Because Lotus is a subsidiary of IBM, we use Lotus Notes as our corporate email and general collaborative software. Normally dogfooding your own products is acceptable, but I think most people frown upon using Lotus Notes. It sucks compared to Microsoft Outlook, and feels like you’re using a Windows 3.1 app.

It’s the little things that makes Outlook look polished, because for the most part the major features are there in both products. For example, the Out of Office assistant. When I took a day off to do studio pictures, I activated my Out of Office to send an annoying reply message if anyone sent me mail. I didn’t bother changing my phone message, because it’s not like I get business-related calls. Plus, I have a message from Pauline that’s been flashing on my phone for over 2 weeks now; which I haven’t retrieved because I forgot what my voicemail password was and have been to lazy to reset it (also because I don’t want to deal with the internal help desk).

So short story made longer, when I came back on Monday; I had an email in my Inbox from myself welcoming me back from vacation. Apparently Notes has a neat little feature that sends an email to yourself reminding you to turn off the Out of Office assistant. Nice little example of something that Notes got right for once, now for the other 12349872394823983453984 bugs…