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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Flock

    Score9.5 out of 10
    N/AFlock is a collaborative business messaging application, designed to compete with Slack. The app is presented as a fast and reliable means of communication, and is available in a free edition for teams of up to twenty members.

    $0

    for teams of 1-20 members

    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
    FlockHCL Notes
    Editions & Modules
    Starter
    $0
    for teams of 1-20 members
    Pro
    $6
    per month per user (ideal for teams of 20-100 users)
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    for organizations of 100+ members
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FlockHCL Notes
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsDiscount available for annual pricing.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FlockHCL Notes
    Considered Both Products
    Titan.Mail
    No answer on this topic
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    FlockHCL Notes
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Flock and HCL Notes
    Feature
    Flock
    7.8
    13 Ratings
    1% above category average
    HCL Notes
    6.9
    10 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Task Management8.311 Ratings7.09 Ratings
    Gantt Charts6.97 Ratings6.03 Ratings
    Scheduling8.810 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    Workflow Automation8.011 Ratings5.06 Ratings
    Mobile Access9.213 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Search6.811 Ratings6.09 Ratings
    Visual planning tools6.48 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Flock and HCL Notes
    Feature
    Flock
    8.4
    13 Ratings
    6% above category average
    HCL Notes
    9.2
    10 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Chat9.613 Ratings6.010 Ratings
    Notifications9.313 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Discussions9.213 Ratings9.57 Ratings
    Surveys8.19 Ratings9.14 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase6.77 Ratings10.06 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting10.01 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts8.06 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook6.04 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Flock and HCL Notes
    Feature
    Flock
    7.1
    12 Ratings
    12% below category average
    HCL Notes
    7.6
    9 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Versioning7.28 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Video files6.310 Ratings6.05 Ratings
    Audio files6.310 Ratings6.05 Ratings
    Document collaboration8.112 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Access control7.39 Ratings6.08 Ratings
    Advanced security features6.49 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive7.07 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Device sync8.311 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    FlockHCL Notes
    Small Businesses
    Superhuman Docs
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FlockHCL Notes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (13 ratings)
    7.0
    (16 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    1.7
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (7 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.8
    (3 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FlockHCL Notes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Titan.Mail
    Flock is very well suited in scenarios where individuals must communicate via chat. It also works great when teams need to communicate via group chat messages. File and document sharing is another area where Flocks works well. Channels are used for discussions on specific topics or organization-wide announcements. Flock may be less appropriate when you use it for voice and video calls. Where.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Titan.Mail
    • Networked phones are a thing of past now. We don’t have to stop what we are doing to receive phone calls currently because Flock can do that
    • It is now easy to send messages to many people at the same time, all we need to do is to add all the contants in the chat and select all to send a message
    • This software has an in-built to-do-list which allows us to assign tasks to different people or users and then supervise each independently
    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
    Titan.Mail
    • A tool is only good if people use it. Some of the artists I work with found it too complex (though I don't think they really gave it a good shot).
    • We used it heavily for about six months and it didn't hit too many other big negative points.
    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
    Titan.Mail
    We would likely to renew use of Flock for our organization since it meets most of the requirements of team collboration and communication for a small group like us. Most of our Flock users like it's features and use it extensively for day-to-day work. We are quite optimistic about it's future updates.
    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
    Titan.Mail
    It is good to give what an app deserves, Flock is very efficient and effective app to manage the all day to day activities and communicate across all team members, create groups, share files, send reminders schedule reminders for each group or persons and share notes.Pin files and search any messages from anyone with advanced filters. It's a great app.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Support Rating
    Titan.Mail
    We've only needed customer support a few times with Flock (mainly concerning app integration and security), and they've always been timely and helpful, which are the only things I truly need from support. The response rate was still rapid, and there's plenty of support available online as well for Flock.
    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
    Titan.Mail
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Titan.Mail
    Flock as mentioned takes the best of all these apps and improves upon them. Flock's UI was exactly what we were looking for and Flock doesn't overcharge small teams for search functional or messaging. It just offers a great product at a great price combined with great support. Their chat ticket system works almost immediately.
    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
    Return on Investment
    Titan.Mail
    • Organizing notes manually has been drastically reduced. Flock folders and chats are perfect for keeping each file separate.
    • We have not missed one calendar event with Flocks integration of our Google Calendar.
    • Being able to cut out or $99/month case management software has saved a ton of money each month.
    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

    Flock Screenshots

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