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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

    RingEX

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/ARingEx is a cloud-based VoIP solution available via computer mobile application. It features video and audio conferencing, desktop phone rentals, collaboration tools, and integrations with other business applications. Plans are available on a monthly, per user subscription basis.

    $20

    per month

    Pricing
    HCL NotesRingEX
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HCL NotesRingEX
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Pricing is /user/month paid annually. Pricing increases when paid monthly. Core - $20/month (paid monthly) Advanced - $25/month (paid monthly) Ultra - $35/month (paid monthly) Customer Engagement Bundle - contact us for pricing
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    HCL NotesRingEX
    Considered Both Products
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    RingCentral
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Would buy again
    167 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    156 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    173 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    137 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    149 Answers
    Features
    HCL NotesRingEX
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    6.9
    10 Ratings
    11% below category average
    RingEX
    -
    Ratings
    Task Management7.09 Ratings00 Ratings
    Gantt Charts6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scheduling8.09 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow Automation5.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Access8.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Search6.09 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visual planning tools8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    9.2
    10 Ratings
    14% above category average
    RingEX
    -
    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 HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    7.6
    9 Ratings
    6% below category average
    RingEX
    -
    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
    Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software
    Comparison of Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.5
    23 Ratings
    12% above category average
    High quality audio00 Ratings9.525 Ratings
    High quality video00 Ratings9.423 Ratings
    Screen Sharing
    Comparison of Screen Sharing features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.9
    18 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Desktop sharing00 Ratings9.921 Ratings
    Online Meetings / Events
    Comparison of Online Meetings / Events features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.7
    19 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Calendar integration00 Ratings9.222 Ratings
    Meeting initiation00 Ratings9.922 Ratings
    Record meetings / events00 Ratings9.920 Ratings
    Online Events Collaboration
    Comparison of Online Events Collaboration features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    8.7
    14 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Live chat00 Ratings8.717 Ratings
    Online Events Security
    Comparison of Online Events Security features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    8.9
    21 Ratings
    11% above category average
    User authentication00 Ratings8.621 Ratings
    Participant roles & permissions00 Ratings9.223 Ratings
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    8.5
    211 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Hosted PBX00 Ratings9.1118 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)00 Ratings8.6161 Ratings
    Directory of employee names00 Ratings8.8196 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.0
    220 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Answering rules00 Ratings8.9206 Ratings
    Call recording00 Ratings8.7190 Ratings
    Call park00 Ratings8.7171 Ratings
    Call screening00 Ratings8.7179 Ratings
    Message alerts00 Ratings8.9207 Ratings
    Business SMS/External Messaging00 Ratings9.226 Ratings
    Online Fax00 Ratings9.523 Ratings
    Voicemail Transcription00 Ratings9.326 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.3
    194 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Mobile app for iOS00 Ratings9.2170 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android00 Ratings9.4151 Ratings
    Unified Communications Platform and Collaboration
    Comparison of Unified Communications Platform and Collaboration features of HCL Notes and RingEX
    Feature
    HCL Notes
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.0
    21 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Centralized communications management00 Ratings9.521 Ratings
    Team messaging00 Ratings9.220 Ratings
    Team document sharing00 Ratings8.517 Ratings
    Call and meeting analytics00 Ratings9.023 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HCL NotesRingEX
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Broadvoice | GoContact
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Webex Calling
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Webex Calling
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HCL NotesRingEX
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (16 ratings)
    9.0
    (228 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.7
    (5 ratings)
    8.9
    (15 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.7
    (11 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.4
    (158 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    5.3
    (28 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HCL NotesRingEX
    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
    RingCentral
    Everything just works. The interface is easily the best we've used or tested. The applications available are so good that it was easy to move away from using a desk phone. The admin interface is also easily the best we've used or tested.The licensing model for Teams integration is our only currently minor issue. I'm hopeful that will improve as we would love to integrate.
    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
    RingCentral
    • Quick provision of new numbers to match business requirements.
    • Per-user and per-queue routing options to allow calls to end where you want (e.g., forwarding, multi-user answering, etc).
    • Geographically wide deployments - we have numbers from all across the globe, and we can stand up numbers even where we have no geographical presence.
    • No-hardware deployments. There is no need for on-premises hardware if you don't need it.
    • Bulletproof platform, we so rarely have any significant issues or widespread outages.
    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
    RingCentral
    • It will be nice to have more text room monthly.
    • Providing clear instructions on how to access features, as most features are buried in the tabs.
    • The ability to redial a number without having to go back to the settings buttons on the landlines will be nice.
    Incentivized
    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
    RingCentral
    We are grandfathered into our unlimited toll-free minutes plan. We are very unlikely to switch because of that. It has been the major factor saving us a lot of money compared to switching to other solutions. I don't know any other company that still offers these unlimited plans.
    Incentivized
    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
    RingCentral
    They were working on updating a few of the modules while we were going live, so this made usability difficult to train on once they did go live with those changes. Now that the changes are in place, we have really enjoyed the usability of the platform
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    RingCentral
    Because it works great. In case there's a Wi-Fi issue, communication does not stop because the mobile app can be use with regular cell phone data. During one year + 3 months I've have the service, there's been only one time when there were issues on RingEX's side; however, the time of resolution was on the same day.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    RingCentral
    Occasional bandwith issues. In addition to this, I have one individual whose calls are blocked. We were not able to determine whether this was a RingEX or a carrier issue.
    Incentivized
    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
    RingCentral
    Call-in support is fantastic. I have never called in and had it taken more than 30 minutes to resolve our issue. Email support is terrible. You will likely go 24+ hours until you hear back and the response is likely a canned one. I personally prefer the email or chat support option, but find myself calling instead because the email support experience is so poor.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    RingCentral
    I really didn't know all the capabilities
    Incentivized
    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
    RingCentral
    If someone has an existing system I tell them to keep that running initially and keep RingEX separate initially until the system is configured and tested to one's satisfaction. After testing and configuration is completed, then roll over the main phone numbers to the new RingEX system. I've seen one person who immediately flipped over to RingEX without properly configuring/testing the software and had many issues with missed customer calls until I helped him sort out his configuration.
    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
    RingCentral
    We are using these products like (Skype, Voip, TextNow, and Second line), but comparatively these products the RingEX has a good performance, because while we were using the other platform, we didn't get proper communication, we couldn't reach out the candidate, we lags to much into spam number, we couldn't communicate properly and the textnow we couldn't sigin sometime. When we start to use RingEX, we get much better productivity and proper communication with our clients.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    RingCentral
    not to sign up for it or give them any money for a product that does not work
    Read full review
    Scalability
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    RingCentral
    We have 75 users and 85 phones on the system and have yet to have any noticeable outages. The system just works all of the time without issues. Our old VOIP system on Voyant would go out all the time for multiple hours. RingEX is much more stable and reliable.
    Incentivized
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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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    RingCentral
    • Enhanced patient accountability, we can track all calls - incoming and outgoing - patients tend to state that they called and left a message, but they either never called or did not leave a message. With RingEX, we can track whether they really did. It saves us quite a bit of time and aggravation.
    • Faxing is more accurate and usually very quick. Because it's accurate, it saves us time with phone calls about faxes we never received and having to refax items. Also, faxing via the system instead of printing and scanning is a time-saver.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots