Why I've stopped using Outlook

I've got myself a Google Mail account and don't use Outlook any more.

Don't worry, you can still e-mail me on emily@askm.co.uk. Thanks to my excellent site-builder Dave at 1973 Ltd, that address now auto-forwards to my Google Mail account, which incidentally is askmvideos@googlemail.com

So why did I stop using Outlook?

Firstly, because as of next week I'll be starting a project that'll mean a good bit more time spent on the road. So I'm going to get a BlackBerry. But when I read the spec on the Vodafone site, it sounded like I'd have to pay over £1,000 to get BlackBerry Enterprise Solution if I wanted to read Outlook e-mail on a BlackBerry. And I haven't got that sort of cash to spare!

Glen Feechan and Dave did later tell me that you can read Outlook e-mail on a BlackBerry without Enterprise Solution, you just can't save sent messages. But I figured I could live with that.

But secondly, still re the project, I need some way to tell my customers when I'm out of the office. If they phone me, that's fine because I have an excellent PA in the shape of Moneypenny, but if they e-mail me and I don't answer them, they think they're being ignored. Not good customer service. I nearly lost 2 bits of work last week as a result of that.

And Outlook doesn't give you the Out of Office Assistant unless you're using a Microsoft Exchange Server. Which I'm not. So on Outlook there would be no way of telling customers "I'm not here".

Those reasons were enough to prompt me to go Google.

But Tom Gleeson came up with another reason today on Twitter.

I'm about to upgrade to Office 2007. Tom tells me that if I buy the version without Outlook, it'll be cheaper.

So, to use Google Mail is more efficient, more customer-friendly, and cheaper.

All good stuff for a one-woman band start-up home-based business.