Migration from Outlook 2010

Hi, This is my first post here. Our congregation is tired of all the problems Outlook causes us, and we are considering migrating all our email activities to The Bat! (Pro). We are fairly well convinced that this would be a great move for us in the long term.

However, we are feeling a bit uncertain about the migration/transition in the beginning. Even though Outlook has a HUGE installed base, our impression is that The Bat!, out of the box, does little to help with such a migration. So here are some of our concerns, if anyone has had experience with any of these, or can offer a plugin (paid or free), or anything of the kind, we would be most grateful:

1. We have a lot of Outlook .pst files, and most of these contain tens of thousands of messages. We believe that on import, these .pst files are broken up, so that the individual messages can be stored separately in The Bat!'s underlying database. But is the original association represented by the .pst file and its folders maintained somehow? In other words, if we have a.pst and b.pst, when the import is complete, will the resulting emails in The Bat! still be organized in some way as "a" and "b"?

2. As soon as we complete the import, we would like to scan all the messages for viruses etc. The reason is that virus scanners seem to have a bit of difficulty scanning ordinary Outlook .pst files ... Because the messages are all jammed together in a single file, the scanning programs miss things, have trouble identifying which message contains a problem or exactly what the problem may be, etc. So ... what tool do users suggest for carrying out such a very thorough, one-time "scan of everything"?

3. Wnen the import is complete ...

3.1 Will all existing attachments remain intact and attached? (E.g., .pdf files, .doc/x files, and the like)

3.2 Will threads remain intact or be broken?

3.3 VERY IMPORTANT ... Will our existing filters come over, or will we have to recreate that manually? (I ask, because we use a LOT of filters!!!)

4. Can our email accounts be imported from Outlook 2010? We have nearly 100 of them, thoughtfully organized into account groups in Outlook. Does The Bat! provide functionality similar to Outlook account groups? Also, can the email accounts and account group information be brought over somehow? Or do we have to recreate it all manually in The Bat!? (Weird punctuation, I know.

5. From experience, is there anything else pertaining to an Outlook-to-The Bat! migration that we might not have thought of here and that we might do well to consider now?

I realize that this is a large request, so please feel free to respond to any part of it ... Any help at all will be GREATLY appreciated. We are a hard-working group, but only modestly technically advanced, so I apologize in advance if there is something we "should" have found, but did not.

Gratefully yours,

VLM

TB has an import wizard for Outlook, that should take care of the importing of messages (including the folder structure), the account settings and the contacts.
It's unlikely that the filters will be imported.
Attached files should still be linked.
Threads should still be linked too, however Outlook has non RFC compliant ways to maintain threads, so I'm not 100% sure.
Just like all current mail clients TB stores all messages for a single folder in a single file. I can give you a technical explanation, butbasically it's for faster access.
For scanning all messages with a virus scanner you'd best find a scanner that has a plug-in for TB. For myself I'm using AVG to do that, it comes with a plug-in for TB.
TB has no account groups. Every account has its own root in the account tree pane with its own inbox, outbox, sent mail, etc.
Though it's not up to me to criticize your setup, it seems to me that managing 100 accounts in a single client has to be sub-optimal. Do you use all of thiose addresses?

The best way to see whether TB matches your needs is to download it and see whether the import goes fine. The existing Outlook configurating won't be destroyed, merely copied to TB's message base. (After installing you might need to select fr om the menu: Tools -> Import messages -> Mailbox Import Wizard -> Microsoft Oulook)
Just see wh ere that will bring you. After installing you've got 30 days to get yourself a license, so that should be time enough to test it.

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Roelof Otten Guru Posts: 2963 Points: 5336 Rating: 61 Authority: 61 Joined: 19 September 2004	#2 10.2577 08 September 2012 12:02:07 TB has an import wizard for Outlook, that should take care of the importing of messages (including the folder structure), the account settings and the contacts. It's unlikely that the filters will be imported. Attached files should still be linked. Threads should still be linked too, however Outlook has non RFC compliant ways to maintain threads, so I'm not 100% sure. Just like all current mail clients TB stores all messages for a single folder in a single file. I can give you a technical explanation, butbasically it's for faster access. For scanning all messages with a virus scanner you'd best find a scanner that has a plug-in for TB. For myself I'm using AVG to do that, it comes with a plug-in for TB. TB has no account groups. Every account has its own root in the account tree pane with its own inbox, outbox, sent mail, etc. Though it's not up to me to criticize your setup, it seems to me that managing 100 accounts in a single client has to be sub-optimal. Do you use all of thiose addresses? The best way to see whether TB matches your needs is to download it and see whether the import goes fine. The existing Outlook configurating won't be destroyed, merely copied to TB's message base. (After installing you might need to select fr om the menu: Tools -> Import messages -> Mailbox Import Wizard -> Microsoft Oulook) Just see wh ere that will bring you. After installing you've got 30 days to get yourself a license, so that should be time enough to test it. __________________________________ I'm just a user of The Bat! I don't work for Ritlabs.