How to select the most suitable Migration software

Optimal use of a migration software can mean the difference between sending a technician to each and every computer versus relaxing and watching a script do the whole migration automatically. Whenever you decide to leave your aboriginal email client and move into a new platform, a lot of initial emails, contacts, calendar entries will be there which you will still need anyway. Migration with the inbuilt tools never results in complete transfer of data. Therefore, migration tools are used but within the available plenty which one suits your environment remains an important question.

Taking example of migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook, the most common data to be migrated is client side Lotus Notes archives (NSF files) into Outlook PST and server side Domino server data into Exchange server data. Along with the user accounts like Lotus Notes IDs and contacts, calendars, appointments also need to be successfully converted. The technical expertise required to migrate server-side data is very different from the technical expertise required to migrate client-side data. Therefore, you need to be more concerned about your Domino user data.

The only way to be certain if the software will meet your needs is to test it in your environment. Good NSF to PST converters will allow you to have a free trail before purchase. If you have to install the software for operation on each workstation, the difficulty of use goes up drastically. Client-side migration software should automatically configure itself for the workstation on which it is run to allow fully automated deployment.

After finding automated software which requires it to install only on the server, migrate a small mailbox to the new email system. If all the folders, folders with correct emails, attachments, images get migrated then you can rely upon the software for further use. Next migrate a very large mailbox and check if all the folders convert, even nested folders several levels down. If migrating to Outlook versions before Outlook 2003, look whether the software handles folders with more than 16,000 messages. Also move a user’s contacts/address books and check if everything works. Finally note if the software completes the migration without any incident or not. If all these positive traits are found then you are evaluating the right product.

NSF to PST allows you to check the product’s capabilities with a free evaluation version. Convert NSF to PST quickly and effectively. With this tool you can directly convert Domino user mailboxes to new account in Exchange Server or as .PST file. The converted data can be viewed in Text or RTF format. It supports version 8.5, 8.0, 7.0, 6.5, 6.0 and 5.0 of Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino Server. Along with, it supports MS Outlook 97 and above, and every version of MS Exchange Server.

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