This is my question to you, if you say you prefer Microsoft Outlook over Lotus Notes.
So far, no one ever got past 3 reasons.
Seriously, you can't give reasons, yet you just want to get rid of Notes because of why?
I stress that I am looking for reasons that are true, not a "we heard Notes is dead" or some other Microsoft fed lines. Maybe now I can reply, really, I hear Ray Ozzie is retiring and with him goes all of Microsoft's developers, so be careful out there. He's like the pied piper, people will follow him anywhere. I know I would.
Technical reasons, even functionality reasons are acceptable. BUT, realize if you are on R6, or even R7, the problem is yours, not IBM's. IBM did it's part, they made R8 so much of what you asked for, yet you didn't upgrade for some reason. But I digress.
The ONLY thing that comes up is the ability to schedule an email to be sent in the future. And yes, it has uses, but even that can be done in Notes(with a little coding of a simple agent), set it up once and then use it forever.
Saving an email locally is possible now, natively. But to all those that demanded it, what was wrong with you printing to a PDF printer file all these years? Talk about over engineering something.
No one ever demands to use Exchange. Sad but true. Even Exchange administrators respect Domino for it's ability to stay up and keep running no matter what chaos is going around it.
So come on all you Redmond readers, hit me with it, or anyone else.
I'm bored by the usual answers, provide me with more to think about. Extra credit if you can justify the same function is available in Office 365 as it is in the outlook client.
In case you were wondering, LotusLive Notes is the Domino iNotes client and it does 95% of everything like the 32bit client.
BLF in the sign above stands for Bluff, or so the site said.
16 comments:
Having supported several customers that use Exchange, I offer these reasons:
1) Lower TCO
For smaller companies, they've told me that the amount of time they need to spend administrating Exchange is almost minimal
2) Integration with 3rd party applications
This is painfully true as the number of ISVs that produce solutions that run on Notes/Domino now is a fraction of what it used to be in the 90's.
3) Integration with the Microsoft stack
Outlook works seemlessly with Office, and also Sharepoint. There is more integration with Quickr now than ever before, but it took 10 years to get to that point, while Microsoft was making this happen early on and have now co-opted a market that Lotus initially had pole-position with.
4) Cheaper support resources
The rate for consultants or FTEs to support Exchange, or nearly any Microsoft technology, is cheaper than IBM/Lotus equivalents
5) Lower startup costs
I'm not absolutely sure of this one, but from what I've heard, a Microsoft SBS server is fairly cheap and easy to set up.
Similarly, Microsoft Exchange has always had the perception of being cheaper than Lotus Notes.
- The Outlook Today view
- Categorized inbox by different criteria
- Multiple sender addresses
- loads faster than Notes
- No forgot-my-id-password hell
- Word as editor with all familiar formatting and embedded spreadsheet
- Can keep my eMail in folders together with my files
- Ribbon looks like the rest of Office (2010)
- voicemail in inbox
- Calendar: can delegate chair
- Calendar: Quick entry in overview
- Calendar: My own color codes for entries / categories
- Calendar : schedule view
- Calendar: Multiple writeable! calendars
- OneNote Integration
How many more do you need.
@Michael:
1) & 5) has been proven wrong a number of times. Lotus Foundations is cheaper and faster to setup than SBS.
4) While the hourly rate might be lower... you need more of them
Interestingly:
There is nothing you mentioned about the Outlook client itself in functionality (only interfaces to other software). And 4)&5) talks about Exchange which was not the question. #fail
Michael,
Thanks for those, TCO is not a function and this is VERY hard to prove against Domino and Notes on many levels. But I know this gets raised.
Integration issues, perhaps, but if Outlook is just an email client(as so many execs point out), what client should it matter?
Integration to MS stack, not exactly and many buts and this version. True IBM has not been any better, but again if it's just email, it damn well better integrate no?
Cheaper support? Hardly, maybe hourly but not quantity.
Thanks Stephen but I will answer Anonymous in a new post, but waiting on other comments first.
Anon, your points, while valid in the R6 or even R7 time frame, are mostly no longer valid as Notes has them. Compare outlook 2010 to Notes 8.5.x and see hwo much catching up Microsoft did especially on security.
Onenote? anyone uses this? Seriously wondering.
I love Lotus Notes but agree with #2 anonymous post. Adding to that,
1) the regression in not being able to scroll the month view to span months and not a lot of calendar options (like ALT 2, etc with Outlook),
2) ability to delete a mail folder and its contents at same time,
3) printing stinks...
are all reasons our users give to wanting to switch to Outlook. Of course, not enough in my opinion to warrant the cost of switching.
Stephan,
Talking about Outlook without referring to Exchange is like talking about the Domino mail process without talking about the Notes client/iNotes. Who uses one without the other?
What you're saying about Lotus Foundations is great, but what difference does it make if nobody outside of the Yellow-verse knows about it?
Exchange has major mind-share about being a low TCO, easy to administer solution. Companies want an e-mail solution that just works. If IBM/Lotus wants to address this, then they need to do much better marketing because it doesn't appear on the radar for most IT shops.
How about integration with Active Directory? I get asked that a lot
I use both, but here is what I prefer about Outlook when I use it.
Speed, Outlook feels faster.
Flagging an email is snappy, really quick, Notes kind of chugs for a while.
With the same screen size, I feel like I can see more emails with Outlook thanks notes.
3rd Party integration typically appears for Outlook first.
Works well as an inbox for different back end systems, IMAP, Exchange, POP3 etc.
There's also plenty to hate about Outlook.
No I cannot ;-)
You can send an email from the future in Notes (sort of). Just set an alert in a calendar entry and set it to send an email. I've done that before to remind people to do things I've asked of them in advance. :-)
1) Simpler administration and set up for users. They point outlook to their exchangne server and have everything they need - email, calendar, contacts. Poof.
2) Easy Cached Exchange Mode set up & use. http://www.kb.indiana.edu/data/amxk.html
3) Already paid for as part of Office. Most orgs have bought office and already have client.
4) From an Outlook/end user perspective, when used with Exchange 2010, way Way better integrated archiving - from a set up, search, and use perspective. http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/archiving-and-retention.aspx
5) From outlook to OWA to mobile (esp. with Exchange 2010 & Outlook 2010), it's an easy and intuitve transition - OWA & Outlook work very similarly, and just about every phone you buy works with exchagne WITHOUT add'l software.
From my point of View
1. Performance/Speed of Outlook in all areas (new mail, calendar loading, sending mail with attachment etc)is much much better.
2. Calendar is user friendly
3. Mail Search system
4. Follow up creation
5. Categorize
Lots of areas where notes needs to improve
Outlook is just a basic email client. Mail, calendar, todo's. Very easy for users to grasp. The average reading level of Americans is at a grade 7 level. This tells you all you need to know.
1) I don't use Notes for email only so I worry less about speed, but I will concede Outlook feels faster.
2) Outlook Today view is nice for an overall look at your day when you start up. Yes, you can do it with a Home Page but it takes some work.
3) Scrolling in the different frames is individual. In Notes, you have to click in the frame (eg. Inbox or Preview) for the mouse scroll wheel to scroll that. That is true anywhere in Notes and it is annoying.
4) Possible to change fonts and fit more on a screen at once.
5) Integration of archives/personal folders is far better.
1a. File > Import PST
1b. Can set a default font for my email. Easily.
2. Tools > Apply rules to mail already in inbox AND rules work with POP3 and IMAP accounts
3. A) Buy 3rd party product. B) Built-in support for outlook
4. Never having to delete the workspace folder and lose my config because IBM support itself doesn't know how to fix it.
5. Confidence that Outlook will be around indefinitely, and not melded into some huge, complex (apparently Eclipse-based Notes is not complex enough) "vision" thing.
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