#10, Yes, one does not fully realize how much Exchange evolved until one migrates users from Notes to Exchange 2003/2007. While not a cheap process for the integrator initially,[specialty third party tools are recommended], with some practice and after a few migrations, a team can get it down and done in under a day. We've done our share of these migrations - mostly from well established law firms that made large investments in technology beginning in the late 80's through the late 90's. Many of them largely stagnated after that until what they had became unmanageable.
Once the migration is complete, there are a few days where users have to get used to Outlook and its integration to Office and just as often, a lot of integration work has to be done to tie in things like mass document scanners, third party legal applications and document management software that users are accustomed to. Then of course, users want to integrate mobile devices and supporting technologies like SharePoint Services and Live Meeting.
So none of it is just about the Exchange or messaging. A lot of areas that make up a customer's business ecosystem have to be addressed. It really doesn't take long, but a good bit of planning and discovery are essential - most especially as regards setting up shared calendars, distribution groups, security groups and a host of personal user preferences that make the difference between happy users and those that are a bit lost for a few days.
If the integrator pushes the connectors/relays out to services like Postini for anti-spam and mal-ware screening and adds additional layers of screening closer in - at the edge, and perimeter, they can assure customers see about zero spam and few, if any false positives. This part is terribly important to sustaining user confidence early on and creating differentiation between the old and new services.
Finally, with the Exchange ecosystem in place, one can begin to leverage it - low cost business class VOIP and voice mail integration via Packet 8, for example [for small business], is ideal and really makes people happy. Leveraging the messaging platform further with Live Communications Server and presence tokens via the native control in .NET/VS2005 are also helpful. Essentially, the more tightly one can integrate a lot of little things that make users happy and truly productive are what matter more to them than how the mail is stored, or transported - those last two of course, matter most to in-house IT and or external integrators and providers, who will find the Exchange far easier to maintain, secure and manage well - particularly opposite the compliance and retention policies so central to legal and or legal services firms and specialty financial services firms - such firms make up very large percentages of the professional services companies populating the bulk of many centers of commerce and business - mid-level cities in particular. In this space, Microsoft's messaging software has become the standard and most desired product. Blackberry Enterprise Server is another area that will be needed in most cases - most especially so before Windows Mobile 5 devices with Active Push were baked into Exchange 2003 w/SP2 and the SFP Update to Windows Mobile 5. Phones like the Motorola Q and the DASH and Blackjack finally provided a phone that BB BES users would move to.
Exchange, and the Microsoft ecosystem made this possible and it provided the basis for business growth for a lot of small tech services providers - with a bevy of smaller ISV's and partners/integrators building it out and sustaining it. The marketing is largely word of mouth and it spreads the word quickly. Any good integrator could make a tidy business of providing all these services - even trunk-slammers could make a mint helping small internal IT/MIS staffs build and sustain such services.
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