Fortra's Globalscape Enhanced File Transfer (EFT) vs. HCL Notes

Globalscape EFT is well suited for file transmissions. It is very intuitive and easy to create file transmission rules. We transmit many files back and forth between vendors and software applications. File transmissions are fast and reliable. Globalscape allows us to specify certain file naming conventions, contain only certain data, format the data to be a specific way, etc.

Incentivized

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

• PGP & SSH Key Ring Retainer
• Reporting
• Event Rule Create - No Code development
• Easy account set up for SFTP site directory creation

• 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

• Would like to see the ability for a rule in EFT to link the the Advanced Workflow that it is called (rather than having to manually locate the Advanced Workflow)
• Would like the ability to disable just a part of an Event Rule
• Would like to see more template creation functionality

Incentivized

• 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 Menus are cluttered with extraneous, outdated options and features that modern users will never use, and Preferences are often difficult to navigate for those coming from Gmail or Outlook.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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Globalscape and Automate are similar. However, with Automate, you do not have PGP or SSH keyring functionality within the application. You would need to purchase and install them separately. So as far as organization I like Globalscape for key retainment. Globalscape's transmission reporting is a lot better as well. Although it could be enhanced a little more, I use it to report any transmission issues with the Vendors. But the Event Rule functionality that Globalscape has in building simple action logic is where you save a lot of time instead of coding transmissions. Automate does not have active-active replication within their application. Meaning they do not have the ability to have two servers active for off loading transmission in case of bottlenecks. However, if one server goes down, the secondary server will be active. We have both products and don't mind working in either one of them, but Globalscape seems to be the more comprehensive and scalable application

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

• Globalscape EFT is very reliable
• Allows us to easily transmit files with customers
• Allows us to easily meet file requirements of vendors/other software applications

Incentivized

• 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