Our mail connectivity will look like the diagram shown in Figure A when we are done:

FIGURE A

This is how our mail connectivity looks. Click picture for a larger image.

Areas in blue depict items that are already in place but will be disappearing. The items in red depict the mail system and links that will be permanent at the end of the project. Finally any of the black items show areas where links need to be added.

User Training
The last topic I want to cover is the importance of training. I can never express the importance of training for new users enough. A good rollout and solid technology can be seriously overshadowed by groups of users that cannot effectively work with a new technology. When productivity suffers, the migration project will suffer ten-fold.

Different levels of training may be needed for different groups of people. In studies at our project company, we found that users of LAN based email with graphic interfaces were happy with a half day of intensive Notes concepts training and were able to move over to the Domino system very easily. However, users of terminal based mail systems on the mainframes required 1 to 1.5 days of full training to get used to the Domino and Notes environment.

It has been my personal experience, on many conversion projects like this, that users are always open to training at any level to get a head start with new technologies.

Conclusion
There are many steps, challenges and pitfalls of making a massive conversion. It will be quite a ride. But with good planning and a patient and understanding user-base, the conversion will hopefully be pretty painless.

Craig Borysowich is a senior technology consultant for MCI-SHL Systemhouse and a freelance writer on many computing topics, including Notes, email, and the Internet. You can contact him via email at cborysowic@shl.com.