Does Notes Need to be Migrated? Current Issues and Assessment Points for Migration

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2021/06/02

Is it necessary to migrate Notes? Current Issues and Assessment Points for Migration

Notes has been used by many companies as a pioneer of groupware, but with changes in work styles, migration from Notes to a new system is attracting attention. In this article, we will look at the current status of Notes and its issues, and introduce an assessment for migration, as well as systems that have a high affinity with Notes as a migration destination.

Table of Contents

Current status of "Notes," the pioneer of groupware

Groupware is an indispensable tool for facilitating information sharing and communication within an organization, such as task and schedule management and file sharing. LotusScript, a groupware system that creates business applications using LotusScript, is said to be the pioneer in this field. In the 2000s, it gradually lost market share due to changes in business styles and the introduction of various competing applications.

In December 2018, IBM sold Notes/Domino to Indian company HCL With the sale of Notes/Domino to Indian company HCL Technologies in December 2018, there were concerns that support would end, but an extension of the support period until September 2021 was announced, and the official end date of support is currently (April 2021) undecided.

In addition, HCL Notes/Domino V12 is scheduled to be released in 2021, and many people are wondering whether to upgrade to the next version or to switch at the timing of the maintenance expiration.

Is it necessary to migrate Notes? What are the current issues?

Again, based on the above background, the following issues can be identified with the current status of Notes.

Man-hours for Web conversion and support for smartphones and tablets

Today, when business styles are changing rapidly and companies are becoming more and more IT-oriented, the style of using groupware via web browsers has become the mainstream, and it is also essential to have the flexibility to respond to various business situations, including support for smartphones and tablets and use for remote work.

However, Notes, which has been used as a dedicated application, requires man-hours and costs to be converted to the Web, making it difficult to keep up with the trend toward the Web. One of the reasons for this is the lack of engineers who can operate Notes.

Notes client maintenance

Notes is a client application, and the setup of a Notes client on a local computer always occurs when a new employee is assigned to a new computer or when a new computer is replaced. If multiple computers are set up at the same time, a considerable amount of man-hours will be required.

In addition, compared to web applications, where maintenance and operation can be completed on a web server, when applications are installed and used on local computers, updates and other maintenance must be performed on each computer, making maintenance and operation easier.

Lack of engineers who can operate Notes

As mentioned above, Notes uses its own language and environment for application development, which requires knowledge and skills unique to Notes. Therefore, if an engineer involved in the development leaves the company, it becomes difficult for his/her successor to manage and operate the system.

Furthermore, for companies that have been using Notes for many years, repeated development of additional functions and applications required for business operations has in some cases resulted in the system becoming a black box, making management and operation even more difficult.

As explained above, the future of Notes, which is difficult to support the Web, is not promising, and in-house training of engineers is not realistic. The number of engineers who can operate Notes is decreasing.

For these reasons, an increasing number of companies are considering migrating from Notes to a new groupware system, and the key to this migration is assessment.

Once the decision to migrate Notes is made, an "assessment" is conducted.

When migrating from Notes to a new system, an "assessment" is first conducted to select those that need to be migrated by taking inventory of the databases and applications in Notes and visualizing them.
Applications to be migrated are broadly classified into the following three categories.

Applications to be migrated including data:
Applications used in business operations and the data associated with them.

Those to be migrated only by design:
Application design

Those that do not migrate:
Applications that are not in use and unnecessary data, etc.

In addition, if there are custom applications created with the company's own logic, it is necessary to investigate in advance whether it will be possible to build similar applications in the new location.
These assessments should be done in-house, but it is not easy to know where to start, to select a migration tool that meets the requirements of your business, and to calculate the costs and timeframes involved in the process.
Currently, there are many services that support assessment, so it is a shortcut to success to migrate with the support of a company that has the know-how.

Where to migrate Notes? Introduction of a system that covers all necessary functions

We would like to introduce ArielAirOne Enterprise, a system with high affinity as a migration destination for Notes. We are pleased to introduce ArielAirOne Enterprise, a system that is highly compatible with Notes migration.

ArielAirOne Portal groupware

ArielAirOne Portal" is preloaded with general functions necessary for business, such as schedules, bulletin boards, file management, and portal functions that display applications in a portlet format (small window), which are required for information sharing, and can be used by companies, organizations, and individuals. The groupware functions used in Notes can be migrated to ArielAirOne Portal.

Workflow development tool "ArielAirOne Framework

A particular hurdle in migrating to Notes is the migration of application and approval workflows that have been built independently by the company. ArielAirOne Framework" can replace standard design elements such as forms and views in workflows and databases (custom applications) built in Notes.
ArielAirOne Framework is a GUI-based low-code development system that enables quick construction of complex corporate workflows without the need for programming knowledge, making it suitable for agile development that speeds up continuous improvement. It is also possible to build workflows that flexibly meet on-site requirements.

Notes migration tool "ArielAirOne Transfer for Notes

ArielAirOne Transfer for Notes, a tool for efficient Notes migration, enables migration of Notes applications that are difficult to migrate using other companies' products by rewriting LotusScript code that is unique to Notes into JavaScript code. It also enables the migration of Notes applications that are difficult to migrate using other companies' products.
It has an automatic conversion function for forms, views, etc., which can greatly reduce the man-hours required for design migration. It also includes a data migration tool, which enables migration of tables, images, attached files, and even document links in rich text data.

Updated in February 2023
On June 21, 2022, HCL Technologies announced that v9/v10 support will end on June 1, 2024.
Notes user companies are faced with the choice of upgrading or migrating to a new system. Many of them are facing operational challenges. With the "2025 cliff," the economic loss caused by legacy systems holding back new business, becoming a hot topic of discussion, this is the last chance to consider a Notes migration.
In line with this, we are responding to the needs of customers who want to smoothly migrate their Notes assets and use groupware and workflow tools equipped with a wealth of functions ArielAirOne We have been receiving a lot of inquiries about Departure from Notes We have received many inquiries about the following. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!

Free Notes DB diagnostic service is now available, which enables you to understand the estimated migration cost by analyzing your Notes applications!

Notes Migration Ariel Case Study: