterprises, which operates 78 fine jewelry stores throughout the Midwest, has owned Lotus Notes messaging and collaboration software since 2001, but corporate employees rarely used it. The system was difficult and time-consuming to administer, and store managers were not tied into it at all. Wanting to improve messaging and communications enterprisewide, the IT group decided to update the network infrastructure, migrate existing servers to Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 with Active Directory® service, and deploy Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 as the company's messaging platform. Today, the entire company relies on e-mail as its primary tool for scheduling and communications. Remote users and store managers use Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access to access e-mail. And because the solution is far easier to manage, productivity for the IT staff has increased by 25 percent.

• CoachUSA
  Charter Bus Company Expands Messaging Capabilities and Reduces Costs
  When CUSA, a charter bus and group tour company serving the western and south central United States, was formed with the purchase of certain assets from CoachUSA, it wanted to streamline its IT systems and increase capabilities. As part of that process, CUSA decided to migrate from Lotus Notes to Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 to take advantage of the familiar user interface, mobile computing support, and ease of administration. The company moved 550 mailboxes in 35 offices to Exchange Server in approximately three months. As a result, the familiar interface minimized employee training; shared calendars and directories increased collaboration among workers in different offices; mobile computing support enabled executives to more easily remotely access e-mail, calendars, contacts, and task lists; and centralized management helped to reduce administration time by 30 percent.

• Public Service Electric and Gas Company
  PSE&G Enhances Collaboration with Notes-to-Microsoft Migration
  Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) serves millions of customers in the New Jersey area. The company relied on IBM Lotus Notes for electronic mail and collaboration, and to host more than 250 software applications. When rising licensing costs and an increasing number of support issues led the company's IT department to announce it would no longer support Notes, PSE&G sought a new collaboration platform. The company worked with Avanade to migrate two Notes applications to the Microsoft® collaboration technology as a proof of concept for migrating its entire Notes environment in the future. The migration has provided users with greater functionality and tighter integration with other systems than the Notes environment provided. In addition, users can now view and customize their data more effectively. PSE&G anticipates significant cost savings from the switch.

• Global Television
  New Communication Environment Saves Television Company 20 Percent on Costs
  Upgrading an e-mail system for more than 190 people can be a delicate operation, especially for a company involved in the dynamic business of television production–where time really is money. The exercise is even more difficult when the upgrade involves establishing mobile access to corporate information. Yet for Global Television, the process could not have been more straightforward. The Australian television production facilitator looked past Lotus Notes/Domino and deployed Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 to save network bandwidth and resources. The subsequent consolidation of servers, centralized management, and out-of-the-box application has helped Global Television save 20 percent on the costs of new e-mail servers and software licenses—all of which have been a ratings winner with the management at Global Television.

• Zurich City Council
  City Council Streamlines Operations with Fully Integrated Messaging Environment
  Historically, Zurich City Council managed its electronic communications using a number of disparate systems. While the Building Services Division used Lotus Notes and Domino technologies, other areas of the organisation used Microsoft® Exchange Server version 5.5. Over time, managing these disparate systems became increasingly inefficient and expensive. To address these issues, the Division decided to standardise and centralise its entire communications infrastructure on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. As a result of the migration, which was conducted by Microsoft Certified Partner SF Solution Factory AG, the Building Services Division has significantly reduced its system and user administration costs. In addition, employees are able to share data, such as contact details and calendar appointments, effectively. This has increased efficiency and enhanced collaboration between individuals and departments.

...And many more where this came from ...

RSM McGladrey - Services Firm Switches to Microsoft Collaboration, Cuts Costs and Improves Productivity

A wholly owned subsidiary of H&R Block, RSM McGladrey is a major consulting firm that offers financial and business services to midsized companies. After years of growth, the company’s aging IT infrastructure was ill-suited to its mobile in-the-field work force. Communication and collaboration products, based primarily on IBM Lotus Notes/Domino, were cumbersome, and employee productivity suffered. In late 2005, RSM McGladrey switched to a collaboration solution based on integrated Microsoft® products. The company also began migrating its Notes applications to Microsoft technologies, including the Microsoft .NET Framework. Now, the more centralized IT infrastructure is simpler to manage and supports flexible application development. Employees collaborate effectively through applications that are easier to use, resulting in higher productivity and saving the company millions of dollars.

More details and the whole case study on : Microsoft.com

Arcadis bespaart jaarlijks € 80.000 na centralisatie e-mailplatform

Ingenieursbureau Arcadis heeft in Nederland 13 vestigingen met ruim 2000 werknemers. Tot voor kort beschikte de onderneming over een decentraal georganiseerd e-mailplatform. Behalve een dure ook een weinig flexibele oplossing. Als een werknemer switchte naar een andere vestiging dan moest ook zijn hele mailbox naar die vestiging gemigreerd worden. Bovendien was het niet mogelijk om onderweg of vanaf huis rechtstreeks op het e-mailsysteem in te loggen.

Het hele verhaal vind je op: Microsoft.nl