In any large organization there will come a time when the IT department will have to migrate their existing users to a new mail server. Lots of times this migration is a result of two companies merging their IT operations together. Other times the migration is driven by a company’s decision to standardize on one platform so as to simplify administration and reduce maintenance costs.

The migration can be made less painful for users if careful planning is performed during the initial stages. Many tools exist to convert mail folders from one format to another. For example, there are tools to convert from Outlook/Exchange mailbox and personal folders (.pst files) to the Domino server mailbox or local .nsf files

Or in the case of going from an existing IMAP server to Google Apps there are tools that help domain administrators transfer the contents of users mailboxes without risking the loss of existing mail. Of course having a recent backup is most important to insure against the loss of email. In addition, you want to verify that the migration tool you use will keep and/or display a log of each mail message migrated including the sender, receiver and date of the migrated email message.

Folder structures should also be preserved so that users can stay as productive as possible after email migrations. You don’t want users having to spend their time recreating the email folders they use for staying organized nor having to repopulate their email folders from backup. You want to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Email migration efforts should also include the users’ calendars and contacts which are part of an email environment.

Testing your email migration strategy should also be a part of your migration plan. Testing on several small accounts can be performed to verify that your migration tools will work as needed before a larger migration effort is enacted. If you have a very large number of users then consider performing the migration in batches. That way you can track the success of the migration and if needed go back and correct the procedures or scripts as problems arise.

Your migration process is also a good time to scan for viruses and filter out email that doesn’t meet your company’s policies for appropriate email. It is also a good time to notify your users to reduce the size of their email folders and any unnecessary attachments. Set a limit on the size of the mail messages that will be allowed to be transferred and notify your users of these limits. Setting a limit on the number of folders to be transferred per user is another way to minimize the time needed during migration.

Consider this a fresh start and take advantage of this migration effort for the benefit of your users.