HCL Notes

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
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
HCL Notes
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.
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 …
Chose HCL Notes
It had a simple user interface. It can be altered and modified to any database.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
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
Database development capabilities. Document management orientation.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
HCL Notes
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
6.9
10 Ratings
13% 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 Product A and Product B
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 Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
7.6
9 Ratings
7% 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
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 8.7 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
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.
Read full review
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$).
Read full review
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).
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
ScreenShots