Microsoft Delivers New Migration and Coexistence Tools for Lotus Notes Applications

    REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 23, 2002 --
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced the immediate availability of
the new Microsoft(R) Application Analyzer for Lotus Notes to help customers
plan a migration and coexistence strategy for moving Lotus Notes applications
to the Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server platform. Microsoft also is endorsing
CASAHL Technology Inc.'s ecKnowledge version 7.5 as the preferred solution for
connecting Lotus Notes and Domino applications and migrating application data
to the Microsoft platform. Through their relationship, Microsoft and CASAHL
are enabling customers and business partners to evaluate their Lotus
application infrastructure, understand their business needs, and determine how
applications can be transferred with minimal disruption of service to users.
    Expanded availability of the Application Analyzer tool combined with the
power of CASAHL's ecKnowledge product present new business opportunities for
Microsoft service partners, for Lotus partners with their existing customers
migrating to Exchange and other Microsoft servers, and for ISVs to build
coexistence and migration capabilities into their offerings using these new
tools. Nearly 50 Microsoft Certified Partners are already offering services to
help customers use these new tools to migrate their Lotus applications.
Consisting of two components, the Data Collector and the Data Processor, the
Application Analyzer is now more readily available to customers and Microsoft
Certified Partners. Microsoft now offers customers direct access to the Data
Collector and easier access to a growing number of partners offering migration
analysis services with the Data Processor.
    "While customers have received value from Notes over the years, they are
increasingly finding that using a monolithic product to address a wide range
of business needs does not provide the performance, scalability and
manageability an enterprise requires," said Paul Flessner, senior vice
president of .NET Enterprise Servers at Microsoft. "We recognize the
significant investment those customers have made in Notes-based applications
and are pleased to provide this comprehensive solution to assist them in
migrating that investment to a Microsoft environment."
    The combined solution of the Microsoft Application Analyzer and CASAHL
ecKnowledge helps provide customers with the resources necessary to evaluate
and analyze their current Notes application infrastructure, make a
determination about the ongoing cost and business value of those existing
applications, connect Lotus and Microsoft environments and, ultimately, fully
migrate the pertinent applications to the Microsoft platform. These tools help
as customers migrating from Notes and Domino to the Microsoft platform
determine whether any of their existing Notes applications no longer meet
current business requirements or simply are not being used.
    "We have many customers that use Lotus Notes, or that have a heterogeneous
environment with both Notes and Microsoft Exchange, trying to decide what the
effort would be to migrate to Exchange," said Don Seiford, national director
of Collaborative Messaging at Siemens Business Services Inc. "By using the
Application Analyzer as well as several other tools and processes we developed
at Siemens, we can accurately aggregate, analyze and report data so that the
customer can make an informed decision."
    ecKnowledge, a comprehensive migration and coexistence tool from CASAHL
Technology, replaces the Microsoft Application Connector for Lotus Notes.
ecKnowledge replicates and synchronizes the contents of Notes applications
with various Microsoft products, including Exchange Server, the Outlook(R)
messaging and collaboration client and SQL Server(TM), and enables customers
to access data from a variety of applications without having to undergo a
complex integration project. In addition, it can help connect new Microsoft
applications with other line-of-business applications such as enterprise
resource planning, customer relationship management and data warehousing,
allowing the migrated Lotus Notes and Domino applications to continue to
utilize mission-critical data from other enterprise systems.
    "Many enterprises, including many of our 1,000-plus customers, utilize
Microsoft Office and server products in a heterogeneous collaborative
environment that includes Lotus Notes/Domino applications and other software
applications," said Harry Wong, CEO of CASAHL Technology. "CASAHL ecKnowledge
provides the technology that enables our customers and partners to develop
collaborative solutions that are fully integrated with their enterprise
applications."
    "In our experience working with customers, we've found that typically, no
more than 10 percent of the total universe of Notes-based applications are
really delivering the significant business value customers perceive they are
getting from Notes. Those applications were typically not 'out of the box'
functionality provided by Notes, but rather the result of significant custom
development," said Andy Sakalian, president of Version3 Inc., a Microsoft
Certified Partner. "We're really excited that Microsoft has worked with CASAHL
to update its Notes application analysis tools, as we're able to show these
customers a better solution for their business requirements by developing
applications based on the Microsoft platform."
    The release of the new Microsoft Application Analyzer for Lotus Notes and
the recommendation of CASAHL's ecKnowledge for data replication are part of a
larger push to migrate Lotus Notes applications and to retrain Lotus Notes
developers on .NET-based development. Microsoft has been working and will
continue to work closely with customers moving from Lotus Notes to develop
additional solutions to further ease migration from Lotus Notes and Domino to
the Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server platform.

    Availability and Pricing
    Microsoft customers and industry partners can download the Data Collector
today at no cost from
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/interop/notes.asp (connect-time
fees may apply). The Data Processor is available to Microsoft Certified
Partners via the MVP eStore for $1 plus shipping and handling. For a complete
listing of Microsoft Certified Partners that have the new Application
Analyzer, see http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/partners/migration_l.asp .
Partners can purchase ecKnowledge directly from CASAHL Technology.

    About Exchange Server
    Exchange is the leader in messaging and collaboration, with more than
110 million licenses sold. Exchange is the easy-to-manage messaging and
collaboration platform that provides e-mail, calendaring, instant messaging,
conferencing and XML Web services for custom collaborative applications that
bring people and information together. Exchange delivers enhanced reliability,
scalability, manageability and performance with a lower total cost of
ownership.

    About Microsoft
    Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services
and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company
offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people
through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.

    NOTE:  Microsoft and Outlook are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
    The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.

    For more information on Exchange Server:
        http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/