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Todd Wanke, Technical Director Development Team

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As part of our new Collaboration blog I wanted to introduce myself as the Technical Director responsible for Microsoft’s Notes Migration development team. I have had an exciting 10+yrs career here at Microsoft: from the mid 90’s as an early architect of microsoft.com, software developer, GPM of dotcom initiative, leading the development of the past two versions of Windows (Windows 2003 & Windows XP SP2) to now leading the Notes Effort. From my perspective, taking on & leading this effort was a perfect fit w\ my strong development background, 4+ yrs running two of the world’s largest development projects, building\running a large virtual team & my broad customer experience.

Upon arriving, we assembled an amazing group of people focused 100% on this initiative, consisting of Program Manager’s, Testers, Developers & most notably, a cross company virtual team consisting of resources from across the multiple product groups. In addition, with 50++ yrs of Notes expertise in the team, we no longer think of Notes Compete as just an “Exchange problem” or consider “rip and replace” a viable option (historically something I was told we’ve done). But rather, for customers running Notes wanting to leverage the value of the Microsoft Collaboration Platform, our approach is centered on helping the customer seamlessly make the technology transition to their desired end state - which could equally be a COEXISTENCE and/or a migration approach.

The team in place is remarkable; no question, the strongest team I have been apart of. Our recruiting efforts have been world-class & we maintained an incredibly high-bar for new hires. The initiative is surrounded w\ a lot of passionate people & cool technology. I couldn’t be more excited for our future, the products\tools we are building, the partner community, our customers & the pipeline we have making the transition.

I look forward to sharing many additional thoughts, topics, technical information & hearing from you on our approach & feedback you have.

- todd

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 08, 2006
    With a long history of specializing in MS Exchange it will be interesting to see the improvements that you make to the available toolset.  I agree that these tools in the past seemed to lend themselves to a focus on 'just migrate faster'.  This in many cases isn't all bad as many clients need the carrot AND the stick oftentimes.  With that said many companies remain on Notes (for business critical apps) well after even completing what might already be a lengthy migration to Exchange ... having tools that integrate AD, Exchange, Sharepoint, etc. with this Notes infrastructure will be fantastic.  Looking forward to working with your toolset in the future!
  • Anonymous
    February 08, 2006
    Hi Todd, good to see some thought going in to the Notes collaboration work.  Are you planning to publish a roadmap some time in the future?

  • Anonymous
    February 08, 2006
    absolutely!!!  we have a long list of topics in the queue the team is working on; this being one.  keep checking back.

    -todd

  • Anonymous
    February 09, 2006
    Steve Balmer talks of the notes customer base "Ripe for Plucking".

    So forgive me if I take your comments with a pinch of salt. I'm not ready to be "Plucked".

    Secondly - 50+ years Notes development experience! Cool. But this doesnt explain the Application Analyser tool does it ? That didnt look as though it had a huge amount of experience or technology invested in it ?

    ---* Bill
    http://www.billbuchan.com
  • Anonymous
    February 09, 2006
    Bill, when you talk about ‘ripe-for-plucking’, technically I think about this as providing the tools, resources, skills & partners to assist our customers in the transition from Notes to a Microsoft Collaboration Platform.  It’s their transition & timeframe – and simply just reality.

    Our strategy is very clear (and I am working on a more detailed blog on this topic), we want to enable our customers, thru COEXISTENCE & migration tools, to do what they need to do to support their business during a transition.  That is how they will succeed.

    Wrt you “not [being] ready to be plucked”, the tools and solutions we are working on are based on requests from customers who recognize the value of the Microsoft collaboration platform and have requested assistance in making this transition.  Our customers are coming to us saying “we want to adopt your collaboration platform from what we have today, help us get there”.  It is in response to these customers & demand that our renewed effort & focus took shape.

    On the Notes Expertise, I know you know many of the people personally on my team.  You also know their backgrounds, expertise, and ability to solve technical challenges – you also (now) know my product background, drive for quality & excellence…

    -todd
  • Anonymous
    February 09, 2006
    The comment has been removed