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Sametime is widely used for internal communication purposes within organizations, enabling seamless collaboration across different …
Overview
What is HCL Sametime?
HCL Sametime (formerly IBM Lotus Sametime, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in 2018) is an enterprise-level unified communications and VoIP platform. It includes features such as instant messaging, web conferencing, voice and video integration, telephony capabilities, and presence information.
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Popular Features
- Directory of employee names (7)8.080%
- Message alerts (6)8.080%
- Mobile app for iOS (8)8.080%
- Mobile app for Android (7)8.080%
Pricing
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What is HCL Sametime?
HCL Sametime (formerly IBM Lotus Sametime, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in 2018) is an enterprise-level unified communications and VoIP platform. It includes features such as instant messaging, web conferencing, voice and video integration, telephony capabilities, and presence information.
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Product Demos
HCL Sametime v12 Demo
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Product Details
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What is HCL Sametime?
HCL Sametime (formerly IBM Lotus Sametime, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in 2018) is an enterprise-level unified communications and VoIP platform. It includes features such as instant messaging, web conferencing, voice and video integration, telephony capabilities, and presence information.
HCL Sametime is ideal for cross-team chat in countries with strict data privacy and gravity laws, companies in regulated industries, and government entities who need to be able to ensure the security and auditability of their data.
HCL Sametime Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
HCL Sametime (formerly IBM Lotus Sametime, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in 2018) is an enterprise-level unified communications and VoIP platform. It includes features such as instant messaging, web conferencing, voice and video integration, telephony capabilities, and presence information.
Reviewers rate Directory of employee names and Answering rules and Message alerts highest, with a score of 8.
The most common users of HCL Sametime are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
Sametime is widely used for internal communication purposes within organizations, enabling seamless collaboration across different departments and locations. It provides a range of features including instant messaging, persistent chat rooms, meetings, and VOIP to address various business needs. Many IBM customers rely on Sametime as their go-to instant messaging platform due to its integration with email and web-based programs. Additionally, its compatibility with telephony systems and availability of free mobile iOS and Android clients make it a versatile choice for users.
One of the main use cases for Sametime is facilitating quick internal team meetings and project discussions. Users appreciate the convenience of being able to connect with colleagues in different offices across regions without the need for constant emails. The platform's integration with IBM Notes allows for easy booking of web meetings and checking availability for chat. Furthermore, its centralized settings and preferences management reduces the learning curve for users.
Another advantage of Sametime is its flexibility in deployment options. Organizations can choose between on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid setups based on their specific needs. This adaptability enables teams to communicate efficiently regardless of their location or work environment.
Users have found Sametime invaluable in improving productivity, collaboration, and communication within their organizations. For example, savvy users utilize Sametime as a tool for presentations instead of searching through shared drives for files. Salespeople rely on the mobile app to obtain quick responses to time-sensitive questions while on-site with customers. The ability to record meetings and transfer files faster than email further enhances workflow efficiency.
Sametime is widely used as a standard text-based chat tool across organizations, especially for quick questions. Its REST API allows for easy integration of chat functionality into existing web apps. While Sametime is a preferred messaging app within many organizations, it may not be suitable for all teams, leading to competition from other messaging tools like Slack, Google Hangouts, and Skype. Organizations need to evaluate which solution best fits their specific requirements.
Based on user reviews, users recommend Sametime for its basic instant messaging capabilities and easy setup. They find it convenient for quick chats and collaboration, making it a suitable tool for internal team communication. Reviewers appreciate its features for file transfer and texting.
Users suggest using other apps like Microsoft Workspace, Slack, Google Chat, or Hangouts instead of Sametime. They feel that Sametime requires infrastructure, feels outdated compared to other solutions, and lacks updates. Users prefer these alternatives due to their ease of use, additional features, and better integration with video and audio.
Reviewers recommend Sametime for secure communication within companies. They appreciate it as a good software for video conferencing and messaging with most of the required features, such as an AI assistant, backup, video conferences, and multichats. However, some users mention slow service, frustrating attachment loading and transferring, and suggest making Sametime less resource-consuming and more affordable.
Overall, users have mixed opinions about Sametime but commonly recommend it as a basic communication tool while suggesting using other platforms for additional features.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
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February 26, 2016
IBM Sametime is a solid, reliable solution!
Currently, due to the nature of our being a small company, our organization does not use Sametime for internal communication purposes. We do, however, recommend, install, and maintain Sametime for many of our customers. Generally we see that Sametime is used across entire organizations and often certain departments will use it differently than other departments. Sametime can address many business problems depending on how many Sametime options are deployed - it can serve the purpose of just IM, persistent chat rooms, meetings, and/or VOIP.
- Sametime can be installed in any number of ways to provide as little or as much functionality and integration as you want.
- The backend capabilities of the Video components are quite amazing for providing the streaming capabilities.
- As a telephony client, being able to have it integrated out-of-the box with your primary mail and application platform (IBM Notes) for presence and communications is a great win.
- IBM allows for this to be run either on-premises or in their IBM Cloud.
- On-premises installation for anything beyond the basic chat functionality can get tricky quite fast. The requirements for hardware also grow exponentially.
- Sometimes administration of users can be problematic when it comes to reliably pushing down policies.
- The core IM UI goes through stages of years of stale look and feel. Though I believe a new UI may be coming with the next major release.
- There are often times where the IBM Cloud implementation has features that take a while to make it back into the on-premises codebase.
50%
5.0
14%
1.4
45%
4.5
90%
9.0
- In general, customers of IBM Notes would be able to use the core IM components as part of their license. This is good in itself, but also can lead to further desire to have more of the Sametime options.
- On-premises installations have been good for our consulting business.
- For customers, being able to provide presence awareness with global resource has been a huge time-saver.
- Microsoft Lync and Skype
Sametime's flexibility with regards to the options available is quite a compelling reason. For an on-premises solution, Sametime is great. One of the major benefits for current IBM Notes customers with the IBM Cloud option when compared to something like Skype is the seamless integration with the mail client and current systems along with other IBM solutions.
No
Yes
As with the response to the previous question, I have often had to use IBM Sametime Support. Depending on the complexity of the environment and the nature of the
issue, sometimes support can take a long time to get to a resolution (if
we ever do - there have been two recent issues specifically which never
ended up with a final resolution). But in general they are able to identify some root causes quickly and will escalate or get development involved when needed.
I have had some recent support calls with IBM about Sametime and with many of them I tend to work with the same technicians. This leads to some good relationships and the technicians are generally very helpful. Recently, I had a quite positive experience with a potentially complicated authenticated solution. IBM was able to gather their teams together and work with me and my large customer to come up with a workable solution.
- Starting a conversation via chat, voice, video, and/or meetings.
- Finding out who is online and getting notified when certain people do come online.
- Updating your presence status.
- Integrating your presence status with your calendar.
- Some of the default notification settings are a little "nagging" and can be a little deep in the settings for the users to change. We typically have to update a config file when rolling out the client to users.
- Browsers/Plugins/Java/Etc... requirements for web-based meeting rooms. Roll the dice and hope you pick a winner for the week...
Yes
The apps for Android and iOS are excellent! The functionality provided is really above par.