We all hate Lotus Notes

My friends, I’ve come to report a grave injustice. No, it’s not about Joseph Kony, or Syria,  but it’s close. It sickens me that in cubicles, offices and airplane seats across the corporate lands of Earth, untold millions are still made to suffer Lotus Notes.

Lotus Notes is IBM’s version of Outlook, and the similarities end there. Lotus Notes has a UI that is so awful, so unintuitive that you’ll day dream wistfully for the Microsoft product.  Yes, it’s that bad.

It’s not just third-rate companies that suffer Notes, I interned at a strategy consulting firm that ran all of its email, appointments and document management off of Notes! The irony of a firm positioning itself as a leader in ‘business technology’ thinking would be using Soviet-era software stares at me like some cross-eyed step child.

But who is to blame? Is it plodding IT departments that do not understand sunk and opportunity costs? Is it pitbull like IBM sales representatives that dangle licensing discounts over the necks of CTOs?  Its shocking that corporations will turn their worlds upside down to achieve greater productivity, yet after all the re-orgs, process efficiencies and team-building offsites, their workers remain mired in Lotus Notes hell?

It’s time for the tyranny of Notes to stop, it must stop. Rise up my friends, it’s the dawn of the post-PC era, let’s pledge our shields of productivity to ensure the turgid legacy of Lotus Notes doesn’t follow us here.

I’m not alone in this fight, there is a support group , and they make ‘IHateLotusNotes’ t-shirts !

Not convinced? Here are some more examples…