ABS parked broader M365 Copilot trial because of ‘important’ Lotus Notes legacy – Cloud – {Hardware} – Software program
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) abstained from the latest government-wide Copilot trial, as a result of a lot of its data remains to be saved in Lotus Notes, that means Copilot couldn’t entry it.
The bureau’s CTO Craig Lindenmeyer informed iTnews {that a} “good portion” of the ABS’ data and information are at present saved in HCL Notes, previously referred to as IBM Lotus Notes, “making them inaccessible to Microsoft Copilot”.
As such, the ABS didn’t participate within the Digital Transformation Company’s six-month trial of Copilot for M365 that ended June 30.
In a submission to an inquiry into using AI within the public sector, the ABS mentioned it “understands that data administration and entry is a key enabler for the success of AI”.
“Given the ABS is just within the early levels of migrating its data holdings from HCL Notes to Microsoft SharePoint, there are [fewer] potential advantages from a broader scale trial [of Copilot],” it mentioned.
The ABS elected to run a smaller-scale check of Copilot “to raised perceive how the expertise can extract extra worth inside our ICT surroundings and to discover related dangers,” Lindenmeyer added.
It additionally permits employees to make use of Microsoft Copilot within the Edge browser.
The ABS’ expertise is just like different members within the DTA trial, the place some departments and agencies struggled to get adoption and usage, as a result of Copilot couldn’t connect with data programs that employees used.
The bureau adopted Lotus Notes and HCL Domino for its workflow, messaging, information repositories, subscription enterprise intelligence providers integration, information administration and internet content material administration within the Nineties.
iTnews understands that the instruments are nonetheless used for collaboration, data administration, company providers and statistical manufacturing.
In keeping with Lindenmeyer, because of the variety of programs hosted on Notes, the ABS will proceed to keep up its Notes and Domino platform whereas “exploring choices to modernise its programs”.
“This features a mixture of migrating to SharePoint, transitioning to SaaS platforms, reengineering to cloud-native options, or updating programs on the HCL platform,” he mentioned.
Lindenmeyer added that the ABS can also be “exploring potential options” that would allow Copilot to entry Notes information, resembling utilizing a third-party connector.