Based on our study of the three e-mail systems, Atis, Netscape and ELM, we recommend that our client, Dimian Systems, uses Atis E-mail program over the other two options.
As we all know, Dimian Systems, is currently using a wide variety of applications on different platforms. All of the employees are experienced at using Microsoft Windows and their workstations are linked using Novell networking topology. Therefore, in selecting a suitable e-mail system for Dimian System, the desirability of GUI support is apparent.
To best meet our client's needs, Atis is selected because it is Novell, X.500, IMAP2, IMAP4 and POP3 compatible. It allows the user to keep multiple mailboxes to organize incoming messages in different folders. Incoming messages are all decrypted automatically. It also enables local and remote folder creation and storage. Atis has a whole range of easy to build and use distribution lists, aliases, and address books that would certainly tailor to particular needs of each individual in the Company. Since Atis is a shareware, the Company can have the system on trial to see if it fits the Company before committing the whole system.
The reason why Netscape mail is not recommended is it is POP3 compatible only, although it is also GUI based. However Netscape mail has a very good address books system and is quite easy to use. Also it is available in Windows, X, Solaris and Mac versions.
The main weak point of ELM in the terms of the selection process is that it is just a menu driven text-based system. Also it can only be run on UNIX environment and is compatible only with IMAP2, IMAP4 and Berkeley mail systems. However, it manages to support multiple mailboxes, create new folders, and save messages to different folders easily. As we processed our tests on these three e-mail systems, we found that ELM was very easily adjusted to the user's need and fit the expertise level of the user.
In our tests, it became apparent to us that Atis is the most powerful e-mail systems among the three. It has the best help features to guide new users to get familiar with full range of different features in ELM. We recommended Atis to our customer also because it is very easy to be setup for use.