Who in their right mind would choose Notes over anything else (Gmail, outlook, pine, telnet)?
If IBM's offering is anything like the internal iNotes they piloted, I feel bad for any company that makes the switch. iNotes was a perfect opportunity to redo the Notes UI and catch up with the rest of the world with respect to email usability. Instead, they just wrapped the crufty old Notes into a shiny web container.
I know that plenty of companies do it, but I really wonder if they've thought it through.
Email services are not just an expense item to be outsourced, it's a very critical item that is best kept in-house under your own control as much as possible.
You can't outsource responsibility.
People working for you have a contract with you, and a detailed list of their responsibilities.
I'd trust them a lot more than some large company providing a similar service for free or a really small fee. The incentives are completely different as is the relationship.