HCL Notes vs. SAP Build

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

SAP Build is a strong and reliable partner with a rich FAQ and consulting power. New features make sense and are easy to distribute within the team and to end users. The community is nice, and there are many discussions on product development, shared solutions, and productivity improvements. UI is also one of the strongest points.

Incentivized

• 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

• SAP Build Workzone is a cloud ready service that it can provide access to users over cloud. It really liked it because for Non-SAP users they don't need to have seperate logins to access SAP systems
• SAP Build LCNC helps to create an app either from scratch or take reference from existing apps and develop on top of it
• SAP Build Code is pro-developer tool helps for creating enterprise ready web apps

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 Menus are cluttered with extraneous, outdated options and features that modern users will never use, and Preferences are often difficult to navigate for those coming from Gmail or Outlook.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

• Comparing to other RPA Tools, SAP Build automation lacks enough user guidance.
• Licensing is a little bit confusing.
• From a technical perspective, older versions of the automation part are not always stable, but the other services (workflow, business rules, apps, etc.) are much more stable.

Incentivized

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.

SAP Build that enables rapid creation of enterprise-grade applications, automations, and business sites. It empowers both business users and developers to collaborate effectively while leveraging SAP-grade security, identity, and integration capabilities. SAP Build integrates seamlessly with SAP systems, supports governance and lifecycle management, and accelerates digital transformation by reducing development time and effort.

Incentivized

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.

The overall re-usability is very good for SAP Build app. Rating 9 shows that it is very effectively uses the No code or low code functionality. Drag and drop of UI components is very effective in this SAP Build app. No prior coding experience is needed but to develop some logic flow you need to be very logical and optimistic thinker

Incentivized

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.

There are, for example, great blog writings about automation cases and examples. The studio version is updated often. There are also useful OpenSAP online courses.

Incentivized

Online training helped to understand the drag and drop processes, building UI. Creating a workflow and process automation. Developing workflow and deploying WF. Helped to reduce the errors. It helped to understand the training easily. And online training gave good insights for low code no code solutions and create actions, forms.

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.

Yes we are implementing a custom solution of Customer PO on sap build code and BPA

Incentivized

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

Seamlessly connected to SAP S4 Hana systems and development and deployment is easy as compared to Microsoft Visual Studio. Low code no code facility is awesome in SAP Build app where as in Visual Studio drag and drop of components is provided but still needs to write bulky code for functionality. Performance is better for SAP Build app.

• 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

• SAP Build apps has a high ROI. Development is fast and cloud pricing is good.
• Business objectives are handled better than any other solution for custom app development in the SAP ecosystem.
• Process Automation workflows are very fast to develop, mostly graphically, and work very well.

Incentivized