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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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
    HCL Notes
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HCL Notes
    Free Trial
    No
    Free/Freemium Version
    No
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    No
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    HCL Notes
    Considered Both Products
    HCLSoftware
    Chose HCL Notes
    It helps in organizing work by just speaking to it, and you don't have to specifically type in the data and use it. It has a better UI and also is faster.
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    n/a
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    It had a simple user interface. It can be altered and modified to any database.
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    Our organization used IBM Notes before I started working there and is a legacy system that some teams still use. Many others in our company have switched to Slack and Google Hangouts as well as Google calendar. Slack and Google Hangouts offer a much better chat experience that …
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    As I stated previously, mail is mail. Notes is a fantastic option as a frontend for mail. On top of that, a business can be built from the custom applications that can be developed in it. We do have gmail as an option, but the vast majority of users are on Notes. We also choose …
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    I've already answered this question in the previous questions however to sum it up IBM Notes stacks up VERY WELL! It has a LOT of really good business/enterprise features like enterprise-grade Dropbox-like storage, synced email/calendar/contacts, it supports a LOT of …
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    Exchange is too resource hungry and cumbersome to restore granular. It requires several other Microsoft Servers to integrate just to meet IBM Notes in terms of features. As someone once described, doing an apple to apple [comparison] is difficult. If Exchange were taken as an …
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    We've looked at Exchange a few times. However, for more costly licensing and about the same amount of administrative support required, Exchange only does mail, calendar and contacts.

    We do all that with Notes already, plus dozens of custom applications, and for less costly …
    Incentivized
    Chose HCL Notes
    We originally selected Notes for it's ease of use, and ability to be customized. As the industry has progressed we have had to move on to a more progressive path.
    Chose HCL Notes
    I selected IBM Notes, because of its security features.
    Chose HCL Notes
    We are a small IT team and always had to deal with very high expectation, faster turn around time from users. Every application we've developed has very short turn around time and less resources. In the past 15 years, we can provide more application and doing it faster than …
    Chose HCL Notes
    Database development capabilities. Document management orientation.
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    HCL Notes
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of HCL Notes
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    6.9
    10 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Task Management7.09 Ratings
    Gantt Charts6.03 Ratings
    Scheduling8.09 Ratings
    Workflow Automation5.06 Ratings
    Mobile Access8.010 Ratings
    Search6.09 Ratings
    Visual planning tools8.03 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of HCL Notes
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    9.2
    10 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Chat6.010 Ratings
    Notifications9.010 Ratings
    Discussions9.57 Ratings
    Surveys9.14 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase10.06 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting10.03 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts10.02 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook10.05 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of HCL Notes
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    7.6
    9 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Versioning9.04 Ratings
    Video files6.05 Ratings
    Audio files6.05 Ratings
    Document collaboration8.08 Ratings
    Access control6.08 Ratings
    Advanced security features8.08 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive10.02 Ratings
    Device sync8.05 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HCL Notes
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HCL Notes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (16 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.7
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HCL Notes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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