Microsoft has unveiled resources and tools designed to streamline the transition to its unified communications and collaboration platform. The Redmond Company's targets are IBM Lotus Notes/Domino customers, which it wants to convert to the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 technologies.

"With the release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, the 2007 Office system with SharePoint Server 2007, and solutions such as the next generation of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server in the pipeline, I'm convinced we will continue to see strong adoption of our comprehensive platform in the coming year," said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division at Microsoft. "Our clear road map and product innovation are helping customers say yes to Microsoft."

Microsoft delivers a set of tools built for managing transitions of IBM's directory, messaging and application solutions, and is additionally offering new templates for SharePoint Products and Technologies.

Among the new suite of tools and templates available to ease transition for Lotus Notes/Domino customers are the Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Notes, the Role-Based Templates for SharePoint My Sites and the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Application Templates.

The Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Notes enables customers to plan and transition the messaging and directory services and the data from template-based applications to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. The Role-Based Templates for SharePoint My Sites deliver the seed for the creation of customized portals, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Application Templates offer the first step in building custom applications.