Rather than setting  up a direct slugging match with any of our competitors we believe the professional way forward is to highlight what we understand to be the reasons our clients prefer to use Ultimate Migrator (UM) software. So, to argue the business case for UM, the logical place to begin is to wind back to the start of the client software selection process. This assumes that the client has free choice and is not hamstrung by an intermediate partner promoting their own solution for their own ends.

Key criteria for choosing the right tool for the job:

• The Product – evaluated against a number of different criteria
• Real world experience/testimonials
• Value for Money /Cost
• Support/Customer Service

1) The Product

• Functionality

UM was originally conceived by a real world IT engineer to manage a real world need to deal with the real-world challenge of complex email and data migration projects. That marks it out as different right from the start – it is written with the IT project engineer in mind.

It was first used to great effect in 2010 by W S Atkins, one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies. A key factor that steered WS Atkins to choose UM software and that marked it out as a true enterprise level product to be reckoned with, was the broad range of functionality available to the user. Full automation, and batching are other elements of functionality well received by hard pressed project engineers and managers. Network wide discovery of .pst files, migration of public folders with the associated built in algorithm for identifying ownership, rehydration of short-cuts when migrating from on premise Enterprise Vault are just some of the product’s additional functionality that are highly valued by project engineers.

• User Interface

The browser based GUI interface simplifies the set up and configuration of the project, and minimises user error especially when compared to other products in the market that rely on scripting to carry out many of the functions, not to mention speed of operation.

• Ease of Use

The task of managing any migration project has been de-stressed by both the automation feature and the comprehensive reporting options available straight out of the box. Once the software has been configured and source and location set, the software will pretty much run itself with minimum human intervention. Items that fail to migrate properly are put in the automatic retry queue, with persistent failures ultimately moved to the Intervention Required queue. The expected success rate on a per message basis is generally in the region of 99.9%. In the unlikely event that the migration grinds to a halt, the comprehensive reporting system allows the project engineer to quickly identify the point at which the migration ceased, so once the cause had been resolved, the migration can continue from where it left off rather than having to go all the way back and start again, which itself can lead to horrendous duplication problems.

• Connectivity

The most efficient way of migrating emails from an on premise exchange server to the cloud is to use the native Microsoft tools. However, the Microsoft tools do not cater for the many on-premise email archive systems that exist in the corporate and public sector worlds. UM software comes with a multitude of connectors especially designed to make the process of migrating from these archive stores simple and straightforward. Probably the most common on-premise archiving system is Enterprise Vault, which presents a number of challenges for lesser migration software products, but is easily and efficiently handled by the UM software functionality and routines.

• Overall Efficiency

The intelligent design of the UM software with its multi-threading approach means that the overall speed and efficiency of the migration is second to none, leading to a very low failure rate with minimal post-migration rectification work.

• Compliance

The reporting functionality allows for comprehensive auditing of data migration to ensure appropriate compliance with the various industry specific data legislation

2) Real World Experience/Testimonials

• The words above extolling the virtues of the UM software are obviously written by ourselves and may be considered somewhat biased. You don’t have to take our word for it – our enviable client list is full of real world blue chip companies and public sector bodies from across the globe who will attest to the reputation of the UM software. We would be happy to provide testimonials to support our claims if it becomes relevant.

3) Value for Money/Cost

• Value for money is a very subject assessment of the worth of a product in carrying out an intended task. We believe our business model allows the client to achieve the biggest bang for their buck, and the real cost of our software against the competition is genuinely at least 20% less. Not surprising really as we don’t have a conventional corporate structure with all the associated corporate overheads, and we don’t insist our software is only used by expensive intermediate consultants either.

We are independent of any partner relationship and have no vested interests and therefore we are able to pass the cost savings on to the client.

4) Support/Customer Service

• Because many of our staff have worked as IT engineers and understand the real-world problems faced on a day to day basis by IT engineers, we are totally committed to supporting our client using our software to achieve their stated aims. The permutations and combinations of legacy systems on a client site are immense which occasionally can present the migration process with a show-stopper. Our engineers are known to go the extra mile to help the client work through the problem which may even lead to UM customising the software code to resolve the issue.
• Our clients are eager to share their views on our customer service ethos; here’s a snippet of unprompted feedback from a recent client, Varian Medical Systems Inc, a global leader in cancer care solutions.

“ I know as part of the amazing pricing you got for me and the further amazing dedicated support, I owe you a customer testimonial.   I need to block out some time to sit and actually do it but I wanted to see if there’s anything in particular you wanted or needed me to focus on…   I am more than happy with the level of support, customization and overall dedication provided to us during all these efforts and am further more than happy to sing your praises in my statement if appropriate. Steve Schaub,” Read Steve’s subsequent testimonial here