Over 20mn Lotus Notes users switch to Exchange
InfoWorld’s 2011 Technology of the Year Award winner for Best Mail Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 has steadily continued its upward climb in popularity with its Enterprise edition becoming the preferred solution of over 75% top Fortune companies.
With 86 of the top 100 Fortune companies and 71 of the top 100 Fortune Global companies using Exchange and more in the process of switching, Gartner Research has named it the only Strong Positive (highest rating) in its 2010 MarketScope for E-Mail Systems in a field that included VMware Zimbra. The largest enterprise customers have been using Exchange for over 14 years, with access to one of the largest R&D budgets in the industry and an extensive ecosystem of partners providing a predictable level of support.
From the mail server aspect, Gartner research shows that over 20 million Lotus Notes users have now switched to Exchange, with more in the process of doing the shift. Kim Gab Seong, General Manger of Administration Information System Dep’t of Hyundai Heavy Industries, who made the switch says, “The existing Notes environment enables easy development and revisions according to requirements but from an administrator’s perspective, there were many operational difficulties. Due to this experience, we thought to use general-purpose platform for the next generation HHI Office to increase operation and management efficiencies. We were very attracted to the advantages of Microsoft’s solution, which does not require additional development every time a user demand arose and includes various functions about portal, collaboration and UC in one package. Moreover, Microsoft provides regular upgrades, a huge help in maintenance.”
With Exchange 2010, integration with PABX, Microsoft Lync, a unified communication tool that provides instant messenger, calling and video conferencing and SharePoint 2010, provides unified communication environment that not only simplifies communication, but also improves employee productivity and ability to track and manage all communications via a single unified platform. Exchange 2010 is available as an on-premise offering and as an online offering for organisations that prefer a cloud-based e-mail solution. Exchange Server 2010 and Exchange Online are built on a common code base, so their features are similar to a large extent. Both can help users to achieve new levels of reliability and performance with features that simplify administration, help to manage risk by protecting communications, improving compliance and meeting user demands for greater mobility and easier collaboration.
George Hamin, Director of E-Business and Information Systems, Subaru Canada says, “Our salespeople need to respond quickly to dealer concerns. With Exchange Server 2010 and voice-to-text conversion, within 20 seconds after a dealer leaves a voice-mail message, our users see an e-mail preview on their cell phone. Our mobile employees might check voice mail anywhere from five to 10 times a day, at five to 10 minutes a session. By using Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and taking advantage of the voice-mail preview feature in Exchange Server 2010, they can increase their responsiveness while saving more than 15 minutes a day. From a business perspective, that’s an incredibly valuable productivity increase.”
“Moving to Online Services will enable us to reduce our IT operational costs by roughly 30% of what we’re currently spending. The ability to introduce a variable cost subscription model for these collaborative technologies allows us to more rapidly scale or divest our investment as necessary,” says Alastair Robertson, VP, Information Workplace, GlaxoSmithKline.
Imran Vilcassim, Director Enterprise Business of Microsoft Sri Lanka speaking of the added advantage Exchange brings in through its cloud based offering stated, “Exchange Server 2010 provides ultimate flexibility in configuring and customizing deployment, as well as ultimate control over security, features, and performance. High availability and reliability are easier than ever to implement, while optimized data handling enables low-cost storage options. Whether on-premises or online, Exchange is a reliable and flexible messaging platform that can help to lower messaging costs and increase productivity. Both Exchange Server 2010 and Exchange Online provide the best productivity experience across PC, phone and browser with Microsoft Outlook on the desktop, Outlook Web App in the web browser and Exchange ActiveSync, the de facto industry standard for mobile devices.”
Exchange Online is designed for organisations that want the cost, agility and manageability benefits of cloud-based email without sacrificing the business-class capabilities that Exchange Server has provided for decades. With Exchange Online, Microsoft handles the ongoing maintenance, patches and upgrades of the Exchange infrastructure while providing the control and flexibility the user requires. The Outlook Web App in Exchange 2010, includes improvements such as the ability for users to track their sent messages and printable calendar views and the “Premium” experience is now available across multiple browsers, including Safari and Firefox. Another significant feature is a transport concept called “Shadow Redundancy” which protects e-mail messages while they are in transit. It also has a new, integrated email archive designed to help companies increase compliance and respond quickly to legal and e-discovery concerns, and there are now previews of voice mails in Microsoft Outlook enabling quick response.