VisiMigrate Analyzer

Lotus Notes/Domino Databases Discovery

VisiMigrate toolset is geared to help migrate content and applications from the Lotus Notes platform to Microsoft technologies, in particular the Microsoft SharePoint technology. Recognizing the diverse portfolio of Lotus Notes content and applications being migrated to SharePoint, VisiMigrate is offered in two versions which aim at migrations involving:

 

• Standard groupware content
• High functionality business applications

 

VisiMigrate automates the process and offers a low cost and fast transformation of Lotus Notes content and applications to SharePoint, making it easier to adopt the benefits of SharePoint.

 

The two versions of VisiMigrate toolset are:

 

VisiMigrate®Lite provides automated functionality to transform content from common Lotus Notes databases like documents repository, discussions, tasks etc. to SharePoint Document libraries and Lists.

 

VisiMigrate®Enterprise provides extensive features to migrate Lotus Notes databases and customized Lotus Notes applications to the Microsoft SharePoint platform where the migrated data would reside in SharePoint lists and site columns and auto-generated SharePoint forms will be used to interact with the migrated information.

 

VisiMigrate®Enterprise offers control over selection of content to be migrated.  It allows transformation of data fields during the migration process and complete control over SharePoint Sites and Site Columns definitions. It also provides an easy to use Data Mapping function to control exactly where each Lotus Notes field will go in the SharePoint environment through manual and automated mapping modes. It also allows the Administrators to selectively migrate content security information to the SharePoint platform.

 

An important requirement of enterprise level migration projects is deep understanding of organization’s Lotus Notes portfolio so that decision made to convert from Lotus Notes and related technologies are based on solid knowledge about the content and its usage. For this purpose VisiMigrate provides the Analyzer component that thoroughly examines the contents of the Lotus Notes databases and applications to enumerate Lotus Notes databases, and documents/groupware content, determines the extent of customization done for document libraries, examines the customized Lotus Notes applications to determine the size of the applications and provides a detailed data set that is used to make decisions about possible migration options.

 

VisiMigrate Analyzer automates the analysis and estimation process and offers rapid solution for Lotus notes environment study. It helps the end user to design the final road map and plan the best suited approach for application migration. It enables the project team to plan their milestones and work break down structure with respect to application complexity, time lines and available resources.

VisiMigrate Analyzer

 

Operating Modes

VisiMigrate Analyzer can be used in the following two modes, depending on the size of the Lotus Notes portfolio and level of adoption of Lotus Notes within the organization.

Automated

Auto Mode is specially designed for initial discovery of the Lotus Notes portfolio to enumerate the total number of databases in the environment to classify them according to their usage.

VisiMigrate ‘crawls’ the Lotus Notes Servers to discover databases and produces a detailed data set that is used for further analysis.

Manual

Whereas Manual mode addresses the need of user driven analysis and helps the end user to extract the required details as per their needs and enables them to dig out the atomic level details like Design elements, ACL, Document Details, Database Usage analysis and Application complexity. Additionally, it offers various techniques to review all such contents (Agents, Lotus scripts and Custom forms) where manual estimation is required.

Database Usage Analysis

In order to prioritize the work plan, VisiMigrate Analyzer helps to extract the database usage details along with latest transaction dates, last usage of designer etc. It also identifies total number of common templates that are being used in lotus notes environment

Application Size Determination

As a matter of fact, Application size determination is quite tedious and time consuming activity that requires a lot of effort if one relies on manual review. In order to reduce the effort involved in the analysis and to base the analysis on objective details.

VisiMigrate Analyzer extracts atomic level details from Lotus Notes applications and presents them for detailed review and analysis:

The following represent some of the major components about which data is collected:

 

• Application Forms

1. Sub Forms
2. Form Fields
3. Field Types

• Views

1. Hierarchical Views
2. Selection formulas
3. View(s) Count

• Code

1. Number of functions
2. Lines of Code
3. Script Dependency
4. Number of Agent
5. Custom scripts   

Application Size Complexity

In addition, it identifies the size of application and its level of complexity by using Visionet’s proprietary algorithm. This algorithm is based on Visionet’s considerable experience in having carried out platform migrations, in particular the Lotus Notes to SharePoint migrations and takes into account practical constraints and challenges associated with such projects.

SharePoint Suitability Score

VisiMigrate Analyzer offers an automated approach for target technology selection by using its own analysis techniques to delineate content that can be readily migrated to the SharePoint platform. Content that requires manual intervention is marked for customization.

Conversion Estimation

Data collected by VisiMigrate Analyzer is reviewed by Visionet professional services for exact estimation specially when it comes to migrating customized business applications in Lotus Notes, however, the VisiMigrate Analyzer provides some basic high-level estimates on forms migration, code translation and workflow configuration efforts that may need to be carried out for effective transformation to Microsoft SharePoint or .Net platform and can be used as a rough guide for conversion estimates.

This feature provides data about the following categories of effort required during the migration cycle:

1. Automated Data Migration
2. Automated Code Migration
3. Manual Effort Estimation

 

Data Reports

VisiMigrate Analyzer produces detailed reports and charts on the documents content and applications, some of the elements reported on are as follows:

1. Identifies the list of server by using lotus client connection details
2. Provides Database template filters, filters by usage stats (dates, people)
1. Document Libraries
2. Discussions
3. Task Lists
4. Memo
5. Custom Databases
6. Mail in Database

 

• Design elements like Forms, sub forms, shared fields ,views, design templates, agents
• Extracts Document Details like Document size, Documents with attachments, embedded images, Document with Encryption, Rich text notes
• Provides Database usage analysis
• Identifies dependent and independent applications
• Determine complexity level of groupware content
• Determine complexity level of Lotus Notes applications through code and form categorization
• Data access rights