After many decades of using Lotus Notes, it now seems that Qantas has decided to drop the email system in favor for Microsoft Outlook. The decision to switch to Outlook was actually driven by Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and technology boss David Hall.

Mr Hall said that, at the end of February, Qantas will see between 100 and 200 executives migrate to Outlook. He said that they will look at moving the remaining 20,000 people over from Louts Notes to Microsoft Outlook over the course of 2010.

David Hall continued by saying that it’s a fundamental change, but it is really terrific for people in terms of ease of use. He said that they are looking to refresh their communications tools, and they will be moving to a full suite of Microsoft Office and SharePoint as well.

Qantas’s desktop service partner, Fujjitsu, was one of the key drivers for embracing the change. They will now be managing the airline’s move to Outlook. Hall said that it was Fujitsu’s view that Outlook would be more functional for Qantas as a whole.

In May of 2009, Fujitsu announced it had bagged a five-year end user computing contract with Qantas that was said to be worth about $200 million. Despite the loss of a major Lotus Notes user, IBM remains a key Qantas IT outsourcing partner.

Although most travelers will not notice that the switch has taken place, there will be some positive effects in work. It has been pointed out that where there is better communications within a company, in this case communication will be easier thanks to how easy to use Microsoft Outlook is, things progress quicker and customer satisfaction normally rises. Although this may seem like a small step, it could play a big role in the future.