>...The company I work for is considering implementing Lotus Notes as its primary email server (if that's the right word). Part of the reason, as I understand it, is the ease of maintenance when compared to our current email server, ccMail 6.0. What I'd like to know is the pros and cons of this. Also any and all information on alternatives, Outlook, Exchange, or other MAPI compliant servers....

Having read some of the responses here, I have to chuckle at how many times the words "I haven't used Notes, but..." have come up. Well, I've haven't used Exchange, ccMail, or Groupwise, but... Let me give you my experience and you can take it from there.

I've been using LN for the last 3.5 years (since I hired on at this facility). I've migrated from versions 3.3 to 4.51 at every release, I'm completely self-taught, and I've NEVER had a problem with Lotus Notes. Yes, there is a learning curve if you're starting from scratch.

We use it for corporate and internet mail, as well as corproate information distribution. Mail and data replication features are robust and verstile. All information is stored in databases (including user mail) which can be accessed via the LN Client (which, as I mentioned in another, recent thread, is getting feature heavy) or a web browser. The scripting language is easy to learn, security is strong, and web capability is 'built in' via Domino.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've never tried to move data to/from LN and FoxPro so I cannot say how easy or difficult it is.

Like Juan, I gladly make myself available to answer any further questions you might have.

HTH!