Novell to Microsoft Conversions

Alliance Technologies and Triple Point Solutions are such a good fit for each other because they both have the same product philosophy: both companies do their best to remain hardware and software agnostic. We aim to have many products and services in our toolbox to be able to offer the best to clients. However, sometimes there is a product that makes more business sense for a particular company, and we recently encountered that situation while considering Novell GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange.

Alliance recently transitioned from GroupWise to Exchange. Part of the motivation was to make the integration of Triple Point Solutions easier, but it was also done to better interface with our clients, many of which use Microsoft Exchange.

We’d like to go through a typical Novell to Microsoft conversion here, using our recent conversion as an example. Please don’t try this at home. We’re professionals here at Alliance Technologies. If you’re looking to convert from Novell to Exchange, please give us a call and we’ll do it for you. But in interest of being a little more transparent about the process, we’re going to walk you through the basic steps of our recent migration.

Before we began the migration, we spent a decent chunk of time planning the process. A timeline had to be set and tools had to be picked. Employee email, calendars, contacts, shared files, and directory services – all had to be cleaned and organized to make the conversion go as smoothly as possible. Handouts had to be created and training classes had to be scheduled to teach employees how to use the new system. Planning is the most important part of the process and it takes the most time.

Next, a group of techs spent a weekend performing the actual migration. We used Quest Software’s GroupWise Migrator for Exchange to do the heavy lifting of the conversion. We encountered a few issues with the software that had to be worked out, but, like we quipped above, we’re experts, so we handled them like pros.

The training and migration went smoothly, most due to our extensive planning in the initial stages. After the migration weekend, every employee began to use Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. Although we’d held training classes and provided a handout, a few questions remained, especially on the Monday following the migration. To assist with this, we brought three of our Network Engineers into our offices for the day to help employees with the transition. Overall, it was a streamlined experience.

More Information:
Microsoft Exchange 2010
Novell GroupWise
Quest Software GroupWise Migrator for Exchange