How to Migrate from Lotus Notes to Microsoft 365?

HCL Notes was one of the first email platforms that offered a user-friendly interface for reading, sending, and managing emails. However, over the years, many platforms with similar functionality have emerged. Today, Microsoft 365 is a market leader as it offers many innovative apps that can enhance your productivity. These apps integrate well with each other and enable you to do more with your emails. Also, the integration of generative AI in the last few months has made Microsoft 365 even more appealing to users. Undoubtedly, if you still use Lotus Notes, it’s time to move to Microsoft 365.

But migrating your data from Lotus Notes to Microsoft 365 is not easy because both platforms use different data formats, and they are not compatible with each other. Read on to know how you can migrate from Lotus Notes to Microsoft 365 in three ways.

1. Use the MONTI Tool

The Microsoft Online Notes Inspector (MONTI) tool was built by Microsoft to help users migrate specific data from Lotus Notes to Microsoft 365. You can download this tool and install it on your device. Now, follow the MONTI configuration guide to migrate data from Notes to Microsoft 365.

Drawbacks of MONTI

The biggest drawback of MONTI is its elaborate migration process. The guide is an 86-page document that can overwhelm even users with high technical knowledge. Also, it could take a while to read through the documentation and implement it. Needless to say, such elaborate instructions can make the migration process highly error-prone and are definitely not for everyone.

Furthermore, MONTI is available only for Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.

2. Use the IMAP Connector

Another option is to use the IMAP Connector. This tool leverages the IMAP protocol to retrieve emails from clients like Lotus Notes that support this protocol. Also, the IMAP Connector requires appropriate permissions on the IMAP and SMTP servers, inbound and outbound ports, and OAuth 2.0 connection. Once you have these permissions and configurations, open the IMAP Connector tool for migration, and follow the below steps.

• Take a backup ofNSF file to reduce the chances of data loss.
• Create new mailboxes in Microsoft 365 for every user whose contents you want to migrate from IBM Notes.
• Enable IMAP TCP/IP ports for all users. To do this,
  • Open your Domino Administrator and navigate to the Configuration tab.
  • Open the Server Document for the server that’s running the IMAP service.
  • Navigate to Ports > Internet Ports > Mail Tab.
  • Change the TCP/IP port value status to Enabled. you will have to alter the ‘TCP/IP port value status’ to ‘Enabled’ in the Mail (IMAP) column (By default, the IMAP clients get connected to TCP/IP port number 143 on the Domino server).
  • Save and exit
• Open your IMAP Connector and synchronize emails between Lotus Notes and Microsoft 365.

Drawbacks of IMAP Connector

The biggest drawback is the complexity of the steps itself, as you may not have port permissions. Also, it doesn’t work if there’s a firewall and proxy in your organization or if the Notes client doesn’t permit an IMPA connection due to its current configurations. Furthermore, it’s slow and can transfer only a maximum of 1 GB of data. Often, it doesn’t work well with calendar entries.

Due to these restrictions, IMAP Connector is not the easiest or the most practical way to migrate data from your IBM Lotus Notes to Microsoft 365 clients.

3. Using Stellar Converter for NSF

Using the Stellar Converter for NSF is the easiest of the three options as it is simple to use and requires no prior technical knowledge, making it ideal for users of all technical knowledge. Furthermore, the steps are simple and don’t require any advanced permissions or configurations.

Below are the steps involved.

• Download Stellar Converter for NSF and follow the installation wizard to install it.
• Double-click the tool to run it. As soon as the tool opens, it will prompt you for the NSF file.
• You can browse and select the NSF file you want to convert, or you can search with its name.

• After selecting the NSF file, click the Convert button. It can take a few minutes for the tool to extract the contents from the NSF file. All items, including calendar entries and tasks, are displayed on the preview pane.

• Select the items you want to migrate and click the option Save Converted File.
• In the Save As window, choose Microsoft 365. In the next window, enter your Microsoft 365 credentials.

That’s it. Stellar Converter for NSF will automatically migrate the converted content to your Microsoft 365 account. Once the process is complete, you will get a notification, and after this, you can access the Notes content in Microsoft 365.

Out of the three methods discussed, using Stellar Converter for NSF is the easiest and the most intuitive option. Its user-friendly interface hides the complexity of the conversion process, and you can migrate data quickly and with minimal effort. More importantly, this tool can also extract data from corrupted, orphaned, and inaccessible NSF files.

Conclusion

To conclude, migrating data from Lotus Notes to Microsoft 365 is not easy because of the varying data formats followed by these platforms. This means the only way is to use a tool that can do this migration for you. While MONTI and IMAP Connector are available, they are difficult to follow, have certain limitations, and can lead to possible data loss. Your best option is to use the Stellar Converter for NSF as it is easy to use, offers the flexibility to migrate just the data you want, and comes with an intuitive user interface.