Well, I have finally done it – I have abandoned Outlook. I have been a loyal Outlook user for over 10 years, and have used every version since it was first released in 1997. I have always found Outlook to be a pretty reliable email client and PIM, and it is especially powerful when teamed with Exchange. But lately I have been getting itchy feet, wondering if there might be greener grass on the other side of the cyber fence. Could I get the same level of user friendliness and rich functionality from another application? Enter Google Apps.

For the past year I have been paying about AUD$200 per month for a hosted Exchange service. I can’t complain about Exchange – it is a great system, but it ain’t cheap. I decided a few days ago to investigate alternatives which would save me money, without sacrificing functionality. Some business partners had recently told me that they used Google Apps for everything – email, documents, collaboration, etc, so I decided to check it out. And it rocks. I have switched to Google Apps Premier Edition and I am loving it. I can still do everything I used to do except Tasks. My email, contacts and calendar items all sync with my mobile phone (with the help of GooSync); I still have nice HTML signatures in my emails; I can set up multiple domains and email aliases; all I need is a browser; and I save hundreds of dollars.

So, if you run a small business and you want feature-rich messaging and collaboration at a very good price, take a look at Google Apps.