Software clash leaves MS with bleak Outlook

Resellers vent frustration over complaints arising from unresolved incompatibility of Microsoft Network 2 and Outlook 97

Microsoft has admitted that there are serious compatibility problems between Outlook 97 and Microsoft Network version 2.

A posting on Microsoft Knowledge Base, the company?s reseller technical support Web site, acknowledged the problem. It stated: ?Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.?

But one reseller said the problem was worse than Microsoft admitted. ?The two products just don?t work together, it?s as simple as that, and it?s damn frustrating,? he said. ?It just means endless questions from customers and hassle. I?ve no doubt Microsoft will sort it out eventually, but in the meantime it?s just man hours down the drain.?

Jonathan Hulse, product manager for Microsoft desktop applications, said there had only been ?a couple of random incidents? where customers had complained. Hulse claimed that the problem would not affect many resellers, as Outlook 97 only tended to be used as a lightweight email client.

The compatibility problems follow complaints from resellers that Microsoft?s Zero Administration Kit for Windows NT is failing to simplify network management. The Zero Administration Kit (Zak) was launched in June with the intention of making it simple to set up desktop clients and to ease hardware and software administration.

One reseller commented: ?The kit is fine for experienced systems engineers and administrators, but to suggest that it makes administration simple would not be true. There have been some compatibility issues with Windows 95 as well.? He claimed the Zak does not work properly with non-Windows NT systems.

Microsoft issued a statement claiming it would make certain that all independent software vendors would ensure their applications would be compatible with the Zak.