Genii Weblog

Live blogging the purchase of Outlook 2007

Wed 11 Mar 2009, 09:35 AM



by Ben Langhinrichs
As it happens, I need to buy a copy of Office 2007, or more specifically, Outlook 2007.  Having read Ed Brill's comments about the process of buying Lotus Notes from the IBM website not being as bad, I decided to compare the processes - live.  I don't know how hard either will be, but I will give it a try and show the screens presented.  This post covers the process of buying Outlook 2007 from Microsoft.  Part 2 will cover the same process for Notes 8.5 from IBM.

Buying Outlook 2007 - Step 1, go to http://www.Microsoft.com

Microsoft Home page



Buying Outlook 2007 - Step 2, I know Outlook is part of Office, so I use Office drop down and pick All Products


Office drop down menu



Buying Outlook 2007 - Step 3, Full Office 2007 is advertised, I haven't the foggiest what package is right for me, so I click on Products


Office 2007 promo page



Buying Outlook 2007 - Step 4, On products page, there is a prominent "Which Suite is right for you?" link which I click on


All Office Products page with link to suite decision



Buying Outlook 2007 - Step 5, A chart appears which makes it clear I want Standard, so I click Buy Now button


Handy chart descibing the suites



Buying Outlook 2007 - Step 6, I have Office 2003 on this machine, so I click Upgrade and proceed to purchasing.


Inline JPEG image



Buying Outlook 2007 - Six clicks, but far more importantly, I never had much of a question about what I needed to do.


So, what about buying a Lotus Notes 8.5 client?  That post comes later.

Copyright © 2009 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


800.1. Joseph Hoetzl (03/11/2009 10:05 AM)

Just curious why you bought Office and not just Outlook.

While I am no fan of the IBM site either, I've come across this with many other sites - go ahead and try to buy Xenapp server from Citrix, or is it XenDesktop, or something else. At this point, I'd be happy if they just called me back. I filled in their pre-sales form with all my contact info...

And after you get Xen'd, try and buy Rightfax from Captaris, err. Open Text (Rightfax) or what was that product again?

Bottom line, it is stunning how difficult it can be to give companies your money. Maybe they should just have donate buttons and let us download what we want...


800.2. Ben Langhinrichs (03/11/2009 11:07 AM)

Joseph - I need other parts of Office for testing purposes, and it wasn't terribly expensive to get it all.

Paul - My intent was really never to prove that Microsoft did this better - just to try to experience this as anb outsider might. Unfortunately, in this specific test, Microsoft did come out looking significantly better, but I understand that it would not on all tests.