Binary Tree has been in the business of developing products and services for cross platform migration since 1993, and they are a migration partner for Microsoft Online Services. As a market leader in Notes migration, it's no surprise they are one of the first to offer Notes to Exchange Online migration services and software. On May 20, I interviewed Steven Pivnik, Co-CEO of Binary Tree, about their solutions for Notes to Exchange Online services migrations.
Q: How did you start making migration tools for Microsoft Online Services? How did you start in the migration business?
A: We started Binary Tree in 1993 primarily as a Lotus Notes service organization doing a lot of Lotus Notes custom application development. We were hired by JP Morgan at that time to build a migration tool to take them from the mail platform they were on to Lotus Notes. We wrote a utility to do it and soon we were asked by another company to write a tool for migrating data from GroupWise to Lotus Notes. We said "Sure!" And then we had another project to migrate data from Netscape. And from those projects, a migration practice mushroomed into 24 different utilities to migrate to Lotus Notes. IBM licensed those tools and shipped them worldwide with the Notes CD, which gave us overnight worldwide notoriety in the Lotus Notes market space.
Q: So you were firmly established as the "go-to" company for migration to Lotus Notes.
A: Exactly. But then in the late 90s and early 2000s we started to get calls from companies we had migrated onto Lotus Notes, wanting to move now to Exchange.
Q: So onto Notes in the 90s and then onto Exchange in 2000s.
A: Yes. In the 2001 timeframe, we started to build the technology to move from Notes onto Exchange. This really ballooned and went from a simple tool that performed email migration to a full-blown suite of products to analyze the current Notes environment, do the migration of applications and messaging, and co-exist with Notes.
Q: Specific to Exchange Online, what work have you done to move customers from Notes to Exchange Online?
A: When Microsoft started to work with customers to migrate from Notes to Exchange Online, they selected Binary Tree as the solution to work with for some significant accounts such as Coca Cola, Pitney Bowes, and Ingersoll Rand. Our tools work out of the box with Exchange Online. Working with Microsoft, we've developed a scalable, repeatable, reliable process to get customers from Notes to Exchange Online.
Q: When you say you have a process, what does this process involve? Is it a tool? Checklist? Project Plan?
A: All of the above. At the heart is the software that does the conversion and facilitates messaging and application coexistence. But around that is a best practices-based process that involves how to communicate to users, how to get users to perform specific actions that may be required during the process, how to stage the migration so that it occurs in the timeframe you want it to, how to put training in place so that end users are comfortable when they start using Outlook, how to put in place a co-existence infrastructure so your email-enabled Notes applications continue to function when you start using Outlook, and much more.
Q: So you have a method by which organizations can co-exist with Notes and Exchange Online?
A: We have a specific product and implementation process for that. Notes and Exchange were never meant to work together. Our product allows users to seamlessly communicate and exchange calendar invites with one another, and allows Lotus Notes email-enabled workflow applications to work with Outlook without requiring any remediation.
Q: So if a partner has a customer using Lotus Notes that is looking at Exchange Online, what do they do?
A: We work with many types of partners. For those who seek to own implementation services around CMT (Co-Exist/Migrate/Transform) solutions, we’ve built an enablement program, called CMT University. We have Level 100, 200, and 300 courses around our Analysis, Migration, and Coexistence products. So we would highly recommend the partner register at cmtuniversity.binarytree.com, complete the curriculum, and become CMT-Certified.
Q: Is there a certification program?
A: There is a test that you take at the end of the Level 300 class, after which, we recommend you install the tools in a lab, where we provide guidance on how to get setup and running. Then we recommend you work on a project with us, and then you're ready to take the oral exam, and perform projects on your own.
Q: If a partner is not certified, can they hire Binary Tree to do the project?
A: The partner can engage at whatever level they wish. They can bring us in to manage just the migration or the entire project. Each partner is unique. Some prefer to take a referral or reseller position initially, and depending on the specific resident expertise of the partner’s practice, focus on certification for some or all CMT solutions. During the project we are glad to do as much knowledge transfer to the partner as we can. We've also seen partners hire other CMT-Certified partners to help them out.
Q: What's your threshold in terms of the size of job before it makes sense to engage with Binary Tree? I know you've worked with some large companies, but does it makes sense for smaller engagements?
A: We're addressing smaller engagements with a product and service we call Weekend Express. You can migrate up to 5,000 users in a weekend from Notes to Exchange Online. This is a hosted service, and runs without installing any software locally. It can also be run as an on-premises migration, which really allows a lot of flexibility in streamlining what could be a complex migration process. This is an excellent opportunity for partners to win projects today, since they don’t have to ramp up on the CMT solutions to leverage the Weekend Express offering. In fact, we encourage partners to personalize the Weekend Express offering to reflect their unique menu of migration-related value-added services – this allows partners to do what they do best, meet the transition needs of their clients, and remain an efficient and cost-effective solution provider. It’s a true win-win for the customer, the partner, Microsoft and Binary Tree.
Q: So a Microsoft Online Services partner that is engaging in a Notes migration could call Binary Tree for just about any size project. It sounds like Binary Tree has resources ranging from over-the-weekend migration tools to enterprise-class migration consultation involving Lotus Notes applications and co-existence involving large numbers of users.
A: Exactly. And partners can choose how much of a technical resource they want to be on migration projects. Our training and certification let partners with an interest in leading implementation services go deep with our products, or they can simply act as an agent in the process and rely on our 16+ years of subject matter expertise to do the heavy lifting for them. We want the partners and clients to have options that meet their need. In addition to our Weekend Express offering, we have a patent-pending process to achieve migrations of over 10,000 users a week for large enterprises.
