Hi Paul,
I posted this message to this forum, and received the following reply:
POST
"I have been keeping the VPN active from boot-up. However, I noticed that Outlook will not finish opening, unless I stop / turn off the VPN. As soon as it is off, Outlook opens."
REPLY
This is a known issue and Avast is working on it.
I hope that when they fix this, it will help with the other company you mentioned.