Microsoft: ISVs Cashing In On Lotus Exodus

As interest builds around unified communications, Microsoft in the last six months of 2007 saw more than 300 enterprise customers -- representing some 2.8 million users -- begin making the movie to Exchange Server, Office SharePoint Server and the Office suite, according to Clint Patterson, a director with the unified communications group at Microsoft.

This groundswell of interest has spawned a whole ecosystem of Microsoft ISVs offering products that ease the migration process. For example, companies that have large amounts of information stored in a Notes database have found it difficult to capture that data and move it over to Sharepoint, said Patterson

"There are Microsoft partners of all shapes and sizes engaged in the transition from Notes and Domino. The opportunities for the channel really do span organizations of all sizes," said Patterson.

The task of migration also creates operational headaches for organizations, according to Patterson. "It's a big move for IT to make, but the cost savings opportunities are much greater," he said.

Larry Piland, president of Datel Systems, a San Diego-based solution provider, says many of his customers have already switched from Notes and Domino to the Microsoft platform.

"Microsoft can offer a full-featured solution that's all based on Microsoft, as opposed to the customer having to piece together various solutions and make them all talk together," he said.

Incidentally, in a press conference at Lotusphere Tuesday, Bruce Morse, Lotus vice president of unified communications, said that in 2007, one-third of the new customers for Lotus Sametime were Exchange users.

Additional reporting by Rick Whiting