Can You Afford to Change the Desktop?

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Without question, Microsoft Outlook dominates the desktop email environment. Outlook has been the mainstay of the corporate email user for a decade or so and is used by more than 60% of these users.  Outlook is the primary application that most users employ on a daily basis; it serves as the main vehicle for communication, task management and contact management; and it’s the primary application launch pad for the attachments that users receive in email.

Underscoring the inertia that the desktop client represents are numerous Osterman Research surveys showing that IT decision makers are roughly three times more likely to consider a newer, better, faster or cheaper messaging server platform if they can keep the desktop environment untouched.  If a new desktop client must be deployed, the perceived pain of doing so has convinced most decision makers that newer, better, faster or cheaper on the backend simply isn’t worth the trouble that a new frontend would create for end users. Plus, Microsoft continues to innovate Outlook, tying it into Exchange in ways that discourage companies from considering an Outlook replacement. For example, the useful archiving capabilities in Exchange 2010 require the use of Outlook 2010.

That said, there are a number of very good, mostly browser-based interfaces that can be used effectively in corporate environments. Many offer new and innovative applications of Web services that can satisfy even the most difficult power users.

So, should you switch to a new desktop client or Web interface for your users?

On the con side is the significant difficulty of doing so—the user complaints, the flood of help desk calls with “how do I…” questions, the loss of productivity that will ensue during the transition period, and the general distaste for change that most users have.  Add to this the loss of useful features and functions in Outlook, which for all intents and purposes, is a pretty good email client.

On the pro side, particularly if you switch to a browser interface for email, is the ability to reduce migration costs in the future because of the elimination of the desktop client, as well as the ability to upgrade users much more easily. Plus, there are some very cool features available in some email systems that might be worth the switch.

The choice is not an easy one, but one that many decision makers should consider, particularly when faced with the choice of migrating to Outlook 2010 anyway.