HCL Notes vs. LiquidPlanner

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
LiquidPlanner
Score 8.3 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
LiquidPlanner is a cloud based predictive project management solution. Some key features include: Dynamic Timeline View, Workload View, and Real-Time Activity Stream.
$0
per month per user
Pricing
HCL NotesLiquidPlanner
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
per month per user
Essentials
$15.00
per month per user
Professional
$25
per month per user
Ultimate
$35
per month per user
Enterprise
CALL FOR VOLUME PRICING
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HCL NotesLiquidPlanner
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Features
HCL NotesLiquidPlanner
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
6.9
10 Ratings
13% below category average
LiquidPlanner
8.1
15 Ratings
7% above category average
Task Management7.09 Ratings8.711 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.03 Ratings8.68 Ratings
Scheduling8.09 Ratings8.810 Ratings
Workflow Automation5.06 Ratings8.47 Ratings
Mobile Access8.010 Ratings4.99 Ratings
Search6.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual planning tools8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management00 Ratings8.69 Ratings
Team Collaboration00 Ratings8.911 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings7.76 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings8.46 Ratings
Document Management00 Ratings9.93 Ratings
Email integration00 Ratings7.914 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings7.210 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings7.66 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
9.2
10 Ratings
14% above category average
LiquidPlanner
-
Ratings
Chat6.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications9.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Discussions9.57 Ratings00 Ratings
Surveys9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook10.05 Ratings00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
7.6
9 Ratings
7% below category average
LiquidPlanner
-
Ratings
Versioning9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files6.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files6.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration8.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control6.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced security features8.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
-
Ratings
LiquidPlanner
8.3
5 Ratings
11% above category average
Quotes/estimates00 Ratings8.54 Ratings
Project & financial reporting00 Ratings8.45 Ratings
Integration with accounting software00 Ratings7.94 Ratings
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HCL NotesLiquidPlanner
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User Ratings
HCL NotesLiquidPlanner
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(16 ratings)
8.5
(17 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.7
(5 ratings)
4.4
(2 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
HCL NotesLiquidPlanner
Likelihood to Recommend
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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LiquidPlanner
LiquidPlanner is amazing for any time of project management scenario where you have to manage several teams and details. Running a project through LiquidPlanner is so easy because it lets you break down the project into sections and folders and small tasks that you can assign to specific people. With a small to medium size team-- LiquidPlanner is amazing for organizing and tracking details. If you have a huge team or not a ton of details to track LiquidPlanner might not be right for you because it is a software that requires some good training to learn and has tons of functions that can be utilized so it seems better suited to be used by a smaller group looking to coordinate or for people who have lots of details that can be difficult to track.
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Pros
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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LiquidPlanner
  • Priority based planning. Every other planning software we've used relies on dates and therefore needs constant attention. Priority based planning means that the plan is always up to date.
  • Ease of use. LiquidPlanner has a very short learning curve. This is critical to getting team members to use it.
  • Forecasting. LiquidPlanner makes it very easy to run scenarios by simply dragging and dropping projects and reassigning resources.
  • Awesome Support. I get personal responses very fast. Usually within a couple hours. And, they listen and ask for more information.
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Cons
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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LiquidPlanner
  • The interface is messy and cluttered. The best way to find things and see what you actually want to see is the main Projects view which is also the most cluttered and hardest to maneuver in.
  • Clicking an external link someone posted in a comment or task description doesn't open in a new window by default, so we are constantly having to go back to get to LiquidPlanner again.
  • The way that the interface saves your state globally (rather than per tab instance) means that if you click a link from someone else to a task that's not yours, then it adjusts your filters on the Projects page. Then if you refresh another LiquidPlanner window where you were on the Projects tab, suddenly all of its filters are updated and what you were looking at may no longer be there.
  • It might just be the way that we use the system, but the Home and My Work tabs are fairly useless for us. They typically don't show the tasks we're actually looking for.
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Likelihood to Renew
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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LiquidPlanner
We may not renew LiquidPlanner's contract, but only because my company has recently been acquired and we'll be adopting some of the software that they're using to standardize process. LiquidPlanner's development team releases new features pretty often, so it seems like the gaps and inefficiencies are slowly getting smaller/less frequent
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Usability
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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LiquidPlanner
Easy to learn and utilize. Can export charts and reports for sharing with colleagues.
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Support Rating
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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LiquidPlanner
They have been great in trying to come up with creative solutions to help us do what we want to do with the platform. I would say their support has been exceptional because we have hit them with some complex requests.
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Implementation Rating
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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LiquidPlanner
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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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LiquidPlanner
Miro is a more versatile tool, but not quite made for planning and organizing. LiquidPlanner is very intuitive, fast to learn and easy to communicate. The added value of prioritizing tasks, personalized boards and gantt charts are really important during the planning and design thinking in the business. LiquidPlanner is simplified yet more helpful.
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Return on Investment
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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LiquidPlanner
  • LiquidPlanner really forces you to map out your workflow. For me, honing into a template that I can later adjust as needed has been huge, as there is less time at the beginning of a project trying to assign and figure out what needs to happen when usually it never changes.
  • Communication between employees, especially ones not immediately available in the office has been very welcomed. It helps having conversations documented in a public, logical place that is easy to find and refer to as the project continues.
  • Our productivity has definitely skyrocketed as we've really gotten a feel and committed to using LiquidPlanner daily. As we move forward, we continually try to add more and more ways for us to use the service.
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ScreenShots

LiquidPlanner Screenshots

Screenshot of Project Dashboards allow users to build high-level views that help visualize data.Screenshot of Workload Views allow users to see an entire team's workload at once and make resource adjustments in stride.Screenshot of Time Sheets keep track of hours per task and automatically update project estimates.Screenshot of Project View allows users to view any project in detail, assign tasks, set their priority, and access schedule risk.Screenshot of My Work View is a personalized view of all work to always know what to work on next.