Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003 vs. Outlook 2003

[Jonathan Levy]

I hope this is question has not been asked too often before. I did
some searches but could not find anything.

My organization recently upgraded to Exchange 2003 and implemented OWA
2003 -- initially for use when people were out of the office. The
current discussion is whether to eliminate the Outlook 2003 client
completely and make OWA the sole client in our organization. Most of
our users spend most of their time in the office and use e-mail from
their desks.

Can anyone offer any advice -- especially from experience -- about
using OWA as a full-time e-mail client vs. using both OWA and Outlook?
I am interested in comments both from a user perspective and an I/T
department perspective.

Thank you.

Jon Levy

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[Brian Tillman]

Can anyone offer any advice -- especially from experience -- about
using OWA as a full-time e-mail client vs. using both OWA and Outlook?
I am interested in comments both from a user perspective and an I/T
department perspective.

First thing to understand is that OWA is implemented via scripts and that
some of those scripts contain typos that prevent them from working
correctly. In my opinion it's not a candidate for a full-time mail client.
If the Exchange admins don't size the server correctly, you will run into
trouble. If your admins aren't fully trained, you will run into trouble.
There's no way to store your messages locally if you wished to do so.
Customization is more limited.

I daresay there are more issues, but those are the ones I've personally
encountered.