Allo vs. HCL Notes

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Allo
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Allo is a remote workspace made for asynchronous communication and remote teams. With interactive and visual spaces, teams are able to collaborate around, strategy, design, proposals, initiatives, and processes. This is done with Allo's interactive spaces. Allo includes: Creating interactive documents consisting of images, graphics, diagrams, text, and video Previewing documents and PDF's Previewing Microsoft Office documents Editing Google Suite…
$12
per month per user
HCL Notes
Score 6.2 out of 10
N/A
Notes from HCL (formerly from IBM, acquired by HCL in late 2018) is a collaboration platform based on the Lotus platform.N/A
Pricing
AlloHCL Notes
Editions & Modules
Team
$12
per month
Enterprise
Custom
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AlloHCL Notes
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscounts for annual subscriptions , as well as startups and educational institutions.—
More Pricing Information
Features
AlloHCL Notes
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Allo
8.0
3 Ratings
1% above category average
HCL Notes
6.9
10 Ratings
14% below category average
Task Management7.93 Ratings7.09 Ratings
Mobile Access8.73 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Search7.03 Ratings6.09 Ratings
Visual planning tools8.33 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings8.09 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings5.06 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Allo
7.0
3 Ratings
14% below category average
HCL Notes
9.2
10 Ratings
14% above category average
Chat7.43 Ratings6.010 Ratings
Notifications6.73 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Discussions00 Ratings9.57 Ratings
Surveys00 Ratings9.14 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Allo
8.0
3 Ratings
1% below category average
HCL Notes
7.6
9 Ratings
6% below category average
Video files8.33 Ratings6.05 Ratings
Audio files8.73 Ratings6.05 Ratings
Document collaboration8.73 Ratings8.08 Ratings
Advanced security features7.02 Ratings8.08 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive7.33 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Device sync8.02 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Versioning00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings6.08 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AlloHCL Notes
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Stackby
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Score 9.5 out of 10
ClickMeeting
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Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
AlloHCL Notes
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(3 ratings)
7.0
(16 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
1.7
(5 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AlloHCL Notes
Likelihood to Recommend
Allo
Allo is ideal for brainstorming, designing, and presenting information in a remote company. With its easy-to-use tools and modern, minimalistic, and non-intrusive interface these kinds of tasks can be done in Allo beautifully. However, it was difficult for us to have a detailed project schedule (with automatic reminders for tasks and subtasks). To sum up, Allo is a perfect digital paper canvas but currently, it lacks automation features.
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HCL Technologies
I often work with teams from other country and regions, hence HCL Notes is a very useful platform for internal company management operations. It standardized organisational work standards in most of the offices worldwide. HCL Notes also enables chat with other team around the world that I find very helpful when initiating conversation or just want to have a quick update rather than sending emails and waiting for replies. However, HCL Notes is not very efficient in web browsing and user still need to use other internet service providers.
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Pros
Allo
  • The user interface is very user friendly
  • The features provided allow for a wide variety of ways for teams to collaborate on projects together.
  • customer support is incredibly responsive and fast to address any questions or concerns.
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HCL Technologies
  • It has a really strong and robust database that's extremely scalable and holds up well to thousands of users and many different environments.
  • It has a really good enterprise-grade framework for development custom database applications
  • All of the custom database applications along with the email all have a nice uniform look and feel so their easy-to-use.
  • I really like how it's developed and supported on every client OS (Windows, OSX, Linux)! The competitors definitely do NOT offer this (M$).
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Cons
Allo
  • more views for projects
  • more templates
  • task management options inside a canvas (deadlines, recurring etc)
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HCL Technologies
  • Notes' backwards compatibility sometimes gets in the way. Menus are cluttered with extraneous, outdated options and features that modern users will never use, and Preferences are often difficult to navigate for those coming from Gmail or Outlook. We have greatly simplified this via Policies, but users still find it daunting to go through all the options that are available.
  • The IBM Notes client for Windows & Mac is essentially the Eclipse Java development platform...so it is HUGE. Performance initially was very slow but IBM has done a good job of speeding things up. As IBM moves more toward cloud-delivered applications, this will not be as much of a problem.
  • Notes and Domino can be complex to manage for administrators who are more accustomed to ActiveDirectory, Group Policy, etc. Editing a notes.ini file to add a feature, or working with XML files by hand to create a SmartUpgrade kit can be daunting to those coming from more modern administrative roles.
  • Some users claim to "hate" Notes mail. While I have heard this less and less over the past 10 years, we have had 3rd party software offer plugins to Outlook and it's rare to see any for Notes.
  • The client update process should be automated more. I would like to see the Notes client update quietly and quickly more like an Adobe software update. If an update fails it should automatically try again without prompting the user over and over.
  • Notes multiple language spell checking is a downloaded add-on Java-based resource that has to be deployed in a convoluted way that is difficult for users to grasp. Therefore any foreign language spell check updates must be done individually per Notes client by IT, which is unfortunate. I would prefer to see that be a "live download" update option for users to get directly from IBM (don't make me download it and put it on my network).
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Likelihood to Renew
Allo
No answers on this topic
HCL Technologies
I've been in IT business and as a Programmer/Developer for 20+ years with too many programming languages experiences/back ground (C/C++/Visual Basic/Basic Program/Unix/COBOL/Java). Also with 18+ years with Lotus Notes/IBM Domino, I am still and always think Lotus Notes is the best RAD platform available!. When the time where resource is very limited and the expectation is very high and the turn around is too short, IBM Domino/Notes is the platform to use and it's the only choice available.
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Usability
Allo
No answers on this topic
HCL Technologies
Easy to use for the user, most of the apps we developed, there is not much need for user training. Most of the times, we just do a demo to the users group and they can pick up from there.
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Support Rating
Allo
Support is quick to respond and assist with any issue or question
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HCL Technologies
I've been using the production for a very long time and very happy with it. Also, all the online resources and forums for notes is very friendly and easy/quick for getting help. I found out that compared to Microsoft or Oracle or any other platforms, IBM Notes online forum is the best I have seen.
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Implementation Rating
Allo
No answers on this topic
HCL Technologies
Implementation is easy and smooth if the requirement is well gathered/documented. Notes is a RAD platform, all projects in Notes is simple in the implementation step.
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Alternatives Considered
Allo
Miro is a direct competitor for Allo. It has more features and integrations but Allo appeals much more to us because of the easy-to-navigate and elegant interface, as well as speed. Infinity is an all-in-one project management app. It's ideal for detailed project management and keeping tracts of tasks (and other. items) but Allo is much better for designing and brainstorming.
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HCL Technologies
Outlook has been considered for years as a replacement platform. Pricing and support staff made it prohibitive. Our long-time use of Microsoft Office productivity suite naturally led us to consider the adoption of Office365. A recent investigation told us that Azure Cloud services propel an O365 solution to the forefront. Early adopters in international divisions have paved the way for Azure and O365.
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Return on Investment
Allo
  • helps improve and maintain productivity
  • The windows app keeps the cpu very busy so can slow other application
  • team collaboration has been improved since using this program
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HCL Technologies
  • Over the years, we have lost countless hours of productivity from the thousands of crashes we have experienced.
  • One benefit of IBM Notes is that it is very simple to train a new user on. Many people prefer and are familiar with Google tools, but those that use IBM Notes have very little trouble acclimating themselves.
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ScreenShots