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HCL Domino

Score8 out of 10

18 Reviews and Ratings

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What is HCL Domino?

HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino, and before that Lotus Domino) is an enterprise application development platform, boasting mobile-app capabilities to enterprise authentication and a companion low-code app builder called Domino Volt.

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Who Buys & Uses HCL Domino

HCL Domino Reviews

What users are saying about HCL Domino.
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HCL Domino Automates Enterprise Workflows Exquisitely.

Incentivized
Mickey JawaView profile
CEO in Corporate at SatiStar Corporation (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We've been using Domino for the past 23 years. It's the platform upon which our entire ERP systems are based. We also use it for our CRM, sales funnel, Document Management systems, meeting scheduling and reporting, employee file maintenance (including training and development), procurement & supplier management, risk management, preventive maintenance, internal audits, customer management, and project management.

Pros

  • Amazingly stable - reliability is incredible.
  • Outstanding security for managing all information.
  • The ability to replicate databases for offline use is excellent.
  • Application development is fairly simple.

Cons

  • Domino languished for a decade with previous ownership.
  • UI is outdated.
  • Difficult to find knowledgeable developers for Domino.
  • Doesn't easily integrate with other enterprise applications.

Return on Investment

  • We were able to automate many of our manual processes, reducing the average worker's administrative workload by roughly 55%.
  • Executive managers were able to reduce their administrative workload by over 95%.
  • Annual external audits that used to require many days now take a couple of hours, translating into savings of many thousands of dollars annually.
  • Our payback period was under 4 months.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft SharePoint and Google Workspace

Other Software Used

Microsoft SharePoint, Google Workspace, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Teams

Domino is the best solution for Portals and Extranets

Incentivized
Gavin BollardView profile
IT Manager in Information Technology at Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet) (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Domino gives you the capabilities of modern cloud platforms with an affordable and predictable TCO. We stopped using Notes for mail-in 2017 and switched to outlook but we still use our Domino systems every day. We've looked at many options to migrate from Domino to SharePoint and Domino to teams but have never found anything that even approaches the functionality and versatility of Domino. In recent years, following HCL's reinvigoration of the product, we've abandoned attempts to move off the platform and have re-embraced it. It was a great decision. We use Domino for user (and guest) management and the Domino systems drive our O365 active directory. We used Domino for the development of specialist systems and for the general distribution of documents. We looked at SharePoint as an option for this but the open-ended nature of SharePoint and Teams resulted in those systems not being trusted by our customers. It's very easy to confirm that there are no users on our domino systems other than those we allow but it's not possible to do that on a borderless cloud solution such as Office 365. Domino is extremely cheap to build on and maintain. For example, some of the systems we developed in Azure had obsolete frameworks within a couple of years, but our Domino can easily be moved to modern frameworks with a minimum of effort.

Pros

  • Security
  • Total Cost of Ownership
  • Compatibility (20+ year old applications continue to run with no issues)
  • Upgrades - these are 30 minute tasks.

Cons

  • Mail - It has improved but people want outlook, so we switched.
  • Administration - there are so many settings that sometimes you get lost

Most Important Features

  • Granular Security (including deep Nesting of Groups)
  • Scalability
  • Easy deployment of test facilities
  • Compatibility with existing systems

Return on Investment

  • Domino is far cheaper to run than Office 365.
  • Management of Domino is far simpler than Office 365.
  • Our ROI is incredible because we get templates developed and can reuse them.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft SharePoint, Azure SQL Database, Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365, Adobe Acrobat DC, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, Netskope Public Cloud Security

Domino is Good

Incentivized
NADIR PATIRView profile
Software Director in Information Technology at ISTANBUL PAZARLAMA A.S. (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Domino and Notes for company mail, CRM, accounting, document management, quality management, and technical service.

Pros

  • Database is reliable.
  • Easy to program when a new application is needed.
  • Mail application is versatile and reliable.
  • Mobile mail (via Traveler) is good.

Cons

  • User interface needs to be modernised.

Most Important Features

  • Fast application development.
  • Reliable database.
  • Good mail.

Return on Investment

  • Domino powered applications has positively impacted our company.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)

Domino Delivers Stability and Reliability, but for How Long?

Incentivized
Christopher Stark
Division Network Support Specialist in Information Technology at The Salvation Army (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

  • Domino support for policy-based user registration and deployment eases end-user creation.
  • User access to databases is simplified via group membership and defined roles.
  • Email replication to clustered servers is simplified through connection/replication documents stored centralized address book
  • Group calendaring enabled at client level controls.

Cons

  • I am not a fan of the Domino ID for authentication purposes. Some Admins appreciate this feature, but ID aging, updating and management issues are burdensome.
  • Integrations with current available software applications as a result of lower Domino adoption rates.
  • Administration tools are somewhat dated and clunky. Even with updates and patches, the Domino administrator console hasn't changed in years.

Return on Investment

  • The immediate impact on my organization as a non-profit is cost. Enterprise pricing for a Domino solution is exponentially more inexpensive than more popular applications.
  • Of the most obvious impacts is user familiarity. Given a vast majority of the employment pool having familiarity with MS products, orienting new employees to Domino\Notes is burdensome. Adoption is slow and resistance is high.
  • Hiring Domino administrators and developers is increasingly challenging.
  • The recent sale of the Domino platform away from IBM is concerning.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Exchange

Other Software Used

IBM Notes, VMware ESXi