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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

    Microsoft Teams

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Teams combines video conferencing software with team collaboration tools. The communications platform allows MS Office users to conduct conference calls and share files via SharePoint, and join or initiate a group chat.

    $4.80

    per month per user

    Pricing
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft Teams Essentials
    $4.80
    per month per user
    Microsoft Teams Enterprise
    $5.25
    per month (paid yearly) per user
    Microsoft Teams Enterprise
    $5.25
    per month per user
    Microsoft 365 Business Basic
    $7.20
    per month per user
    Microsoft 365 Business Standard
    $15
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Discounts are available for non profit organizations.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Considered Both Products
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Teams
    Microsoft Teams edges above the conferencing competition by allowing file collaboration and ongoing group chats with coworkers. We selected Microsoft Teams for all our video & audio conference calls for it's ability to integrate with our Outlook client and make it easy for …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Would buy again
    255 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    225 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    255 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    144 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    174 Answers
    Features
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    6.9
    10 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Microsoft Teams
    8.2
    241 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Task Management7.09 Ratings8.1179 Ratings
    Gantt Charts6.03 Ratings8.196 Ratings
    Scheduling8.09 Ratings8.3208 Ratings
    Workflow Automation5.06 Ratings8.4126 Ratings
    Mobile Access8.010 Ratings8.2229 Ratings
    Search6.09 Ratings7.6212 Ratings
    Visual planning tools8.03 Ratings8.4143 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    9.2
    10 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Microsoft Teams
    8.0
    251 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Chat6.010 Ratings9.0250 Ratings
    Notifications9.010 Ratings8.5249 Ratings
    Discussions9.57 Ratings8.7235 Ratings
    Surveys9.14 Ratings8.2146 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase10.06 Ratings8.6157 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting10.03 Ratings6.547 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts10.02 Ratings5.743 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook10.05 Ratings9.1155 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of HCL Notes and Microsoft Teams
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    7.6
    9 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Microsoft Teams
    8.2
    236 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Versioning9.04 Ratings8.6168 Ratings
    Video files6.05 Ratings8.4202 Ratings
    Audio files6.05 Ratings8.8200 Ratings
    Document collaboration8.08 Ratings8.9216 Ratings
    Access control6.08 Ratings8.6198 Ratings
    Advanced security features8.08 Ratings8.5158 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive10.02 Ratings5.353 Ratings
    Device sync8.05 Ratings8.6172 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 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
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (16 ratings)
    8.6
    (329 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.7
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.7
    (114 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (114 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.3
    (7 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HCL NotesMicrosoft Teams
    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
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    Microsoft
    It's amazing as a daily driver for team communication, and document search/store. Also, if you're doing a lot of LONG meetings and have trouble remembering details, the AI summarization is amazing and convenient. It just works. I'm not saying I always do this, of course, but if I need to 'skim' instead of really digging into every detail from a meeting, the AI-generated summary is generally good enough that I can get away with it.
    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
    Microsoft
    • All in one communication for Teams.
    • High quality and reliable both audio and video meetings.
    • Well organized and clear instant chat.
    • Excellent security features.
    • Beautiful integration with 3rd party tools and systems.
    • Perfect compatibility with windows ,android and iOS.
    • Allow meetings recordings for later us or sharing with teams that missed the live.
    Incentivized
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    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).
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    Microsoft
    • The webinars feature has some missing functionally such as the ability for all users to use the Q&A feature (only those with a Microsoft Teams account can use it now), the ability to upload documents for attendees to easily access and download, and the ability for presenters and organizers to easily chat amongst themselves throughout the webinar.
    • The "Channels" organization hierarchy could be more clear. If you have several channels set up, it can get clunky and hard to find the specific channel you are looking for.
    • The MS Planner tool lacks functionality and organization. You cannot assign more than one person to a task and it's confusing when you try to share tasks with people - it would be nice if they were automatically added to someone's calendar.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Teams is included with our Office 365 subscription and we have no intention of migrating off of Office 365 and Microsoft products. Since Microsoft Teams is included for free with our Office 365 subscription, and since we enjoy all the features, benefits, and functionality, there is no question that our team will continue to use the product
    Incentivized
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    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
    Microsoft
    If you have the full Microsoft Office suite, it works really well because it's integrated well within its ecosystem, but if not, it can be annoying because it tries to open a shared file in the web versions of the file equivalents. The web version is also a bit slow, and the login is very difficult to handle if you have multiple Microsoft or Outlook accounts.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Rare, but outages do happen
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Sometimes about once a week I get a message that says "Sorry, there seems to be something wrong". But it goes away in a few minutes.
    Incentivized
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    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.
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    Microsoft
    The overall support provided by Microsoft for Microsoft Teams has been quite good but there is still some room for improvements. Microsoft needs to proactively work on fixing the open bugs in order to provide a seamless experience to the users. But over the service and experience provided by the Microsoft team have been quite satisfactory.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Microsoft
    I find everything I need for my day-to-day work.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Teams offers a much more integrated experience between their chat and video call function compared to Google Chat and Slack. Both other tools are much better for internal communications are they have simpler UI without other features. Whereas Microsoft Teams can be used for more critical conversations, particularly between external companies, and has been very useful in sales conversations which is what we chose it for when speaking to companies that work exclusively through Microsoft.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Honestly, this tool is worth every penny. Yes, it's not free and you pay for the quality of services and the license. But the ROI and the benefits are all there. Also, the renewal, negotiation, and contract terms are all very well explained by our Microsoft account manager, and she's a charm.
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    Scalability
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It does not appear to have a limit to how many teams and employees we can have using it
    Incentivized
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    Professional Services
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I used Skype for Business to take calls, hold conferences, and provide remote assistance to users. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, is superior to Skype for Business in my opinion. My job entails a lot of screen sharing.
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    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
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    Microsoft
    • Personally, I would say that by using Microsoft Teams, it upped my collaboration with my colleagues by around 50% or around more than half of what I usually did prior to using it.
    • I had 100% show rate and attendance on all of my meetings in the past 6 months.
    • If I may add, I also have been chattier & collaborative towards my colleagues in past 3 months particularly the month of December when we had huge traffic at work. I would estimate this behavior to have been increased by around 60% than what I usually incur during normal operating days.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots