I am getting rather constant pressure to move to Exchange. A few project management type applications tout their integration with Outlook/Exchange and offer no support for Domino. The latest one I’ve been asked to support is Newforma (www.newforma.com).
Now I think I could probably use the Outlook client but I know if there are any problems with the application I will likely not get any support once Domino is mentioned.
Do you folks run into this sort of ‘bottom up’ pressure to force a move to Exchange? I must admit I am tired of the constant chorus to move to Exchange but want to throw up when thinking about the work involved to do it, give we have been on Domino since 4.x days.
I know there are products like Connections that might be an alternative, but it is a difficult sell to the management and it places all of the development work on my plate.
Newforma sounds more like SharePoint than Exchange - email is part of the system but all of that ‘find any doc anywhere’ and ‘doc management’ stuff is straight SharePoint. If I’m even close, then you’re talking a SharePoint server, a MS SQL server, an Exchange server, an IIS server, and probably some other crap tossed in just fer grins (.Net, c#, Visual Studio or SharePoint Designer, etc, etc, etc)
If you store project files inside of Notes dbs, you get the free text ‘find anything’ stuff.
If you use Ben L’s stuff, you get lots of interesting RT field manipulation features.
There is a product that allows you to use Notes dbs for doc management and access things like Word docs from within Notes (sorry but drawing a total blank on the product).
Depending on how big you are, you may be able to whip up a good system to do most of what Newforma claims to do without a ton of work. For what you’re going to pay to buy, install, and maintain Newforma, you could hire out the work to a good Notes dev team and probably get something better for less.
It does sound like SharePoint but I think it uses it’s own database, at least I can’t see where SharePoint is required.
I’m sure you guys have all fought such battles too, where management or users have a sort of myopia where anything other than what they want just won’t do.
I did ask my coworker about us rolling our own and he was dismissive of the idea. Personally I would pursue that route but it will be a struggle the whole time when they want to poke holes in whatever I do.
Btw, Newforma may or may not be implemented right away, there is another custom piece to this puzzle that does support Domino. The developer said we should probably decide if indeed we will pursue Newforma and make a mail server change first, but I may see if it will indeed but any more difficult to do that later. I’m a runner, I can stand a little more pain.
This topic comes up repeatedly over on Ed Brill’s blog. You might want to spend some time browsing through it a bit to get some ideas. Just go to http://www.edbrill.com and enter “Exchange” in the search box for some good reading.
I sympathize with your plight. The industry in which I work is dominated by Exchange/Outlook, and most application vendors develop integration with Outlook first, and then maybe think about Notes later, if at all. If you have to migrate, make sure you make it clear from the beginning that the support costs will be higher.
An enormous amount of pressure is also exerted by users, who generally find Outlook easier to use than Notes. To be brutally honest, I find it hard to disagree with them. The Notes mail user interface has compared poorly against Outlook for so long that I despair of it ever regaining a decent reputation.
And most users don’t care that Domino server is more scalable, runs on more platforms, and outperforms Exchange. Nor do they really care about all the extras you get with Domino (the database templates, application workflows, rapid application development cycle, all the client platforms, etc.). For them, the mail interface is almost all they see, and that’s the reality we have to live with.
For what it’s worth, my suggestion to IBM/Lotus is to build the best dedicated mail client they can (running on Domino, but not necessarily on a Notes client), and then add Notes connectivity for those people who want all the extra goodies.
I can’t say I’ve had too many complaints about the Notes client, many of my users are younger people who aren’t frightened by computers. I certainly agree that the users could care less about technical issues nor could I really expect them to such an understanding as to affect their POV.
As I’ve been stewing over this I might be able to delay the Newforma implementation long enough to at least try Connections and some of the other tools that might do what we need without the pain of going to Exchange.
Seems to me any future client should be browser based, at least that seems to me where all of the apps are headed.
I think at this stage it’d be wise if you drew up a document with a cost analysis for Domino viz. Exchange + Outlook + other apps touting to be Exchange friendly + (development time for new apps or support for new apps which obviously would be products with no source code available to you!).It might also be an idea to show how “integrated” these apps would be in case Exchange was the basis - especially support wise - you would have to talk to a million different people.
Might also be worth showing how Notes8 looks - that might change some people’s minds!
I have had an IBM rep stop by, but unfortunately the other employee who really need to be involved was out of town. I do hope to have another meeting before any decision is made to move to Exchange tho.
A good way to respond to managment in these cases is usually to show them the advantages and benefits Lotus is offering them over MS Exchange 2007. You can see a lot of these at the comparison posted at the following link: http://itcomparison.com/Mail/Exchange2k7vslotus8/Exchange2k7vslotus8.htm
Technically speaking, I can make no case for Exchange. Heck to move to Exchange will much more expensive and time consuming than implementing the Newforma software. We do have a corp license for Office so Outlook is already paid for even though we don’t use it.
Newforma is targeted to our business and has rave reviews. This is the application that is driving the move to Exchange. The employee who is leading this project also has the opinion that we will have to move to Exchange ‘sooner or later’ so we might as well do it now. Really hard to overcome the marketing damage MS has done over the years and the lack of progress on IBM’s part. But let’s not get into OS/2…
I will likely have time to move to Notes 8 but otoh to do all that work only to be forced to go to Exchange is going to quite a burden on my 2 person department.
I know this thread is mostly my whining but the market looks to be very cloudy in the future. Web access will be key I think. I think even if I move to Exchange in 2 - 3 years the mail server of today will be something of a dinosaur.