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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Exclaimer

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AExclaimer is a provider of email signature solutions, operating with the goal of empowering businesses to u

    $0.90

    per month (billed annually) per user

    HCL Notes

    Score3.5 out of 10
    N/ANotes from HCL (formerly from IBM, acquired by HCL in late 2018) is a collaboration platform based on the Lotus platform.N/A
    Pricing
    ExclaimerHCL Notes
    Editions & Modules
    Starter
    $0.90
    per month (billed annually) per user
    Standard
    $1.45
    per month (billed annually) per user
    Pro
    $1.75
    per month (billed annually) per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ExclaimerHCL Notes
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsLicensing is based on the number of active mailboxes Exclaimer adds email signatures to. Subscriptions are on a monthly or annual basis. Volume and charitable discounts are available. Minimum number of users is 10 per month.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    ExclaimerHCL Notes
    Considered Both Products
    Exclaimer
    No answer on this topic
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    275 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    262 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    275 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    231 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    243 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    ExclaimerHCL Notes
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Exclaimer and HCL Notes
    Feature
    Exclaimer
    -
    Ratings
    HCL Notes
    6.9
    10 Ratings
    11% 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
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Exclaimer and HCL Notes
    Feature
    Exclaimer
    -
    Ratings
    HCL Notes
    9.2
    10 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Chat00 Ratings6.010 Ratings
    Notifications00 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 Exclaimer and HCL Notes
    Feature
    Exclaimer
    -
    Ratings
    HCL Notes
    7.6
    9 Ratings
    6% 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
    ExclaimerHCL Notes
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    ExclaimerHCL Notes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (288 ratings)
    7.0
    (16 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (17 ratings)
    1.7
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (67 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (19 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.8
    (7 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ExclaimerHCL Notes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Exclaimer
    Exclaimer is highly beneficial for larger companies that have a range of business units and requirements around the look and feel of signatures. Smaller organisations are unlikely to need the same degree of customisation, so the requirement is diminished. Particularly as there is something of a cost premium and another platform to manage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Exclaimer
    • Allows for easily customizing the templates for the signatures.
    • Allows uploading custom logos or banners to be applied in the different signatures
    • Allows assigning specific signatures to groups of users
    • Connects easily with all Google Suite email accounts within the organization
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • 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$).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Exclaimer
    • A complete tutorial could be added to avoid common pitfalls (such as when to use 0 and when to use auto).
    • The email add-in seems quite clunky when getting going.
    • There is no way to self-serve user-specific changes (such as toggling on/off certain extras, such as direct dials, extensions, and job titles).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • 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).
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Exclaimer
    We are very happy with exclaimer it runs 99.9% of the time without any issues. It also very easy to use and maintain and the design team are happy to use it as its so user friendly. When compared to how much time we used to spend updating banners exclaimer saves us hours. This more than justifies the cost and when it comes to renew we wont be thinking twice about doing so
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Exclaimer
    In the order that I recall the setup process: Signature templates need to be set up (attribute mapping to AD) Office 365 connector needs to be set up (global admin needed and exclaimer engineer for guidance) Signature policies need to be set up (who gets which signatures) Office membership groups need to be setup (who in the org will use exclaimer) Members need to be added to those groups (user membership) Agents need to be deployed on the end-user hosts (local agent)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Exclaimer
    Never had any issues with availability during our outages.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Exclaimer
    I have to admit that there has been an odd occasion when the pages have taken a while to load. This is the exception rather than the rule.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Exclaimer
    I've only had one issue in 7 years where I needed to reach out to Exclaimer for support, but it was handled quickly and resolved my issue. No messing around to provide additional information. Just a quick solution to what I was facing which resolved the issue on the first go around.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Exclaimer
    Our implementation was relatively easy as we weren't cutting over from anything. We just got the software installed, set up the file share and got active directory set up. We got exsync on a scheduled task and it just worked. We built our templates and policies and it has always been relatively smooth.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Exclaimer
    Exclaimer blows the doors off compared to Letsignit. Exclaimer is a little more expensive, but you get what you pay for. What you get is a much better user interface, real analytics instead of one crappy report you have to manually sort, and a much more robust campaign area. With Letsignit I was constantly getting messages that they were experiencing one problem or another, leading to service outages that impacted our users. Gotta love it when the CEO calls because he can't find his email signature. I've had no service interruptions with Exclaim and no email "excuses." That's the sort of thing that makes you lose confidence in a supplier quickly. Oh, and no communication/bills in French. I lived near the Canadian border, I get it, but you have customer databases, communicate appropriately.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Exclaimer
    Everything runs smoothly between us
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Exclaimer
    you can easily design more than one signature and spit it among the organisation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Exclaimer
    We used the Design Template service; this was a very pleasant experience and the design team we in constant communication with us to ensure the templates were designed exactly to our remit.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Exclaimer
    • Uniform feel for all emails sent by the organisation.
    • Meets regulatory Compliance.
    • Ability to send out the right phone numbers for the right departments.
    • It is easy to onboard new staff with the correct details from day 1 (no setup is needed from the new starter).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Exclaimer Screenshots

    Screenshot of how Exclaimer helps amplify every email with optimized email signatures for the whole organization.Screenshot of the Social Feeds feature. This can display the three latest social posts in an email signature, to strengthen connections and communities.Screenshot of where Exclaimer gives users the ability to automate and schedule signature updates. This helps to guarantee consistent, branded signatures on every email – even from mobile devices and Macs.Screenshot of the Exclaimer Cloud Outlook Add-in, which allows users to choose their email signature as they compose a message.Screenshot of where users can assign signatures to teams, departments, or entire organizations. This interface lets users tailor messages for specific recipients, fostering engagement through personalized approaches.