The list
Verdict
Medium to large businesses should have their own mail server directing mail to and from clients according to corporate policy rather than the policies of an email service provider. What mail server is in use, and its policies, may well dictate the choice of an email client a company can use.
For example, if using Microsoft Exchange with MAPI, users will ideally use Microsoft clients such as Outlook or Windows Mail. It's recommended to use a Lotus Domino server to get the best results from Notes. Outlook, Lotus, GroupWise and Zimbra are the only real choices from the options considered here.
No one single product can be touted as the ideal solution to all needs, but Lotus Notes would certainly be an excellent choice for many larger businesses — after all, it's good enough for GE and IBM. Most people do not have particularly advanced needs when it comes to office productivity tools, so the ability to add Symphony at no extra could save a company very large amounts of money otherwise spent on products such as Microsoft Office or Corel WordPerfect.
IBM has itself decided it no longer needed Microsoft Office on every desk. Lotus is hedging its bets by keeping a close watch on both Microsoft and open-source technologies to ensure users can interact successfully with the widest possible range of people.
Smaller business may not be able to justify running their own mail servers, but it is still important to choose a product that can also offer individualised service and support. The last thing a company should do is rely on a free service that stamps email addresses as belonging to the service provider rather than the company itself (eg, fred.smith@hotmail.com is hardly professional). Think twice before selecting a free service, since they also tend to be free of reliable support and email is far too critical to mess about with.
Ultimately, Lotus Notes is the favoured product (provided that it is linked to a Domino server!).
Zimbra is perhaps the most affordable product which has both vendor support and multiple OS compatibility — not to mention a feature set comparable to market leaders like Microsoft, Novell and IBM/Lotus. A free version of Zimbra is also available and it is suggested that businesses investigate the trial version first.
For those willing to rely on unofficial support channels, Thunderbird/Eudora might be a reasonable path given that it will operate under Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems — it has a large and fanatical support base in the open-source community.
Ultimately, Lotus Notes is the favoured product (provided that it is linked to a Domino server!). Notes has a broad range of features and expands into a full, customisable office productivity tool suited to a range of platforms.
It might be suggested that referring to such features makes for an unfair comparison with other email clients, but after all, in this review we're seeking alternatives to Microsoft Outlook — a part of a complete office suite. In that sense, the only other product directly comparable to Microsoft Outlook is Microsoft Entourage and it seems wrong to consider that as a true alternative.
The screenshot of the Lotus Notes R8.5 mail file is showing an R5 mail file design, not a R8.5 The calendar is showing R8.5.