Five Key Factors to Determine Which Lotus Notes Applications to Migrate to Microsoft SharePoint

A Binary Tree White Paper

April 2009

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3 1. Is the application being used? .............................................................................. 4 What about replica databases?...................................................................................................................................... 5 What about applications that do not have usage activity collection enabled? .......................................... 5 What about applications that have no user activity recorded by real users? .............................................. 6 Is the application used by a significant number of users?................................................................................... 6 2. Is the application critical to the business? .......................................................... 6 3. Can the application be matched to a standard SharePoint template? ............... 7 4. Is the application used only for displaying data? ............................................... 8 5. W ill the application be used by SharePoint? ....................................................... 8 Automated Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 9 About Binary Tree .................................................................................................... 11

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Introduction
The migration process from Lotus Notes to the Microsoft platform can be divided into five phases: 1. Pre-project Assessment 2. Detailed Assessment 3. Coexistence 4. Messaging Migration 5. Application Migration Customers considering the migration of their Lotus Notes applications to the Microsoft SharePoint platform often ask which applications to migrate. Determining the list of applications to migrate is one of the steps in the Detailed Assessment phase. The same considerations exist whether a customer has 100 applications or 10,000 applications. Binary Tree has determined that there are many factors to determine which Lotus Notes applications to migrate to Microsoft SharePoint. However, there are five key factors for customers to consider: 1. Is the application being used? 2. Is the application critical to the business? 3. Can the application be matched to a standard SharePoint template? 4. Is the application used only for displaying data? 5. Will the application be used on SharePoint? This paper describes these five factors. Successful completion of this step will ensure that the correct applications are chosen for migration. The results from this step will also be used in estimating the migration effort and target platform requirements.

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1. Is the application being used?

There are often applications that long ago completed their original purpose and now lay dormant. Corporate IT departments often search for these applications and archive them when found. However, the approach taken is often similar to searching for a needle in a haystack. A consistent, standard approach can be taken to group applications together into recently used time periods. The usage analysis is made from the data stored in the User Activity dialog box. The User Activity dialog box shows each database user or server session, and how many documents a user or server read or wrote during each session, with the most recent activity appearing at the top of the list.

Figure 1: Lotus Notes Application User Activity

However, not all of the user names stored represent real users. For example, the recorded user activity includes Domino servers, Administrator names, and Notes IDs used to sign databases and to run restricted agents. These user names can often give the appearance that an application is being used when in fact it is not. Thus, the first step to take in analyzing user activity is to build a list of user names to exclude from the usage analysis. The next step is to gather the user activity from all Notes databases and filter out the user names on the exclusion list. The filtered user activity list will provide the last user name and last used date and time that the application was used.

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The last used date values from all of the applications can be grouped into common time periods: Less Than One Month Two To Three Months Four To Six Months Seven To Twelve Months More Than Twelve Months

The analysis can now continue with determining which applications to include in the migration based on the time period that they belong to.

What about replica databases?

Replica databases will each have their own recorded user activity. This activity should be combined and filtered to create one filtered user activity list. The combined and filtered user activity list will provide the last user name and last used date and time that any of the replica applications were used.

What about applications that do not have usage activity collection enabled?
Some applications may not have any the Record activity checkbox enabled to collect user activity.

Figure 2: Lotus Notes Application User Activity

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These applications cannot be grouped into a time period. A document level inspection may need to be performed to determine user activity or the application may need a physical review.

What about applications that have no user activity recorded by real users?
Some applications may no longer have any user activity recorded by a real user. These applications can be grouped in a time period called Usage contains only ignore name list members. Additional analysis of these applications should be taken before they are archived or are not included in a migration plan.

Is the application used by a significant number of users?

Some applications are only used by a small number of real users. The implication is that these applications may be less valuable to migrate than those that are used by a larger number of users. The list of applications can be reduced by including only those applications used by a minimum number of users. For example, applications that are used by three or less users over the last three months may be filtered out of the list of applications. This filtering process provides the greatest value to companies with a large number of users. The process helps to filter out applications that are used by only a small number of users.

2. Is the application critical to the business?

Some applications are determined by a companys management as being critical to the business. A failure to successfully migrate these applications could result in a financial loss to the company. These applications are often identified through an interview process with management and business process owners. The business criticality is often verified by the analysis of the user activity. It is critical to the analysis process that the interview process takes place with the right stakeholders and is focused on identifying and rating the business critical applications. Some good questions to ask during the interview process are: 1. Who manages Lotus Notes applications in your company? 2. Are any third party solutions used in application development? (e.g. Team Studio, Ytria, DreamWeaver, etc.) 3. Are any Lotus Notes applications integrated with third party database applications (e.g. SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, etc.)
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4. Are any workflow process solutions integrated into existing Lotus Notes applications? 5. What are some of the applications critical to the business? 6. What makes these applications critical to the business? One of the methods used to determine the actual business criticality of an application is to apply a ratings system based on a combination of the number of users of an application and the applications visible impact to an organization. The visible impact value may be determined as follows: Critical Rating Very High High Medium Low None Visibility Customers/Public Executive Management Departmental Operations Individual Workers No Visibility

The rating system should be built together with the customer to ensure that it meets their business requirements. The rating system should include some indication of what the result would be if an application were no longer available to the customer. That is, the result should indicate what the impact is of not migrating an application?

3. Can the application be matched to a standard SharePoint template?

Some common Lotus Notes applications built off of standard Lotus Notes templates can be migrated to a similar SharePoint template. These applications generally require only the content and security properties to be migrated. The standard features and functions of the applications already exist in the SharePoint application. However, the look and feel of the SharePoint application will be different than that of the Lotus Notes application. Also, some features and functions operate differently to take advantage of the SharePoint platform.

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The Lotus Notes Discussion Database and the Document Library are two examples of standard Lotus Notes applications that can be built off of a standard Lotus Notes template. These applications can have their content migrated to the SharePoint Discussion and Document applications. Other Lotus Notes applications such as Team Room and QuickPlace can often be migrated using an application migration solution. Custom applications can also be migrated; but will require that the design be migrated and customized to function on the SharePoint platform. The content can be migrated afterwards. Customers should be made aware that migrating custom applications is often the source of the greatest expense. Additional analysis should be performed to determine and verify that the custom applications can be migrated and what the cost would be.

4. Is the application used only for displaying data?

Some Lotus Notes applications are used only for displaying data and do not permit editing of the data. For example, the Lotus Notes application may be importing or reading data from a relational database application. The Lotus Notes application may be displaying the data in views and forms; but it does not allow the user to modify the data. Lotus Notes applications meeting this criteria generally do not require a data migration or a design transformation. It may be possible to recreate such applications in Microsoft SharePoint with a Business Data Connection and display the data in a List, Report, or Microsoft Excel.

5. Will the application be used by SharePoint?

Some Lotus Notes applications are required only for use on the Lotus Notes platform. The identification of these applications and excluding them from a migration effort will assist in reducing the list of applications to migrate. The purpose is to only migrate business applications that will be used on the SharePoint platform. Some Lotus Notes business applications will need to be replaced by similar SharePoint business applications. Some examples of applications that could be considered for exclusion are provided in the following table.
Type of Application Help databases Administration databases
Five Key Factors to Determine Which Lotus Notes Applications to Migrate to Microsoft SharePoint

Comment Lotus Notes help documentation is not required on SharePoint Administration applications are only required for Lotus

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Lotus Notes templates Fax application Virus detection application Test applications Deletion Stub applications Applications without designs

Notes Cannot build a SharePoint application from a Lotus Notes template Probably replaced with a Microsoft platform solution Probably replaced with a Microsoft platform solution A new test application could be created if there is an existing production SharePoint application. Some Lotus Notes applications are marked for deletion; but were never deleted. Some Lotus notes applications were created as a new replica; but the replica was never completed and the application sits empty on the server.

There are many other examples of Lotus Notes applications that can be filtered out during the inspection and analysis process. Some of these are determined by visually analyzing the list of applications and others are determined through an interview process with the customer.

Automated Analysis
Some customers with a small number of applications are comfortable with performing an inspection and analysis process manually. However, the process becomes tedious and difficult for customers with a very large number of applications. The process is also more prone to human error. An automated inspection and analysis approach is recommended to create an initial list of applications that meet the migration criteria.

Summary
The inspection and analysis process of determining which Lotus Notes applications to migrate to the Microsoft SharePoint platform requires thoughtful consideration and due diligence. The process can be expedited by reducing the list using the five factors in this document. However, it is important to note that these factors should be reviewed with the customer to ensure that they meet their business requirements. Customers may also request that other factors should be considered. An application migration expert may also recommend additional factors to consider for determining which Lotus Notes applications to migrate.

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The use of an automated inspection and analysis tool can greatly expedite this process. Such a tool will provide a consistent and reliable approach to the analysis. An application migration expert can assist with running the tool and completing this inspection and analysis process. The application migration expert can then guide the customer through the remaining steps of the application migration process. Determining the list of applications to migrate is one of the steps in the Detailed Assessment phase. This is a key step to ensure a successful application migration.

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About Binary Tree

Binary Tree is the leading provider of cross-platform messaging migration and coexistence software. Since 1993, Binary Tree and its business partners have helped over 4,000 customers around the world to migrate more than 15,000,000 users. Binary Trees CMT suite of software products provides for the analysis of, and the coexistence and migration between, enterprise messaging and collaboration environments based on Google Apps, IBM Lotus Notes and Domino, and Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint. Binary Tree is represented by business partners worldwide who provide specialized services and a proven methodology for guiding customers through complex transitions. Binary Tree is a Google Enterprise Partner, an IBM Premier Business Partner, and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Binary Tree is headquartered in the New York metropolitan area with representation and business partners worldwide. For more information, please visit us online at www.binarytree.com or call +1 (212) 244-3635 (option 0).

Copyright 2009, Binary Tree, Inc. All rights reserved. Binary Tree, the Binary Tree logo, and any references to Binary Trees CMT software products, are trademarks of Binary Tree, Inc. All other trademarks are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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