Binary Tree Marks the Migration of Over 75,000 Users from IBM Lotus Notes to the Microsoft Online

Very good example of how Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services kicks in and accelerates the migration of Lotus Notes mail to Exchange Online. 5 projects executed recently and 75000 users … these are large customers …

In The Netherlands Microsoft is organising a seminar specifically on the topic Lotus Notes / Domino to Microsoft Online migrations. The date is Feb 18th 2009 and more details in the coming week.

… Binary Tree, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, announced today the completion of its fifth project this year of migrating customers from internally-hosted IBM Lotus Notes messaging systems to Microsoft Exchange Online. Services provided by key Binary Tree services partners and Binary Tree's award-winning CMT(TM) suite of migration software enabled five multinational corporations to not only collectively migrate over 75,000 users from IBM Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange, and from an on-premises model to online hosting services, it also continues to enable these customers to continue to run their on-premises Lotus Notes applications seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange Online. This is a capability unique to Binary Tree software.

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services is a set of messaging and collaboration solutions hosted by Microsoft, and consists of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online. The five customers who Binary Tree helped to migrate to Microsoft Online include the world's largest beverage company, the world's largest chain of video rental stores, the world's largest producer of postage meters, the world's second-largest manufacturer of air conditioners and climate-control systems, and the world's third largest machine tools maker. …

Read on : Forbes.com

Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Social Software

Microsoft certainly sticks out in this Gartner Analysis.

As one my main focus area these days is on Software + Services I really am pleased with the quote on Google :

The SaaS-only model will limit the appeal for some organizations.

It confirms that although SaaS is an attractive business model with huge potential there are advantages in having multiple delivery options such as on-premise and hosting …

Microsoft: Strengths

• With SharePoint, Microsoft offers a broad set of capabilities that combine structured collaboration with core social computing capabilities, including blogs, wikis, podcasting, persistent group chat, discussion groups, "people search" that uses social network analysis, and related rich content, portal and workflow capabilities on a platform that offers consistent management and administration.
• Microsoft has continued to see exceptional market penetration, momentum, sizable internal and external deployments, and satisfaction with Windows SharePoint Services (a component included in Windows server at no extra charge) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) during 2008.
• It offers integration with desktop office applications and related offerings such as Microsoft's productivity tools, leading e-mail server, unified communications suite, Web-based meetings and Live Services.
• It has a very strong technology partner network ready to exploit SharePoint's presence in business environments while adding value and filling functionality gaps.
• The possibility now exists for better support for social analytics (sentiment and intent analysis) through integration with the recently acquired Fast Search & Transfer.
• Microsoft's market presence as a dependable global vendor enables it to handle enterprise requirements.

Microsoft : Cautions

• Given its breadth, MOSS may deter those who are looking to take advantage only of the collaboration and social networking capabilities, and those not fully committed to Microsoft infrastructure services.
• There are functional gaps including social tagging and bookmarking, social search and an improved wiki (although some of these are offered by Microsoft as open-source components through its Codeplex community).
• This strong partner network is a "double edged sword" as SharePoint may require a multivendor ecosystem to fulfill the needs of an organization with sophisticated social software needs.
• SharePoint's rich functionality can be hard to pull together into user-friendly environments without some technical assistance.
• More flexible deployment options are offered through the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) SaaS program, but its credibility will take time to establish.

As one my main focus area these days is on Software + Services I really am pleased with the quote on Google :

The SaaS-only model will limit the appeal for some organizations.

It confirms that although SaaS is an attractive business model with huge potential there are advantages in having multiple delivery options such as on-premise and hosting …

Source: Gartner Group

This report and many others are available on Microsoft’s Analyst Relations page.

AG: Zesde Cloud Computing Center is een feit

IBM investeerd veel in het bouwen van de ‘ applicatie backend’ van de toekomst …

… iTricity en IBM hebben vandaag een Cloud Computing Hosting Center geopend in Nederland. Het pand wordt gebruikt om computerkracht, opslagcapaciteit en netwerkmogelijkheden aan te bieden, alles samengesteld uit losse onderdelen. …

Continue at source ..

Source: Zesde Cloud Computing Center is een feit

Forrester: Get Ready For Collaboration In The Cloud

The full report is for Forrester subscribers only, however, the small management summary looks promising. My humble and biased opinion is that Forrester overestimates Google's current capability, but I do agree the landscape is changing much faster than it did in the past ...

... While Microsoft's move to acquire Yahoo! attacks Google's extraordinarily profitable search and advertising business, another angle could hold even larger implications for the Redmond giant. Google has moved tentatively into the enterprise software market, potentially threatening Lotus and Microsoft in a big way by continuing to add enterprise capabilities, such as the workspace offering Team Edition. Google's move essentially signals a sea change in how enterprises license and distribute software. Although Yahoo! could help Microsoft get there faster, it's not just a Google /Microsoft race, and all bets are off with IBM/Lotus' Project Blue for cloud-based Social Computing as a clear finalist. There is also a dark horse in this race: Cisco. Each vendor will face considerable challenges as significant portions of on-premise collaboration software disappear into a cloud. From an information and knowledge manager's perspective, putting productivity and collaboration software in a cloud-based model has clear benefits — it's potentially much less expensive, easier to manage a single source of the truth, and is available anywhere, at any time. ...

Source: Forrester Research: All Research - Get Ready For Collaboration In The Cloud

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

IBM announces Lotus "Bluehouse"

Ed Brill blogged today about a new announcement by IBM on Lotus Bluehouse, a SaaS offering by IBM which focuses on extranet collaboration ...

Many of you have had the opportunity to check out the Lotus Greenhouse over the last year.  In Greenhouse, the latest Lotus technologies are available to evaluate and tinker with, all in an environment hosted by IBM.  

The notion of software-as-a-service has become more dominant in the industry, and today IBM is announcing Lotus "Bluehouse" (codename), to provide extranet collaboration tools.  "Bluehouse" expands on IBM's introduction of Sametime Unyte, a hosted e-meetings service, which is now incorporated into the "Bluehouse" environment.  "Bluehouse" is now in beta at bluehouse.lotus.com and will be available in the second half of 2008.

Source: Lotus "Bluehouse"
Ed Brill
Date Published: Mon, 21 Jan 2008

eWeek: Google Must Make or Break GAPE in 2008

Some perspectives on Google Apps for the Enterprise. The question basicly seems to be is Google serious about the Apps business or not ...

 

.... This may be the year Google makes or breaks GAPE, the enterprise version of Google Apps that lets businesses license hosted e-mail, instant documents, spreadsheets and other applications for $50 per user per year.

The numbers sound great on paper: 2,000 new businesses per day signing up for Google Apps. Then there are hearty testimonials from customers now freed from Microsoft Office or Lotus Notes.

The problem is that neither Microsoft nor IBM will wait for Google to come and take market share. Microsoft has Office Live Workspace, and it's likely IBM will answer with an SAAS (software as a service) version of Lotus Symphony. ....

... Barbin said Google is trying to secure six to eight large prospects considering GAPE for anywhere from 1,000 to 20,000 seats. One prospect expects to scale to 100,000 seats. "These are large, sophisticated IT shops that are kicking the tires pretty hard," he said.

Though Barbin couldn't name those customers, he said Google is placing a heavy emphasis on financial services and high-tech, the verticals where Office and Lotus are layered so thick. Appirio is right in the mix, helping Google with its application development, SAAS strategy and SAAS rollout expertise.

Still, analysts at IDC are skeptical that Google will get the traction it needs to muscle Microsoft and IBM from major accounts. ...

... Moreover, Happe said, Google is involved in so many big ideas, from social platforms to wireless networks, that it will be really hard for the company to chip away at Microsoft and IBM in the office and collaboration space.

This is why 2008 will be a telling year for Google Apps. If Google can land a dozen large GAPE installations over the next 12 months, it will give the suite the momentum it needs to roll forward. If the big fish don't bite, it's unlikely the company will put the same resources behind it.

If GAPE fails, it's not clear how much Google will lose. The beauty of this SAAS software is that it is a fortified version of the consumer Google Apps that the company has been rolling out the last few years. Users will still use the free editions of Apps; in the cloud, it's all relative.

Moreover, unlike Yahoo, the company wouldn't have to shut down the whole enterprise division—Google still has Geo and the Google Search Appliance to hawk.

Even so, a healthy SAAS business could be a major supporting money-maker for Google when the online ad market matures in five years or so.  ...

 

Source: Google Must Make or Break GAPE in 2008
matthew_rothenberg@ziffdavis.com
Date Published: Sat, 05 Jan 2008

Carl Tyler: This is where and why Outlook is beating Notes for awareness

CArl Tyler is referring to the recently announced Microsoft / Compcast deal

Microsoft and Comcast announced a deal where the Comcast SMB customers will get access to hosted Outlook and Sharepoint.  No servers to deploy, support is provided as part of their regular monthly cost.  How does this hurt Notes/Domino?  Well SMB is where the growth opportunity is, this type of deal builds awareness, it's considered "free", go look for hosted Domino servers, there is probably a handful of hosting providers, for Exchange there are hundreds. For ease of accessibility in find a solution, Microsoft is winning hands down.  IBM really needs to focus heavily on this market, Domino is the perfect SMB solution if people knew about it and had easy access to it.
Comcast and Microsoft Launch Microsoft Communication Services From Comcast for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Microsoft Q and A on the release

Source: This is where and why Outlook is beating Notes for awareness
Author: Carl Tyler
Date Published: Thu, 15 Nov 2007

Computable: IBM en Google doneren aan 'cloud computing'-onderzoek

INteressante ontwikkeling. 'Cloud-computing' is de infratsructuur kant / back-end van SaaS zou je kunnen zeggen ...

... IBM en Google doneren elk 20 to 25 miljoen euro aan software, hardware en diensten, zodat universiteiten onderzoek kunnen doen naar 'cloud computing'.

IBM en Google starten een programma waarin ze universiteiten stimuleren onderzoek te doen naar ‘cloud computing'. Bij ‘cloud computing' worden een groep processoren gekoppeld, zodat zij meer kracht kunnen leveren bij het aanbieden van applicaties, onder andere over het internet. ...

Source: IBM en Google doneren aan 'cloud computing'-onderzoek
Date Published Mon, 08 Oct 2007

IDC: IBM Is Developing a SaaS Marketplace for SMBs

From the IDC blogs : IBM's SaaS solutions for the SMB market :

... For two years, we’ve pointed to IBM’s conspicuous absence in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market - and in the broader market for online delivery of business services - as a critical weakness in IBM’s SMB strategy.  In last year’s IDC Predictions, we predicted that the company would finally develop an online marketplace for SMBs, starting with applications from its key WebSphere application software partners, and expanding to a broader range of applications and technology and business services.  We predicted this, not because we had any inside knowledge, but because it was clear that the market is demanding this approach.

At IBM System & Technology Group’s (STG) analyst meeting in Stamford, CT today, STG head Bill Zeitler, followed by Marc Dupaquier, GM of Business Systems in STG, revealed that IBM is indeed developing such an online marketplace and community.  More details are sure to come out later today and tomorrow, but here is a brief summary of what I heard this morning: ...

... As you’d expect, IBM is not going completely to online as its SMB approach.  It presents Business Central as one part of a portfolio of offerings, including traditional general on-premise systems (increasingly pre-packaged with ISV apps for "solution-oriented" customers), simpler on-premise devices/appliances, as well as the online/SaaS offerings through Business Central.  Like SAP and others, IBM envisions that many customers will implement a hybrid model, that includes on-premise and online. ...

IBM Is Developing a SaaS Marketplace for SMBs