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IBM offers bribes for Domino switchers

Martin LaMonica CNET News

Published: 30 Mar 2006 18:10 BST

IBM upped the stakes in an ongoing contest over corporate email software with a programme that offers business partners up to $20,000 to dump Microsoft's Exchange in favour of IBM's Lotus software on Linux.

Dubbed Migrate to the Penguin, the latest IBM incentive plan, to be announced later on Thursday, is an expansion of its Move2Lotus program, which is aimed at winning over third-party consultants and software resellers that work with Microsoft's Exchange.

IBM is offering a limited-time rebate for IBM partners that move customers from Microsoft Exchange to Lotus Notes and Domino on Linux. The offer gives $20 per licensed Exchange seat, maxing out at $20,000.

In addition, IBM is offering a service to have customers' Domino servers hosted on a trial basis rather than have the software installed on in-office servers.

The expanded competitive offer is the latest salvo between IBM and Microsoft, the two dominant suppliers of email and collaboration software to corporate customers.

In January of this year, Microsoft released a set of software tools designed to simplify the process of moving Domino data onto Exchange.

In a recent interview, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, "We have more big customers than ever looking to do Notes-to-Exchange migrations."