1. canada
Making the most of Application Migration
By: Frank Curry
IT World Canada, November 16, 2005
Companies are reviewing their messaging and collaboration infrastructure, either for
opportunities to centralize, consolidate and control costs, or in response to changing business
requirements. An upgrade from a legacy e-mail and collaboration platform promises not only
greater functionality, but also the ability to integrate with other systems and incorporate new
business processes that will streamline users' daily work experience.
Given changes in many business environments - often in an effort to achieve global operations
and presence through mergers and acquisitions - companies are looking for tightly integrated
products and systems that link enterprise applications and extend these beyond the enterprise.
Upgrading an e-mail and collaboration system, for example, is one of the most challenging
projects an IT department can undertake. Business conditions and IT environments have
evolved and so have messaging and collaboration systems. Planning and communication can
help smooth the way to a successful project.
Keep it simple, not simplistic
When it comes to planning, given the complexity of application and e-mail migration, it's easy
to under- or over-estimate what's required to do the work. And simply replicating existing
messaging and collaboration systems onto a new platform istoo simplistic an approach.
Migration presents an opportunity to re-think business needs and to consider which legacy
applications continue to fulfill those needs. Companies who skip such a review process simply
delay the inevitable need to keep or cut certain applications. It results in stretching out the
duration of a project and losing many of the key benefits of migration such as improved and
more efficient business processes.
As a result it is important to begin work with an analysis that might comprise either an
application migration proof-of-concept or a pilot focused solely on e-mail- and in some cases,
both. This helps to identify which applications are candidates for retirement in order to
eliminate complexity as quickly as possible.
When companies break down application assets interms of what impact these haveon business
function, they can better determine what's really needed, and how these existing applications
and the supporting infrastructures will continue to provide necessary function in the new
computing environment.
Speak their language
Since migration has a longer lifecycle than other IT initiatives and proceeding too slowly can
doom a project's completion, it is important to pace work according to stakeholder
acceptance, taking the time to answer application owner questions and get their buy-in on the
migration.