So you’ve decided to switch your business to Macs, and you’re wondering how to move over all of your data from Windows, and get everything else setup?  In this article, I will discuss some of the process, and show you that switching to the Mac isn’t as hard as you think.

Email, Contacts, and Calendars

These days, businesses can’t function without staying in touch with their customers, and keeping all of their employees on schedule, and organized.  Microsoft Outlook has served businesses very well, but there is no version yet available for the Mac.  Outlook holds email, contacts, and calendar data inside of one file, the PST file.  While you can move the PST file to the Mac, the Mac cannot read, or import the file.  Therefore, we must convert the data inside the PST into a form that is readable by the Mac.  There are many methods to make this conversion.  You need some type of conversion software to make your Outlook data compatible with the Mac.  Some of my favorites are Outlook To Mac, and two apps made by Mozilla — Thunderbird, and Sunbird.

Outlook To Mac (O2M) was created by a company called Little Machines.  O2M exports your email into mBox format, which is an open format.  Since the Mac also uses mBox to store email messages, your converted email can easily be imported onto your new Mac.  mBox is also used by many other mail clients such as Thunderbird, and Eudora.  O2M will convert your contacts to vCard, which can then be imported into Address Book on the Mac.  Calendars are exported by O2M into iCalendar, another open format.  The new iCalendar files can then be imported into iCal on the Mac.  If you choose instead to use Microsoft Entourage for email, contacts, and calendars, Entourage can also import your converted data.  Outlook To Mac costs only $10, but if you want a free option, there’s Mozilla Thunderbird.

Like Mail.app on the Mac, Thunderbird uses a variant of mBox to store email.  After you have installed Thunderbird onto your PC, you can then import your email and contacts into Thunderbird.  Once the import is complete, you will be able to export your contacts into LDIF.  Your emails are stored inside of the current user’s local application data in Windows.  Once you’ve moved the converted email to your Mac, all you have to do is import it into your email client of choice.  Address Book, on the Mac is able to import the contacts stored in the LDIF file created by Thunderbird.  Since Thunderbird does not handle calendars, you’ll need to import your Outlook calendars into Sunbird.  Once you’ve completed the calendar import into Sunbird, you can then export the calendar data into iCalendar format.

They key is to free all of your information from Outlook.  This process seems complicated, but it’s really not.

Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, Music, Pictures

All of your files created in Microsoft Office, pictures, music, PDFs will just work.  Microsoft makes a great version of Office for the Mac.  It includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Entourage.  If you’ve decided to abandon Microsoft altogether, Apple’s iWork suite of applications can open files created by Microsoft Office.  In addition, there are several office suites such as Neo Office, and Open Office, which will allow you to open, and create Word, and Excel documents.

Mac OS X already includes an application called Preview, which will open, and combine PDF documents, and even allow you to notate them.  Any document that can be printed can be exported to PDF on the Mac.  PDF exporting has been built into Mac OS X since day one.  There’s no need to purchase additional software to export documents to PDF, or to combine PDF files.

Since late 2003, Windows users have enjoyed using iTunes on their PCs.  If you’ve been using iTunes on your PC, moving your music to the Mac is simple.  All of the pictures on your PC can be easily imported into iPhoto on the Mac.  Both iTunes, and iPhoto are included on every Mac at no additional charge.

Setting up your all Mac office

Gone are the days when Windows ruled the business world.  Macs can serve all of your computing needs from basic office tasks to serving up files, websites, and email.  Accounting applications for the Mac have greatly improved over the last few years.  Intuit’s Quickbooks, and Quicken have finally achieved feature parity with the Windows versions.  There are even several point of sale applications available for the Mac.  The medical industry has several EMR (electronic medical records) options for the Mac.  MacPractice works really well for most types of medical practices.  Two months ago, I helped move an orthodontics practice from Windows to the Mac.  Their choice of EMR software was Tops Ortho.  Tops doesn’t require Mac OS X Server, which will save time, and money during setup, and the support team at Tops is awesome.  Law offices have been making the switch to Mac.  Recently, my colleagues from Kinetic Technology Group and I migrated two law firms to Mac.

Mac OS X Server includes a built in email server in addition to calendar server.  For a lot of small offices, Mac OS X Server’s built in messaging technologies work really well.  For businesses who need a messaging solution with more features, I recommend Kerio Connect from Kerio Technologies.  Like Exchange, Kerio Connect includes a robust email server, calendar server, and contacts server.  Kerio Connect is a great cross platform messaging solution.  It works seamlessly with Macs, Windows PCs, iPhone, and several other mobile devices.  Your email, calendars, and contacts stay synched between all of your devices, and computers.  Kerio Connect provides easy administration, and it is compatible with most smartphone platforms such as iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile.  If your business continues to run Windows servers, Kerio Connect will integrate easily into Active Directory, so that all of your user accounts are available in Kerio.  If you need to migrate Exchange accounts to Kerio Connect, Kerio provides an Exchange migration tool which will transfer all of your user accounts, their email, contacts, and calendars directly into Kerio Connect.  Kerio Connect runs on Mac OS X Server, and Windows Server.  If your business intends to keep its Exchange server, your new Macs will be able to work with Exchange.

If you plan on keeping some Windows PCs, or servers, have no fear.  Macs, and Windows PCs get along quite well on the same network.  Macs can use file, print, email, and web services hosted by Windows servers, and Windows PCs can do the same with Mac servers.

While the transition from Windows to the Mac isn’t as difficult as you might have believed, there are thousands of Apple Consultants around the U.S. who can assist you.  Apple Consultants are independent contractors who are Apple certified.  Their skills range from setting up home, or small office networks to enterprise level deployments.  They’re fanatical about Apple technology, and they will always try to find the best solutions for their customers.  If you have questions about moving to the Mac, feel free to contact me.

When Google announced recently that they will begin phasing out Windows at their corporate offices, I was very happy.  This move represents something that a lot of people working in I.T. have known for years.  Devotion to using only one platform, Windows in particular, presents many security risks.  Mac OS X, and Linux are not immune to security issues; however, these two UNIX based platforms tend to offer better security, as well as better reliability, and stability.

Many business users will still argue that Windows offers more applications, specifically in accounting, than are offered for Mac and Linux.  They’re right, but this assumption is misleading.  Most business applications today have a Mac equivalent, or a version written for the Mac.  Microsoft Word, and Excel actually shipped on the Mac BEFORE they shipped for Windows.  Today, Microsoft Office 2008 is a great business software suite that provides Mac users with seamless compatibility with their Windows using couterparts.  There are also several application suites available for Linux that also provide compatibility with Microsoft Office documents.  Companies like Intuit, and other software vendors who make accounting software have largely marginalized Mac and Linux users.  That’s starting to change.  The latest versions of Quickbooks for the Mac have been vastly improved.  Intuit has also started offering an online version of their Quickbooks software, which allows any user with a supported web browser to access their company’s Quickbooks data.  This means that Windows is no longer mandatory for accounting.  Still, a lot of businesses who wish to move their computing to the Mac may still be hesitant.  Why not keep the Windows PCs for accounting, and other specialized tasks, and go Mac, or Linux for everyone else?  Also, keep in mind that, since 2006, Macs have been able to run Windows side by side with Mac OS X using either Parallels Desktop, or VMware Fusion. I’ve used both of these products.  They’re both great solutions for Mac users who want to run Windows applications while still enjoying all of the features and benefits of the Mac.

For the rest of this post, I will focus on the Mac, since that is my primary area of expertise.  However, a lot of the points that I will make are just as valid when applied to Linux.

One of the many things that I hear from I.T. people that I deal with is that “Macs can’t do that”.  I hear this when I’m trying to help a company integrate Macs into their network.  About 99% of the time, these I.T. guys are wrong.  About a year ago, I helped integrate ten MacBook Pros into an all Windows environment for a large company in Dallas.  The I.T. guys insisted that Exchange would not work on the Macs.  I showed that this assumption was wrong.  They simply needed to join the Macs onto Active Directory, then configure the necessary LDAP settings in Microsoft Entourage.  The problem was that no one on the I.T. staff knew how to do these things, so they assumed that the Mac was incapable of working with Exchange.  Now that Snow Leopard is out, the Mac has native Exchange compatibility.  Using Apple’s Mail app, iCal, and Address Book app, Macs don’t need any extra help.  If users prefer to use Microsoft Entourage instead (part of Microsoft Office for the Mac), I.T. simply needs add the necessary LDAP, and authentication settings.  Last Summer, I helped another large company integrate two Apple Xserves into their mostly Windows environment.  The two Xserves were able to replicate all of the company’s Active Directory users and groups, which allowed the server admins to provide Mac users with even better file services for their specialized needs.

You need a Mac server for Mac PCs right?  Nope.  Macs work great with Windows servers, and vice versa.  Macs can easily connect to shares hosted by Windows Server.  In the past, administrators needed to activate ‘Services for Macintosh’ on their Windows servers.  That is no longer required, and hasn’t been for many years.  When a Mac is joined to a Windows server via Active Directory, the users’ home folders can be hosted on the Windows server, and passwords and other security policies can be enforced.  This should make administrators very happy.  Mac OS X Server is a great platform for hosting all files, and services needed by businesses, including email, and web services.  In addition, Mac OS X Server uses the same industry standard LDAP services (Open Directory) that Windows uses.  Mac OS X Server includes great email, calendar, and contacts services, but I usually recommend Kerio Connect since it offers better cross platform support, and it offers the same groupware features as Exchange, and for a much lower cost.  Kerio Connect also offers much better iPhone support than Mac OS X Server’s own email, calendar, and contacts services.

Integrating Macs into a mostly Windows environment doesn’t require a lot of pain, or sacrifice, but it does require thinking differently.  The Mac is still a victim of a lot of old I.T. myths.  Talking to an Apple Consultant is a great way to start your quest of bringing Macs into your organization.  Like myself, many Apple Consultants are former I.T. guys.  I’ve worked with Windows PCs for several years, and I’ve helped a lot of businesses integrate Windows and Macs into their workflow.  When needed, Apple Consultants will partner with other technology professionals to provide customers with the best solutions.  I’ve worked with Windows techs, Cisco engineers, and various data service providers. The key is to provide the customer with a solution that achieves their goals, and meets their needs.

If you’re located in or near Dallas/Fort Worth, Kinetic Technology Group can help you get started.

Cult of Mac reports that the iPhone has overtaken Windows Mobile handsets in the U.S.  This reminds me of that idiot Steve Ballmer’s dismissive comments about the iPhone that he spewed out in 2007.

iPhone Overtakes Windows Mobile Users In U.S. | Cult of Mac.

The great iPhone death watch – Apple 2.0 – Fortune Brainstorm Tech.

Oh, how wrong they were!  This makes me wonder why anyone in the tech industry, or consumers for that matter, even take all of these people seriously.  Apple, like all other tech companies have had their share of flops.  The Newton, G4 Cube, and the Lisa all come to mind.  Microsoft has a lot of flops as well.  Windows Me, Windows Vista, the Zune, Plays For Sure, are some great examples of some of their many failures.  I won’t go so far as to predict that the new Microsoft retail stores will also fail, but look at this way…  You can buy a Windows PC anywhere.  You can buy a copy of  one of the many versions of Windows 7 anywhere.  What real incentive do consumers have to visit a Microsoft retail store?  Gateway, and Dell tried to launch retail stores.  Do you remember how those ventures went?  In case you didn’t guess, they failed miserably.  Perhaps all of the employees at the Microsoft stores should update their resumes, and have them ready.

With all of Apple’s successes since Steve Jobs came back to Apple, it makes me wonder why the tech pundits continue predicting Apple’s demise.  I think they resent that Apple continues to defy their expectations, even during a bad economy.  Apple stands conventional wisdom on its head, and continues to ‘Think different’.