Crowdbase (discontinued) vs. HCL Notes

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Crowdbase (discontinued)
Score 2.0 out of 10
N/A
Crowdbase was collaboration software from the company of the same name in Quebec. The company has ceased operations and the product is no longer available.
$100
per month
HCL Notes
Score 6.6 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
Crowdbase (discontinued)HCL Notes
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Crowdbase (discontinued)HCL Notes
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Crowdbase (discontinued)HCL Notes
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
Crowdbase (discontinued)HCL Notes
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Crowdbase (discontinued)
7.0
1 Ratings
13% below category average
HCL Notes
9.2
10 Ratings
14% above category average
Chat7.01 Ratings6.010 Ratings
Notifications7.01 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Discussions7.01 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
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Crowdbase (discontinued)
-
Ratings
HCL Notes
6.9
10 Ratings
13% below category average
Task Management00 Ratings7.09 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings8.09 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings5.06 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Search00 Ratings6.09 Ratings
Visual planning tools00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Crowdbase (discontinued)
-
Ratings
HCL Notes
7.6
9 Ratings
7% below category average
Versioning00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Video files00 Ratings6.05 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings6.05 Ratings
Document collaboration00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings6.08 Ratings
Advanced security features00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Crowdbase (discontinued)HCL Notes
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.7 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 8.7 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Crowdbase (discontinued)HCL Notes
Likelihood to Recommend
2.0
(1 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
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Crowdbase (discontinued)HCL Notes
Likelihood to Recommend
Discontinued Products
I wouldn't suggest Crowdbasefor smaller companies, even for bigger companies a more integrated solution would be desirable. It may suit companies that want their collaboration separate from project management and CRM, but at least for our organisation it seems to make more sense to have most of our work tools in one place
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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
Discontinued Products
  • Collaboration
  • Interaction with staff
  • Great way to engage staff and support each other
Read full review
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
Discontinued Products
  • It is very limited
  • Although it has an API it doesn't link to the services we use.
  • It isn't customisable like podio.
Read full review
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
Discontinued Products
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
Discontinued Products
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
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
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
Discontinued Products
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
Discontinued Products
Crowdbase's strength may lie in its ability to do just one main thing well, but for us this was a massive limitation. I know that it is not trying to be Podio and it is therefore unfair to compare the two but there are features that overlap. for us Podio was better suited.
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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
Discontinued Products
  • Encourages communication
  • Easy to use
  • Before crowdbase we never though of collaborating this way
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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