Microsoft vs IBM Lotus Notes

Throughout the 1990s, Microsoft tactfully introduced special product offers, incentives and tools to attack Novell, Lotus, Borland and other entrenched rivals during trade shows and conferences. Fast forward to the present and Microsoft’s Unified Communications blog offers advice, market share figures and partner names to help customers dump Notes for Exchange. Oh, and the advice comes a few days before Lotusphere 2010.

Scratch-n-Claw

But wait… There’s More. Microsoft also is offering complimentary training to 500 Lotus professionals at no cost on a first come, first served basis.  To qualify, Lotus Professionals can e-mail [email protected] with their name and valid e-mail address.

Microsoft also claims three key partners — Binary Tree, CASAHL Technology and Quest Software — have migrated more than 35 million users from Notes to Microsoft in the past decade. Side note: Quest Software recently acquired PacketTrap — a company that works closely with the emerging MSP market.

Still, don’t weep too long for IBM and Lotus. Big Blue just won a big deal to migrate Panasonic off of Exchange. Also at Lotusphere, IBM will be working with Canonical to position Ubuntu Linux against Windows 7.