As part of a global initiative to move its 270 000 employees from PRofessional OFfice System (PROFS) to Lotus Notes, IBM SA has commissioned more than 2200 seats in Lotus` collaborative environment.
The project will bring staff in 164 countries together via the IBM Global Network - a device which also serves 33 000 customer enterprises in 900 cities and is one of the largest data networks in the world.
Cathy Smith, project manager at IBM SA, says the local transition was smoothed by methodologies, processes and migration tools developed internally and rolled out to IBM subsidiaries.
"These incorporate planning and implementation while also taking staff training and infrastructural development such as hardware upgrades into account. The goal was to build a distributed computing environment with high levels of functionality, availability and security," she adds.
IBM`s project team was supported by Oscar Rozario, technical sales manager at Lotus Development SA, who played a significant role in user education. "The benefits associated with a cross-functional and -company platform such as Notes are difficult to get across and Oscar`s input was invaluable," says Smith.
Typically a one-day course as well as special training customised for specific needs was all that was needed before providing users with access to Notes. This provided users with immediate access to such facilities as e-mail and calendaring.
The migration from PROFS has also improved the ability of IBM employees to work whilst away from the office. "Prior to the installation of Lotus Notes, having a notebook computer allowed users to do some work at home. Now they can do just about everything from any remote location," says Smith.
Interestingly IBM customers around the world stand to benefit from the project. "As a result of this migration we have developed a wide set of skills and tools which are available for others planning to the same or similar transitions," she says.
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