Exactly and if your companies server sends it directly to your outlook (not another mid program) you do NOT have to have your computer on for it to work (for most people they are sending an away message because they arent there so their puter wouldnt be on.

You only need the puter on if outlook has to pull from another program.

You can also use rules to forward your email to another email system (I have 4 differnt emails and use rules to send three of them to the 4th one so I can answer all of them via one software).

BTW groupwise also has the same functionality and even some native email software programs like hoarde do this also.